The First JFK Assassination Reenactment — 1963
by Paula Bosse
Secret Service film crew, 11-27-63
by Paula Bosse
There is yet another JFK assassination-related film being shot in and around Dealey Plaza, causing all sorts of traffic woes, but spotlighting some great period cars, trucks, and fashions. The first reenactment? It took place on November 27, 1963 as part of the Secret Service investigation. A newspaper account suggested that Jack Ruby may have been watching from his jail cell, mere steps away. The photos below, showing some of that filming, were taken by a Dallas Times Herald staff photographer. (All photos from the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza/UNT’s Portal to Texas History.)
Another photo — this one of somber onlookers — taken the same day. Ruby’s home-away-from-home — the jailhouse — is in the background at the left.
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Sources & Notes
Photos from the incredible Dallas Times Herald collection of Kennedy assassination photographs from the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, viewable online via UNT’s invaluable Portal to Texas History; the reenactment photos are here (the first photo is here).
The reenactment received only a few paragraphs in The Dallas Morning News the next day: “Crime Re-enacted by Secret Service” by Carl Freund (DMN, Nov. 28, 1963).
Currently filming in Dallas: the television adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “11-22-63.” Read the updates on the filming from Robert Wilonsky of The Dallas Morning News, here.
UPDATE: Watch the footage shot this day in my post “The Official Government Reenactment of the Kennedy Assassination — Nov. 27, 1963,” here.
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Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
A fascinating story and photos Paula. I saw the presidential motorcade on Lemmon Avenue just minutes before the assignation. This time period is forever etched in my mind.
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Assignation? Not this time.
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The pictures that you captioned as “Secret Service film crew” are actually of KLRD-TV staff members doing the filming.
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I’ve been searching everywhere trying to confirm this. Do you have a contemporary source? Would the Secret Service not have had their own government photographers/cinematographers at this time? The film footage captured that day WAS used in a short film released in 1964, with opening credits reading “Photographed in cooperation with [KRLD] for the United States Secret Service.” This 1964 film appears to have been made by KRLD, with their on-air talent providing the narration — the film also includes newer filmed pieces made specifically for this film which were not from the “official” film. I have no idea how much of the production/editing/script came from KRLD, but I’m sure it was made with much “guidance” from the government. I’m not doubting you, but I can’t find anything that says that the actual filming of this first official reenactment was done by KRLD personnel. That would be interesting, though, if they farmed out something that important to a local television station.
I neglected to include a direct link for that first photo, which comes from the Dallas Times Herald collection of the Sixth Floor Museum; it is here: http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185101/
It seems like the annotations of these photos available on the Portal to Texas History website would have been provided by the Sixth Floor Museum, based on notes from the DTH files (the DTH owned KRLD). There is mention of DTH photographers who took photos of the reenactment, but no mention of KRLD cameramen actually *participating” in the reenactment.
Again, I’m not disagreeing with you — I just can’t find any mention of those men in the car being KRLD cameramen.
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Thanks for the info. I concluded that this is KRLD staff because it is KRLD equipment. I should be more careful how I craft my conclusion. I’ll do some digging. The best person for this was Gary Mack.
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KRLD had 3 cameramen, as far as I know: Pieringer, Underwood and Sanderson who all took films in the minutes following the shooting. The 2 men with cameramen don’t appear to be any. So these could very well be government cameramen.
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