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LIFE The Day Kennedy Died: Fifty Years Later: LIFE Remembers the Man and the Moment
Fifty years ago on November 22, 1963, in Dallas's Dealey Plaza, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated while traveling in a motorcade with his wife, Jacqueline. LIFE magazine, the weekly pictorial chronicle of events in America and throughout the world, was quickly on the scene. The Kennedys had been our Jack and Jackie made the cover in his sailboat before they were married and he was a fresh-faced senator from Massachusetts, and the White House doors had remained open to LIFE throughout his Cecil Stoughton's photographs of Caroline and John-John in the Oval Office, Jackie's tour of the renovation, tense behind-the-scenes moments during 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis-all of this appeared in LIFE. We needed to be in Dallas.
The famous Zapruder film first appeared in LIFE, after being acquired by LIFE's Richard B. Stolley. Stolley also interviewed at the time Dallas police, Kennedy administration officials, members of the Oswald family, workers at Jack Ruby's bar. Jackie's first conversation after the murder was with Theodore H. White for LIFE, and in it she told the American people, for the first time, about the Camelot her late husband had imagined.
All of that is revisited in this commemorative book,
· All 486 frames of the Zapruder film in print for the first time
· An essay by Richard B. Stolley on how he exclusively obtained the iconic film for LIFE
· An essay by Abraham Zapruder's granddaughter, Alexandra, who writes for the first time about how the film affected her family over the generations
· Personal stories about where they were when they heard the news from Barbra Streisand, Maya Angelou, Jimmy Carter, Tony Bennett, Willie Mays, Sergei Khrushchev, James Earl Jones, John Boehner, Tom Brokaw, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alec Baldwin, Bill O'Reilly, Dan Rather and many more
· Rarely seen photos from the TIME/LIFE archive of Allan Grant's photo essay of the Oswald family on the night of the assassination
· A foreword featuring a conversation with historian David McCullough
· A full reprint of LIFE's 1963 issue covering the tragic events in Dallas
· LIFE's Theodore H. White's famous "Camelot" interview with Jackie (which she gave shortly after the assassination), as well as the story behind the interview and the words that never ran
· A new essay on 50 years of conspiracy theories by J.I. Baker, author of The Empty Glass
The A LIFE story for more than 50 years, and still today.
The famous Zapruder film first appeared in LIFE, after being acquired by LIFE's Richard B. Stolley. Stolley also interviewed at the time Dallas police, Kennedy administration officials, members of the Oswald family, workers at Jack Ruby's bar. Jackie's first conversation after the murder was with Theodore H. White for LIFE, and in it she told the American people, for the first time, about the Camelot her late husband had imagined.
All of that is revisited in this commemorative book,
· All 486 frames of the Zapruder film in print for the first time
· An essay by Richard B. Stolley on how he exclusively obtained the iconic film for LIFE
· An essay by Abraham Zapruder's granddaughter, Alexandra, who writes for the first time about how the film affected her family over the generations
· Personal stories about where they were when they heard the news from Barbra Streisand, Maya Angelou, Jimmy Carter, Tony Bennett, Willie Mays, Sergei Khrushchev, James Earl Jones, John Boehner, Tom Brokaw, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alec Baldwin, Bill O'Reilly, Dan Rather and many more
· Rarely seen photos from the TIME/LIFE archive of Allan Grant's photo essay of the Oswald family on the night of the assassination
· A foreword featuring a conversation with historian David McCullough
· A full reprint of LIFE's 1963 issue covering the tragic events in Dallas
· LIFE's Theodore H. White's famous "Camelot" interview with Jackie (which she gave shortly after the assassination), as well as the story behind the interview and the words that never ran
· A new essay on 50 years of conspiracy theories by J.I. Baker, author of The Empty Glass
The A LIFE story for more than 50 years, and still today.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2013
12 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
LIFE
1,173 books70 followersLife was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, Life was a wide-ranging weekly general interest magazine known for the quality of its photography.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 22, 2013
Today marks the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination and in a flood of material that's been released to
The best part for me is the inclusion of a full reprint of LIFE's November 29, 1963 issue (which sold on newsstands for 25 cents!) I poured over every page of this thing, including the ads (which made me think of Mad Men -- all those ads for cigarettes and cars, how could I not?) Reading it really is a form of time travel. Fantastic.
December 10, 2016
Like the other KENNEDY book This focuses on The Man, The Husband, The Father, The President, The Assassination Victim .
Sad that we categorize a Great man but few categories...
But this has a look into the Marriage to Jackie O, The White house days, And that Fateful Day on Nov 22 1963 in Dealey Plaza....
Great book none the less....
Sad that we categorize a Great man but few categories...
But this has a look into the Marriage to Jackie O, The White house days, And that Fateful Day on Nov 22 1963 in Dealey Plaza....
Great book none the less....
