Retro: Dallas, November 22, 1963

[BD Sullivan]

Not sure why the NBC affiliate wouldn't have covered the Trade Mart speech, but this info comes from that day's Dallas Morning News:

KRLD-4 (CBS)
6:20 School
7:00 News/Markets
7:15 Garden
7:30 Officer Friendly
8:00 Capt. Kangaroo
9:00 JFK Breakfast Speech from Ft. Worth
9:30 I Love Lucy
10:00 The Real McCoys
10:30 Pete and Gladys
11:00 Love of Life
11:15 News
11:30 Search for Tomorrow
11:45 Guiding Light
12:00 News/Weather
12:15 Fashions in Faces
12:30 As the World Turns
1:00 JFK Address from Dallas Trade Mart
2:00 To Tell the Truth (News at 2:25)
2:30 Edge of Night
3:00 Secret Storm
3:30 Leave it to Beaver
4:00 December Bride
4:30 Our Miss Brooks
5:00 The Lone Ranger
5:30 CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
6:00 News/Weather
6:30 The Great Adventure: “Wild Bill Hickok—the Legend and the Man”—rescheduled for January 3, 1964
7:30 **Route 66: “A Cage in Search of a Bird”—rescheduled for the following week
8:30 Twilight Zone: “Night Call”—rescheduled for February 7, 1964
9:00 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: “Body in the Barn”—rescheduled for July 3, 1964
10:00 News/Weather/Sportsreel
10:30 The Steve Allen Show: Guests—Cliff Arquette, Don Sherman, Jennie Smith, Barbara Perkins
12:00 News, Sign Off

**A promo for this episode actually aired on CBS moments after the first reports of shots being fired.

The following week’s episode was postponed for obvious reasons until March (although some say it never aired until going into syndication.) The episode, “I’m Here to Kill a King” dealt with Tod Stiles’ evil twin (the show was in its last year) going to Niagara Falls to assassinate an Arab potentate. There are some chilling (and obviously unintentional) parallels to the JFK shooting: when asked to travel to another place after his security team heard of threats, the leader says, “I’m an oil man. Perhaps I should go to Dallas.” When the attempt is made, the shots come from a grassy area near the Falls.

Finally, The Dallas Morning News incorrectly states that the episode, “Kiss the Monster—Make Him Sleep” would be shown that night. It wouldn’t air until January 24, 1964.

*********************
WBAP-5 (NBC)
6:55 Milestone
7:00 The Today Show
9:00 JFK Breakfast Speech from Ft. Worth
9:30 Word for Word
10:00 Concentration
10:30 Missing Links
11:00 Your First Impression
11:30 Truth or Consequences
12:00 Noon News
12:30 Dateline
1:00 People? (News at 1:25)
1:30 The Doctors
2:00 The Loretta Young Show
2:30 You Don’t Say
3:00 The Match Game (News at 3:25)
3:30 Make Room for Daddy
4:00 The Mickey Mouse Club
4:30 Action 5
5:30 The Huntley-Brinkley Report
6:00 News/Weather
6:30 International Showtime—Copenhagen Circus (no info on rescheduled date)
7:30 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater—“It’s Mental Work” starring Lee J. Cobb, Gena Rowlands and Harry Guardino (and written by Rod Serling)—rescheduled for December 20

8:30 Harry’s Girls—“Bet it All”—rescheduled for January 3, 1964—last ep. of series
9:00 The Jack Paar Program—Guests: Liberace, Cassius Clay, Milt Kamen
10:00 Texas News/Weather/Sports
10:45 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson—Guests: Kirk Douglas, Henny Youngman, Dave King, The Willis Sisters
12:00 News, Movie “Milestone”

