Jack Ruby Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald Live on TV

If you were alive on Sunday November 24, 1963 then you have never forgotten the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby as it played out in real time across America. I was watching TV with my parents when the transfer of Lee Harvey Oswald was taking place. I guess that everyone was doing the same thing. This was live TV at a time when we had just one satellite.

This film is a bit different from most of the other clips you might be seeing of the event. It seems to have been taken from a slightly different angle than the others, showing Jack Ruby emerging from screen right more clearly than some of the others. In most of the still photographs you only see a vague blur in place of Jack Ruby. He is obscured by the others in the crowd. In this clip you can actually see Ruby gut shoot Oswald.

The three days beginning Friday November 22^nd, 1963 with the President’s shooting; and ending with his burial at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday November 25^th, are days which can never be forgotten by those who were alive at the time. I remember thinking that I was living through history. I was 9 years old and a big fan of Abe Lincoln, so I could not escape the magnitude of what was happening.

But nobody expected to see Jack Ruby kill Oswald on live TV. Later on, of course, we found out that Ruby was present at the press conference on Friday at the police station where Oswald was held. He was even there for the press conferences which included Oswald, almost as if he were just waiting for the chance to shoot him. On Sunday, November 24, 1963, either in emotional distress; or by design; Jack Ruby got his chance.

"Trying to Get to You" - Elvis Presley (1968)

In 1968 Elvis Presley did a TV special just before Christmas. It was a mixture of a variety show format, with musical numbers featuring Anne Margaret and a host of dancers. But the best part was the half hour or so when Elvis came out with his band, sitting in chairs facing one another, and played some real Sun Records rock and roll.

“Trying to Get to You” was a show stopper for me. Clad in leather and leading the band with his vocals, as well as his more than competent guitar playing, this may have been the best performance of the last decade of his life. It was almost as if, in response to the “British Invasion”; which was at its peak in 1968; he needed to show he was still relevant after almost 10 years of making pretty bland films on the West Coast. 

In a way, this show was a reminder that the sounds coming back at us from Europe had begun here in the good old USA. And Elvis, along with the rest of the “Million Dollar Quartet” at Sun Records, had been there at the beginning, when blues, country and jazz all fell in with one another and gave birth to a new sound called rock and roll.

This is just a short sample of the magic which was Elvis when he was really being Elvis, and not playing a movie role. After making all those movies he must have had to really practice a bit for this special in order to capture that original magic. Ironically, that probably makes him the greatest Elvis impersonator of all time. Hit You Tube for the full show at;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fipT2RRvdLY

"Heat Wave" Martha Reeves and the Vandellas (1965)

I can think of no more appropriate song for the current weather situation than this "oldie but goodie" from 1965. Many of my happiest memories seem to be centered around that year. Being 11 years old was a magical time for me in Brooklyn, where I grew up. And summertime was the ultimate season. School was out by the end of June, not to be re-visited again until after Labor Day in September. Those 8 weeks seemed eternal. There was so much time, and so much to do.

As the years passed by, and I got older, the summers got shorter; as did the years. But whenever the temperature soars above 95, or so, and I hear this song, I am 11 years old again, riding my bicycle down the shady side streets of Brooklyn. And, in my mind I am headed for the beach with a towel wrapped under the seat.