Local home movie finds home in Sixth Floor Museum

A piece of home movie film, shot by history buffs Jan and Bobby Lemons, will find its way into the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

Being in the right place at the right time has a great deal to do with the historical value of the two minute film segment the Lemons shot of the FBI and Secret Service re-enactment of the John F. Kennedy assassination in 1964.

The Lemons were on their way back to Plainview when Bobby wanted to see the place where Kennedy was assassinated.

“We came in on Commerce Street going east and looked up and saw a man with a rifle,” Jan said. “It liked to scared me to death.”

The Lemons saw a parked car with two men in it about the same size as Kennedy and Connelly, so they parked their car, got out and watched the proceedings. The Kennedy stand-in had a white chalk mark on his jacket.

“There were several hundred people on street,” Bobby said. “We literally heard the bolt of the rifle from the 6th floor.”
Although the Lemons only shot a couple of minutes of footage, the re-enactment played out several times. “I don’t know why I didn’t film more than once,” Bobby said.

The Lemons thought nothing about their home movie until this year when Mark Merrell, Colorado Middle School principal, suggested they get in touch with the Sixth Floor Museum.

“The Lemons seemed a little surprised we would have an interest in their film,” Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza said, adding the reaction is typical. “People tend to think there are so many other pictures out there they talk themselves out of thinking about donating them.”

The museum was already in the planning process for a program in the spring about the FBI re-enactment when Merrell contacted them about the Lemons’ home movie.

“We do programs on regular basis that help people understand the Kennedy assassination and how items and artifacts are important to history,” Mack said.

Although the museum has a collection of still photos from a British tourist passing through Dallas and 10 minutes of local news film footage of the 1964 FBI re-enactment, everything is in black and white.

The Lemons’ film is the only color footage available at this time.
“When I learned about the film the Lemons’ shot, it was the first home movie at least that I’ve ever heard of, much less seen,” Mack said. “One of the things I run into is people who took pictures and don’t realize all are potentially important depending on what questions are asked.”

While the Lemons’ film contains nothing that changes history, it is important as a resource for future questions. “If someone wants to learn something about the Secret Service investigation it might be available in that film,” Mack said. “Someone may have questions years from now that the Lemons’ film may answer. That’s why we want to preserve it.”

“What’s interesting about the Lemons’ film is it shows the people and conditions of the testing being done,” Mack said. “It’s made in color from different angles than the standard news and test films shot by FBI. We get a new perspective in parts of it.”

The FBI re-enactment was staged to settle a disagreement between the FBI and Warren Commission on the question of how a single bullet could do so much damage.