**************************
WFAA-8 (ABC)
6:10 En France
7:00 Mr. Peppermint with Jerry Haynes
8:15 King and Odie
8:30 Johnny Midnight
9:00 JFK Breakfast Speech from Ft. Worth
9:30 The Life of Riley
10:00 The Price is Right
10:30 Seven Keys
11:00 JFK Arrival in Dallas
11:30 Father Knows Best
12:00 General Hospital
12:30 The Julie Benell Show
1:00 JFK Address from Dallas Trade Mart
1:30 Day in Court (News at 1:55)
2:00 Queen for a Day
2:30 Who Do You Trust?
3:00 Trailmaster (aka Wagon Train)
4:00 Movie “The Black Sleep” (1956)
5:45 ABC News—Ron Cochran
6:00 Channel 8 News Report
6:30 77 Sunset Strip—“Lovers Lane,” rescheduled for January 3, 1964
7:30 Movie “Duel in the Sun” (1946)
10:00 Newsreel; News/Weather/Sports
10:40 Murphy Martin
11:00 Movie “The Helen Morgan Story” (1957)
1:00 Late Movie ?

********************************

KTVT-11 (IND)
8:00 Reveille
8:30 Romper Room
9:00 JFK Breakfast Speech from Ft. Worth
9:30 The Ed Allen Show
10:00 Movie “Ringside Maisie” (1941)
11:30 Girl Talk
12:00 News/Weather
12:15 Farm Show
12:30 Cartoons
1:00 My Little Margie
1:30 Movie “Down Three Dark Streets” (1954) (News at 2:55)
3:00 Jim Bowie
3:30 Popeye
4:00 Funny Company
4:30 The Adventures of Superman
5:00 The Three Stooges
5:45 News/Weather
6:00 Supercar
6:30 Cheyenne
7:30 Movie “Hercules Unchained” (1959)
9:00 Movie “Jeanne Eagels” (1957)
11:15 Movie “Cass Timberlane” (1947)

KERA (Channel 13) was essentially the PBS of its era, with educational and cultural programming

 

[bpatrick]

The show on Ch. 5 that would have aired at 1 PM was "People Will Talk," a game show hosted by Dennis James which was later revamped and became "Hollywood Squares."

As I understand it, Ch. 5 wasn't even scheduled to carry JFK's speech from the Trade Mart. In those days, the station was definitely a Fort Worth station, and its part of the coverage of JFK in the Metroplex ended with his speech in Fort Worth that morning. Ch. 8 was the only one scheduled to cover JFK's arrival in Dallas, no station was scheduled to carry the motorcade itself (even though it was during Ch. 4's noon news), and Ch. 4 would provide the coverage of JFK's speech at the Trade Mart (also to be carried on Ch. 8). Ch. 4's news director, Eddie Barker, was to have done the lead-in to JFK's speech but once things went awry he made headway to Parkland Hospital while Dan Rather hotfooted it from Dealey Plaza to Ch. 4, where he carried on two phone conversations--one with Barker, the other with CBS in New York. When Barker told him that from his information JFK was dead, Rather asked, "He's dead?" and New York took it as a statement rather than a question. Allan Jackson on CBS radio reported it almost twenty minutes before Walter Cronkite did so on CBS television.

And we all know that Ch. 8's program director, Jay Watson, came onto the set of Julie Benell's show to announce the shooting. He was very much the workhorse of Ch. 8 that weekend.

 

[BD Sullivan]

And we all know that Ch. 8's program director, Jay Watson, came onto the set of Julie Benell's show to announce the shooting.

Julie Benell died on New Years Day 1982 at the age of 76, presumably ("lengthy illness") from cancer. Her show was on from 1950-64, with the last show coming on Christmas Day 1964. ABC's expansion of their daytime lineup was the main reason for the change.

Her husband, who she married in 1939, died in 1969, but the couple had no children. She is buried in San Antonio

 

[bpatrick]

I had never heard of Julie Benell until I began seeing postings on this board related to the Dallas-area stations' coverage of the JFK assassination; she had long since retired by the time I moved to Dallas in 1976. The big-name female personality when I lived there (and she may still be on) was Bobbie Wygant on Ch. 5, who co-hosted "Weekday" with the late Chip Moody at 5 PM.

