Encore: The Day Kennedy Died

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated at Dealy Plaza in Dallas, Texas in 1963, Richard Stolley was Los Angeles bureau chief for Life Magazine. He got a call soon after the news of the assassination broke that someone named Zapruder had caught the whole thing on film.

Stolley immediately started thumbing through the phone book looking for a way to contact him, and Life eventually obtained the footage for a price tag of more than $100,000. Years following the Kennedy assassination, Zapruder’s business partner has said the money wasn’t the only reason Zapruder gave up the film to Life. This hour on Focus, we'll listen back to a conversation host Jim Meadows had with Stolley about his Illinois roots, in part, helped him obtain that film. Meadows also talks with Stolley about the continuing significance of the Kennedy assassination and why the man and the moment still matter 50 years later.