Skip to main content
Go to accessibility options
LOT #47081  | 
Sold on Dec 1, 2022 for: Sign-in or Join (free & quick)

KRLD-TV CBS Camera 3. General Electric Image Orthicon Television Camera. 46 inches in length. Outfitted with a singl... (Total: 2 Items)

Click the image to load the highest resolution version.
Sold on Dec 1, 2022 for:
$18,750.00 Bid Source: HA.com/Live bidder
Get one of these:
Share this lot
Track Item Printable Auction Results

Sell One of These

Description

"He's been shot! He's been shot!"
KRLD-TV Camera and Sound Collector That Helped Capture the Arrest and Assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, a Milestone Moment in the History of Television

KRLD-TV CBS Camera 3. General Electric Image Orthicon Television Camera. 46 inches in length. Outfitted with a single Rank Taylor Hobsen TV lens with a 40mm-400mm zoom capacity. [Mounted on:] Houston Fearless cradle head and Houston Fearless manual tripod. 21 inches in height. Labeled in black sharpie as "1" underneath the left-side Houston Fearless logo and "KRLD #1" scratched into patent label. Camera and tripod together measure 33 inches in height.

[With:] KRLD-TV CBS Bell-horn Sound Collector. 25 x 25 inches. With KRLD-TV logo painted in white on both sides. Atlas Sound label in red inside speaker.

When Robert Huffaker, Jim English, and George Phenix set up their television broadcasting equipment, which included Phenix's Auricon 16mm sound camera and a GE Black and White Image Orthicon Camera and Sound Collector operated by English, in the basement of the Dallas Police Department at approximately 9:00 AM on November 24, 1963, they were already well-aware of the momentousness of this moment for American history. Huffaker later admitted that the KRLD news team had something of a premonition through a not-incidental recollection of two embarrassing incidents in Dallas's recent history. When John F. Kennedy and his then-running mate Lyndon B. Johnson stopped in Dallas on Kennedy's 1960 campaign trail, they, along with their wives, were heckled and jostled on the street in front of their hotel. Just one month prior to Kennedy's assassination, the United States UN Ambassador was similarly accosted. Huffaker was understandably concerned about the safety of the President during his trip to Dallas. KRLD-TV was on the scene to film the limo procession when Kennedy was assassinated; sped in cars to the Parkland Hospital where it was announced that the president had died; and maneuvered their equipment in the basement of the Dallas Police Department where they captured on film the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

Although KRLD-TV Camera 3 did not capture the shocking moment of Oswald's assassination, it was present for the impromptu press conference at the Dallas Police Headquarters at midnight on November 22-23. This camera, operated by Jim English in conjunction with reporter Bill Mercer, captured Oswald's press interview in which he denied the charges brought against him, that of murdering President Kennedy and a police office, J.D. Tippet, and requested legal representation. As police tried to satisfy reporters from all over the world, what began as a somewhat ordered mass in a very small room swiftly became chaotic with a multitude of clamoring voices. The interview was quickly over and Oswald sequestered away until his transfer on the morning of November 24.

It is suspected that KRLD-TV Camera 1 or 2 was set up in the basement of the Dallas Police Department to await the moment when Oswald would be transferred to the nearby county jail via an armored car. Phenix, with his Auricon sound camera, was to the right of the KRLD live camera, with Huffaker just in front holding a microphone connected to the broadcast equipment. As Oswald was being led down the corridor, Jack Ruby stepped out in front of Phenix and shot Oswald in the abdomen. NBC captured the chaotic scene and broadcast the homicide live on national television, with CBS just a few minutes behind, and the KRLD reporters, despite the shock and emotional tumult, felt it was their duty to keep their heads and calmly report it all. Previously, television was a formal, well-organized event, mainly used to broadcast sports games, political speeches, and other structured programs. To broadcast a signal live, one needed either a telephone line or a direct line of sight to the station's radio towers. A microwave signal would be sent to the tower and down through the studio equipment, and then back through the tower, bouncing from one signal tower another all across the United States until it reached the CBS headquarters in New York. In this instance, the New York operators immediately switched to put KRLD-TV CBS on the air within minutes of the assassination. The footage would later be replayed over and over again on CBS, narrated by then-up-and-coming reporter Dan Rather.

For the first time, the general public could receive news as it happened instead of just reading about it in the local paper or watching a taped broadcast. Prior to this, television broadcasts were reserved for very formal, organized events such as political speeches or sports programs. The equipment was in place long before the event commenced, there was usually a script for broadcasters and reporters to follow with highly-structured interviews, if these were deemed necessary. The events in Dallas from November 22-24, 1963 called for a different kind of reporting, one that required coolness under pressure, level-headedness, and dogged determination.

According to Huffaker: "The minutes, hours, and days after President Kennedy was shot provided no ready answers about just what was going on, what would happen next, or what any of it meant. There was, instead, a jumble of images, impressions, and information, very little of which had yet taken coherent form. Uncertainty reigned, not tidy story lines. For millions of Americans transfixed by the terrible breaking news, television emerged as a way to keep track of it all. But the journalists who brought the story to the television airwaves could only rely on their skill, their experience, and their stamina to make sense of what was clearly, at the time, the biggest story of their lives."

It was due to the reporters, who carefully and diligently reported these events live, keeping the American public as calm as possible during a very turbulent period, that television supplanted the local newspaper as the primary vehicle of transmitting news. Now just shy of its 60th anniversary, the JFK assassination and the subsequent arrest and assassination of the perpetrator, Lee Harvey Oswald, remain fresh in the public imagination. These murders, together occurring over the course of a mere 48 hours, still stand as one of the most important and painful moments in American history and a major turning point for broadcast journalism when, for the first time, "the news went live."

Lot sold untested. Special shipping arrangements will apply.

Condition: Soiling and staining to the body of the camera, scattered stripping of paint, insulation of tubes with some losses, various scratches to lens tube. Red label "3" on front of camera peeling. Some rusting to metal to tripod, various scratches throughout. Sound collector edges and attaching equipment with rust, scattered nicks in paint.

References: Bob Huffaker, et. al. When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963. Taylor Trade Publishing, 2004. From the Melvin "Pete" Mark, Jr. Collection

Auction Info

2022 December 1 Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction #6267 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2022
1st Thursday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 2
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 2,047

Buyer's Premium per Lot:
25% on the first $300,000 (minimum $49), plus 20% of any amount between $300,000 and $3,000,000, plus 15% of any amount over $3,000,000 per lot.

Shipping, Taxes, Terms and Bidding
Charges to be determined based on Actual Shipping Costs incurred. Note: Additional invoice may follow original. Please contact us for more information. Sales Tax information

Important information concerning Sales Tax and Resale Certificates. Learn More

Terms and Conditions  |  Bidding Guidelines and Bid Increments |  Glossary of Terms
Sold on Dec 1, 2022 for: $18,750.00
Track Item