Somebody correct me on this, but I believe ABC didn't expand its daytime coverage into the 12:30-1 PM (CT) slot until 1965, when it began showing "Ben Casey" reruns from 12-1. ABC had put its affiliates on a clock-time schedule when "American Bandstand" aired at 4 in the early '60s; I have Houston schedules which show KTRK aring "Camouflage" at 12:30 in 1962 (but the affiliates weren't bound to it; "Camouflage" aired in Birmingham at 11:30 AM, but then again WBRC didn't carry "Bandstand" in 1962). NBC, OTOH, expanded into the 12:30 slot when it moved "Let's Make A Deal" into that time in 1964, and all it did was knock about 20 points off "As The World Turns"'s ratings.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Based on CBS and ABC coverage of the early minutes after the shooting posted on You Tube, Eddie Barker of KRLD-4 was a pool reporter inside the Trade Mart and filed live reports following the shooting for both ABC and CBS.

NBC, based on their coverage as posted on You Tube, had WBAP-5 (now KXAS) anchors Charles Murphy in Dallas and Tom Whalen in Fort Worth. Those segments were actually in color!

 

[easttxtv]

The big-name female personality when I lived there (and she may still be on) was Bobbie Wygant on Ch. 5,

Bobbie is still with Ch.5, although I haven't seen any regular reports or features she's done in a long time. She may have reverted to more of an 'emeritus' role by now. Bobbie was featured quite a bit recently with KXAS/5's move of their station/studios away from their longtime home in east Fort Worth. A tour of the station's now-former home was recorded with Bobbie conducting that, plus one of the conference rooms at the new station/studios complex is named for her and has a mural-collage of images with her as well as some of her interview subjects over the years. This week, a piece ran on their news where one of the anchors interviewed Bobbie about how her workday went on November 22, and the goings-on at the station that would ultimately interrupt her Dateline show.

(BTW, many of Bobbie's interviews over the years were saved and digitized on a website, www.bobbiewygant.com. They are the full, uncut versions not cleaned-up or edited to fit a newscast segment. To my knowledge, none of her Dateline eps, including the one that aired 50 years ago, are available on that website.)

 

[cowboybud]

**************************
WFAA-8 (ABC)
6:10 En France
7:00 Mr. Peppermint with Jerry Haynes

Haynes was also featured on WFAA's assassination coverage, he and Jay Watson were standing next to each other when the shots were fired (he was signing autographs as "Mr. Peppermint").

KTVT used one of the network feeds, don't know which one or when they interrupted programming.

 

[DavidMedzorian]

According to all accounts and particularly his own autobiography published not too long before his passing, Eddie Barker did NOT go to Parkland Hospital after the first reports of the shooting. He stayed on the air live from the Trade Mart until one-thirty central standard time, moments before the president's death was officially announced. Right after that, they broke down the trade mart cameras and took them to both Parkland Hospital and to Dallas Police Headquarters foe remotes later in the day and throughout the weekend. Barker on the other hand, went back to KRLD to coordinate his station's coverage and to appear on air along with Dan Rather during CBS' coverage throughout the weekend.

 

[bpatrick]

You're right and I'm wrong. I went back and looked at Dan Rather's memoir, "The Camera Never Blinks." Barker was at the Trade Mart when he got information from an official from Parkland Hospital (I presume by phone but am not clear on this) that JFK was dead; it was this information that Barker relayed to Rather at Ch. 4, prompting Rather to question, "He's dead?" and New York, on another line, hearing it as a statement, "He's dead." CBS radio thus announced JFK's death 18 minutes before Walter Cronkite announced it on CBS television.

 

[Mitchell H]

Barker was at the Trade Mart when he got information from an official from Parkland Hospital (I presume by phone but am not clear on this) that JFK was dead.

It's been my understanding from what I've read that Barker's source was a Parkland doctor who happened to be at the Trade Mart. He called Parkland from there, got the information that the President was dead, and told Barker, who then relayed it to viewers. The doctor did not want to go on the air with the information, but did audibly pass it along to Barker (declining to give his name at the time). This immediacy, I imagine, was why Barker was able to say that his source was "in tears" when he told him, and also why Barker considered him to be a good source.

