Zapruder used a Bell & Howell Zoomatic camera loaded with Kodachrome II. He filmed the limousine from the turn onto Elm until it went under the railroad bridge; Kennedy was hit in the head almost directly in front of him. The film and three copies were processed in Dallas that afternoon, and Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels sent two copies to Washington. [1]
On 23 November Zapruder sold the film and a copy to Life, with the provision that frame 313, showing the fatal head wound, not be published. Life printed frames in black and white on 29 November and later in color. By then some frames had been damaged. [1]
Most Americans never saw it move until March 1975, when ABC’s Good Night America, hosted by Geraldo Rivera, aired a bootleg copy. Time Inc. sold the film back to the Zapruder family soon after. Oliver Stone paid $85,000 to use it in JFK in 1991. A 1992 law made it an assassination record; the government took it and, in 1999, paid the estate $16 million. The estate gave the copyright to the Sixth Floor Museum, which controls the rights. [1][2]
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