January 12, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. From the magazine included (that I admit I read first) to all the wonderful, sometimes haunting photographs, and the stories, it really was a great read for me, who was 7 years old at the time of the JFK assassination and remembers a lot about that weekend. I am a true believer of Oswald's guilt. I think he acted alone. That said, it was interesting to read again of the different theories surrounding the differing scenarios of who else may hae committed this crime. I enjoyed reading almost all of the remembrances written here. There were a few I found trite but I won't spoil it by naming names. Being written by LIFE, the photographs of course are a major part of this book and they are awesome and at times, touching. At the end, going through members of JFK's family: wife Jackie, brothers Robert & Teddy, and of course, his children Caroline and John Jr., the stories accompanying these stories touched me deeply. Getting to John Jr. just about broke my heart, again.
May 5, 2014
Extremely Well Done!
There is a lot to see AND read in this book, including, but not limited to thumbnail pictures of each and every shot of the Zapruder Film and analysis of select frames within the sequence.
Another interesting section was the "Where were you ...?" It was very interesting to read what people said.
At the end of this "book" is the November 29, 1963 issue of LIFE. It was a very nice tribute, but one of the most interesting things to look at were the advertisements in this issue -- alcohol, typewriter and TV sales, etc.
There is a lot to see AND read in this book, including, but not limited to thumbnail pictures of each and every shot of the Zapruder Film and analysis of select frames within the sequence.
Another interesting section was the "Where were you ...?" It was very interesting to read what people said.
At the end of this "book" is the November 29, 1963 issue of LIFE. It was a very nice tribute, but one of the most interesting things to look at were the advertisements in this issue -- alcohol, typewriter and TV sales, etc.
March 9, 2016
A very good reminder of what it was like 50 years ago. Not just a book, but a full reprint of the November 29, 1963 edition of LIFE magazine, complete with the other articles and ads, giving a great snapshot of what it was like to be alive back in those days.
The book is a compilation of stories and pictures from that time, including the "Zapruder film" (and some of the missing frames), articles about Oswald and Ruby, and lots of reminiscences from people who recall where they were and what they were thinking when they first heard the words "The President has been shot!"
The book is a compilation of stories and pictures from that time, including the "Zapruder film" (and some of the missing frames), articles about Oswald and Ruby, and lots of reminiscences from people who recall where they were and what they were thinking when they first heard the words "The President has been shot!"
November 16, 2013
Aside from the sections that were written by people who were actually there, this mostly reads like a high school book report. Still, there are a ton of fantastic photos, so I'll call the $12 investment worth it.
November 16, 2013
Excellently done
January 27, 2015
This is much more than a picture book. Excellent coverage of Zapruder film. Really shows how big Life Magazine was during this era. Enjoy!
February 21, 2014
David McCullough may have said it best. When told that LIFE magazine was publishing this commemorative volume on the death of President John F. Kennedy, the iconic American historian said, “It’s great you’re doing this. It’s wonderful. You’re the right ones to do it.”
You would probably have to be at least 60 years old to have any memory of what happened at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. It’s very hard to believe a half a century has passed already since JFK was gunned down on his way in that motorcade to lunch at the Trade Mart.
Even if you were not alive on that Friday morning, LIFE’s 192 page coffee table book takes you back in time to revisit the Kennedy legacy. Here you’ll find photos and commentary on JFK’s early years. LIFE covers Kennedy’s World War II heroism, his political campaigns, meeting and marrying Jacqueline Bouvier, starting a family, his presidential campaign, the inauguration speech, the White House years and his brief tenure full of “triumphs, travails and tensions” along with “foreign affairs and domestic.”
LIFE covers that tragic day in Dallas with full page photos documenting every detail. There’s even a lengthy essay on Abraham Zapruder, “who is known to the world as the author of the home movie of President Kennedy’s assassination.” In fact, in this 2013 retrospective, LIFE gives you a full-size, color photo of Zapruder’s Bell & Howell Zoomatic, the actual camera he used to film the shooting. I’m not sure why “for the first time in print,” LIFE chose to also publish here six feet of the Zapruder film, all 486 frames. I didn’t find the 40-inch, four-panel foldout particular useful or helpful. LIFE did pull out key frames to analyze. Most notably frame 313, “the image that shows Kennedy being struck by Lee Harvey Oswald’s final bullet.” Even LIFE did not print that frame fifty years ago.
Here’s where this photo documentary broke down for me. I did not find any of the frame-by-frame analysis to be worth the space it was given. For a couple of reasons. Most of Zapruder’s film is either very blurry or out of focus. The key frames LIFE pulled out of the reel to highlight really don’t tell any kind of story for that reason. And for some reason, LIFE chose not to circle or superimpose arrows or other markings on the selected frames to point out what specific details they illustrate. That would’ve been very helpful.
LIFE also unpacks here “ten of the most lasting, vexing and controversial conspiracy theories” that sprang up after those shots rang out in Dallas. In this section, LIFE tries to straddle the fence regarding “the single bullet theory.” Somehow both LIFE and the Warren Commission would have us believe that exhibit CE 399, “the so-called Magic Bullet . . . struck Kennedy in the back, exited through his throat, struck Governor (John) Connally’s back, exited his chest and went through his wrist, and finally ended up in the governor’s thigh. It was eventually found on the gurney that carried Connally into the Parkland (Hospital) operating room.” Really? Really??