 

[bpatrick]

That seems to be the correct way of reading Rather's account; I personally find some of the details confusing, even down to the sequence of events; at one point he has something happening at 12:16 when it was actually 12:46, because Cronkite had already interrupted "As The World Turns" with the bulletin that shots had been fired at JFK's motorcade. Rather pointed out that in the few anxious minutes after CBS radio announced JFK's death, he made a mental checklist of what he had: a switchboard operator, the aforementioned doctor, and a priest who had administered the last rites. He breathed a sigh of relief when ABC and NBC shortly afterward also announced Kennedy's passing. Years later, Bill Leonard, CBS reporter-turned-executive, still thought CBS was too quick to go with the announcement. But it turned out to be, undoubtedly, the biggest scoop of Rather's career.

But Rather also emphasized that a reporter should tread lightly before broadcasting a story of this magnitude: "If you were working the cop shop at 61 Riesner Street (in Houston), what you had was a dead man." But JFK was President; as long as there was even the faintest sign of life, the doctors would do what they could to save him. But I think if you went back in time, those same doctors would say (and did) that there was no chance of saving him.

As for the coverage from the Dallas-Ft. Worth affiliates, I still think WFAA's was nothing short of brilliant (I'm biased; it's my favorite of all ABC affiliates) and the memory of their feeds to ABC probably prompted me to turn to News 8 as my source of local news nearly fifteen years later, when Ch. 8 was an even better news operation, IMHO, than in '63. I have the TV Guide account of the networks' coverage that weekend, from its January 25, 1964 issue, that singled out WFAA's coverage of JFK's arrival at Love Field (DFW wasn't built until the early '70s) which was replayed on ABC, in the most complimentary terms.

Finally, while I'm on the subject, did anyone see C-Span's replay of NBC's coverage of JFK's funeral and burial last Monday? It looked like a kinescope recording; camera cuts didn't look smooth, but no matter. It could still bring a lump to one's throat even 50 years on. I'm not sure but I believe David Brinkley and Nancy Dickerson anchored NBC's coverage; somebody correct me on this.

 

[DavidMedzorian]

Rather's account of the events of November 22nd are not accurate. In his autobiography and in every interview he has ever given on the subject, Barker has flatly denied talking on the phone with Rather while he was at the Trade Mart. He says there was no telephone anywhere near where he was and more importantly, from 12:40 to 1:32pm according to the station logs (and the videotape of the event which is readily accessible), Barker was on the air talking and did not take a break, even for a moment to have a conversation with anyone. He was talking constantly. Barker says that he told this to Rather not too many years before his death and Rather told him, "Well I'm glad we finally got that sorted out." Yet since then, Rather has given his "I talked with Eddie Barker" account again and again. He also says he was standing just on the other side of the triple underpass from Deally Plaza when the shots were fired. There are several photos and even a home movie of the area at that time and he's not in any of them.

 

[Ccook55]

Program question: Was WFAA's scheduled airing of the movie "Duel In The Sun" a local origination? If so, would the ABC shows that were to be seen (Burke's Law, The Farmer's Daughter, Fight Of The Week and Make That Spare) have been bumped altogether or aired later on a delay?

 

[Ultimajock]

NBC, based on their coverage as posted on You Tube, had WBAP-5 (now KXAS) anchors Charles Murphy in Dallas and Tom Whalen in Fort Worth. Those segments were actually in color!

...did WBAP-TV/5 actually have a news studio in Dallas? The settings of the Murphy and Whelan items that NBC aired looks identical to me, nondescript as it was...

 

[DavidMedzorian]

In fact, C-Span's rebroadcast of the NBC funeral coverage was from videotape and not a kinescope. The coverage featured reports from Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Nancy Dickerson, Sander Vanocer, Herbert Kaplow and several others.