PEKIN—Thanks to a polite Pekin upbringing, journalist Dick Stolley managed to finagle a copy of the most famous home movie in U.S. history: the Zapruderfilm of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Stolley, 92, died last week in Evanston with his family by his side, according to People magazine, for which he served as founding managing editorin 1974. His storied career, which began in his teens in Pekin, included stints at the Chicago Sun-Times andTime magazine, and he eventually became editorial director across allTime Inc.magazines before retiring in 2014.
But the highlight of his reporting career came in the wake of the Kennedy's slaying, captured by dressmaker Abraham Zapruder.Stolley was not only the first journalist to contact Zapruder; he also was the most patient and polite, manners Stolley credited to his childhood in Pekin.
"In terms of public record, I think it is very fortunate I found Mr. Zapruder,” Stolley told the Journal Star in 2013, near the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death.
More:IHSA exhibit at Peoria Riverfront Museum has been replaced. Here's why
Born in Pekin to a factory worker father and an English teacher mother, Stolley knew by age 12 he would become a journalist, according to People. He went from editing the newspaper at Pekin High School to becoming a teenage sports editor of the Pekin Daily Times.
After high school, he joined the Navybefore graduating from Northwestern University with a master's degreein journalism in 1953, according to the Washington Post. He eventually was hired by Life magazine, moving up tochief of its Los Angelesbureau by 1963. On that Nov. 22, he was in the office when news broke that Kennedy had been shot. Stolley, another reporter and two photographers jumped on the next plane to Dallas.
They landed as Air Force One was taking off for Washington, carryingKennedy'sbody and Lyndon Johnson, about to be sworn in as the new president. About 6 p.m. at Life's Dallas bureau, Stolley got a tip that a Dallas businessman named Abraham Zapruder had filmed the assassination on his home movie camera.
Stolley picked up a phone book and found Zapruder's home number. He called the number every 15 minutes for the next six hours, until a weary voice answered.
Stolley identified himself, asking, “Mr. Zapruder, am I the first reporter to call you?” Zapruder said yes, then confirmed that he had captured the assassination on film, which he already had gotten developed. Excited, Stolley asked if he could come by to see the film.
"No," Zapruder said.
Thoughsensingthescoopofalifetime,Stolleydidnotgetpushy.Heremained respectful, as he had been taught as a boy in Pekin.
As Stolley later said tothe Journal Star of Zapruder, "He was emotionally and physically exhausted at that point. I didn’t press. I mean, sometimes in this business, you know, you have to press and sometimes there’s a sixth sense that tells you don’t press. Smartest decision I ever made."
With Stolley calm and quiet, Zapruder broke the phone silence by saying, "Come to my office at 9 in the morning.”
Stolley arrived an hour early, to beat any other reporters getting wind of the situation. He got there at the same time as three Secret Service agents.
For the four visitors, Zapruder played his 8 mm film on rickety, old projector. The room was silent, except for the tick-tick-tick sound of the projector, as they watched the grim imagery: the motorcade curving around Dealey Plaza with Kennedy waving from thepresidential limousine before grasping his throat at the first shot, then Texas Gov. John Connally howling in pain from a bullet wound.
"And then comes this hideous head shot where the whole right side of (Kennedy's) head just explodes up into the air and the spray of blood and bone," Stolley recounted to the Journal Star. "And at that moment everyone in the room just — as if we had been punched in the gut — everybody, Secret Service and me, just went, “'Unnh!'
"It was an absolute, natural, uncontrollable impulse at seeing that wound."
After watching the rest of the film, the Secret Service agents seized twoof Zapruder's three copies, then left. Other reporters had arrived, so Zapruder showed them the film. Following the final frame, Zapruder told the roomful of reporters, “Well, now. I know you’re interested in obtaining rights to this film, but Mr. Stolley was the first reporter to contact me, so I’m going to talk to him first.”
Also:First slave freed by Abraham Lincoln, a Pekin woman, is now buried under Peoria pavement
As the other reporters went ballistic, Zapruder and Stolley slipped into his office and locked the door. Stolley thought to himself, “I’m not going to leave this office without that film. I don’t care what I have to do.”
Stolley said, "Mr. Zapruder, that is a truly fascinating piece of film”— then offered $5,000. As they chatted amicably over the price, the other reporters shouted at Zapruder and banged on thedoor. Stolley, true to his Pekin rearing, stayed kind and calm, raising the offer to $50,000.
Zapruder, visibly disturbed by the clamor on the other side of the door, said, "Let’s do it.”
Stolley walked over to the office typewriter and banged out a six-line contract for Life's print rights. After they signed the document, Zapruder handed over the other copy of the film.Stolley ducked out a back door, out of sight of his irate competitors.
"Poor Mr. Zapruder had to go back and face those enraged reporters outside his office," Stolley later said.
The following day, Life agreed to pay Zapruder $150,000 for all rights to the film. Zapruder, who would have nightmares about the film and shirk from publicity, died of stomach cancer in 1970.
In 1975, Life sold the film back to his family for $1. In 1999, the federal government bought the film from the family for $16 million.
But even decades later, Stolley never understood one aspect of that post-assassination morning. Why didn’t the Secret Service agents confiscate all three copies of the film? Why relinquish control of any evidence regarding the investigation, less than a day after a president’s murder?
“That’s a good question,” Stolley told the Journal Star.“It surprised me that these government officials didn’t grab it.”
Many of the film's images— Zapruder had captured 486 frames over 26.6 seconds — ran frame-by-frame in Life. To the Journal Star,Stolley later acknowledgedthat the film’s excruciating detail exacerbated nationwide horror. But he says the explicitness was invaluable in underscoring the stark truth of the slaying.
“I think the film helped impress upon the American people that he was dead,” Stolley said.
Phil Luciano is a Journal Star columnist. He can be reached at pluciano@pjstar.com and 309-686-3155. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