For me, the highlight of this impressive retrospective was short essays written by well-known Americans discussing their memories of that November day in 1963. While on duty at my hometown radio station on the Sunday morning Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald on live TV, I was most interested in reflections from media icons Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Bob Schieffer, Tom Brokaw, Bill O’Reilly and Dan Rather. At the back of this weighty publication, LIFE also includes an actual full copy of their November 29, 1963 magazine with their JFK cover story. Now, fifty years later, you too can remember the man and the moment.
You would probably have to be at least 60 years old to have any memory of what happened at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. It’s very hard to believe a half a century has passed already since JFK was gunned down on his way in that motorcade to lunch at the Trade Mart.
Even if you were not alive on that Friday morning, LIFE’s 192 page coffee table book takes you back in time to revisit the Kennedy legacy. Here you’ll find photos and commentary on JFK’s early years. LIFE covers Kennedy’s World War II heroism, his political campaigns, meeting and marrying Jacqueline Bouvier, starting a family, his presidential campaign, the inauguration speech, the White House years and his brief tenure full of “triumphs, travails and tensions” along with “foreign affairs and domestic.”
LIFE covers that tragic day in Dallas with full page photos documenting every detail. There’s even a lengthy essay on Abraham Zapruder, “who is known to the world as the author of the home movie of President Kennedy’s assassination.” In fact, in this 2013 retrospective, LIFE gives you a full-size, color photo of Zapruder’s Bell & Howell Zoomatic, the actual camera he used to film the shooting. I’m not sure why “for the first time in print,” LIFE chose to also publish here six feet of the Zapruder film, all 486 frames. I didn’t find the 40-inch, four-panel foldout particular useful or helpful. LIFE did pull out key frames to analyze. Most notably frame 313, “the image that shows Kennedy being struck by Lee Harvey Oswald’s final bullet.” Even LIFE did not print that frame fifty years ago.
Here’s where this photo documentary broke down for me. I did not find any of the frame-by-frame analysis to be worth the space it was given. For a couple of reasons. Most of Zapruder’s film is either very blurry or out of focus. The key frames LIFE pulled out of the reel to highlight really don’t tell any kind of story for that reason. And for some reason, LIFE chose not to circle or superimpose arrows or other markings on the selected frames to point out what specific details they illustrate. That would’ve been very helpful.
LIFE also unpacks here “ten of the most lasting, vexing and controversial conspiracy theories” that sprang up after those shots rang out in Dallas. In this section, LIFE tries to straddle the fence regarding “the single bullet theory.” Somehow both LIFE and the Warren Commission would have us believe that exhibit CE 399, “the so-called Magic Bullet . . . struck Kennedy in the back, exited through his throat, struck Governor (John) Connally’s back, exited his chest and went through his wrist, and finally ended up in the governor’s thigh. It was eventually found on the gurney that carried Connally into the Parkland (Hospital) operating room.” Really? Really??
For me, the highlight of this impressive retrospective was short essays written by well-known Americans discussing their memories of that November day in 1963. While on duty at my hometown radio station on the Sunday morning Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald on live TV, I was most interested in reflections from media icons Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Bob Schieffer, Tom Brokaw, Bill O’Reilly and Dan Rather. At the back of this weighty publication, LIFE also includes an actual full copy of their November 29, 1963 magazine with their JFK cover story. Now, fifty years later, you too can remember the man and the moment.
November 25, 2013
I am allowed to ask the question, who is John F. Kennedy? When he died, I was not around. However, I have always respected his life and maintained a high level of interest in his story. My mother was 6 years old when he died and she loved to tell the story of this day. She remembered. After this book, I can see why! Time has done a wonderful job. I especially enjoyed the section: Where Were You When You Heard? I liked Maya Angelou's recount of the day, and although short, I especially enjoyed John Lewis's story. He was at Fisk University, which is my alma mater when Kennedy's death occurred. My heart leapt when I heard this. I love stories that I can relate to. I feel like I am a part of this legacy, and I am a part of this day. Lewis says, “When President Kennedy died, something died in all of us.” How magnificent the times must have been.
The design of this book is rewarding. The pages are well laid out. The book offers a replica issue of the Time Magazine that was published November 29, 1963. I loved it! This book may be worth the 50 bucks? You will definitely travel back in time.
The design of this book is rewarding. The pages are well laid out. The book offers a replica issue of the Time Magazine that was published November 29, 1963. I loved it! This book may be worth the 50 bucks? You will definitely travel back in time.
November 27, 2014
Even after 50 years when reading about Kennedy's death it can still make you sad. The book has a lot of information and some amazing photo's, but be prepared to re-life one of the most traumatic days of history.
December 12, 2014
A cool gift for anyone who remembers that day. I received it yesterday as a gift and, after scanning the pages last night, began a detailed read today. A very special bonus is the November 29, 1963 issue of "Life".
January 2, 2014
Incredible photos and stories of Kennedy: the man, the president and the assassination that shook the world.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews