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Arts & Entertainment

How new show '11.22.63' recreates one JFK-in-Dallas speech perfectly

Like Stephen King's novel of the same name, Hulu's eight-part series 11.22.63 is a deft blend of fiction and nonfiction. Released Monday, the first episode, "The Rabbit Hole," was directed by the esteemed Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland).

LBJ motions for a path through the 175,000 spectators as the motorcade slows to a crawl at...
LBJ motions for a path through the 175,000 spectators as the motorcade slows to a crawl at the Mobil Building.(Clint Grant / Staff Photographer)

To polish some of the nonfiction, Macdonald found me.

In the story, Jake Epping (James Franco) time-travels to 1960 and first sees John F. Kennedy during a campaign speech at Dallas' Memorial Auditorium.

It's a pivotal scene, and Macdonald hoped to achieve an impressively precise re-creation of a neglected piece of history.

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Two years ago, for the Dallas Morning News' JFK50 series, I researched every minute of that appearance. The result was my story, "JFK's Forgotten Dallas Motorcade."

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For Macdonald, my most important find was a complete recording of the speech.

Once I sent the audio to the director and his London-based assistant, Charlotte Draper, we became steady correspondents.

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As Macdonald prepared, he told me he would use countless details I shared. The aural centerpiece would be the recording.

"You were solely responsible for helping us track down JFK's actual speech," says Draper by email. "Another speech had been written into the scene, but I set myself the task of finding the original, which of course led me to your wonderful and totally unexpected gem of an article. The original speech allowed us to introduce a crucial sense of authenticity."

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And it allowed them to avoid a common pitfall of many JFK films.

According to Draper, "We didn't want to find an actor with a dodgy Boston accent to strip away this sense of awe in witnessing a side of Kennedy so many have forgotten."

The director was so pleased that he invited me to appear in the scene as a reporter. Happily, I accepted. But on filming day, I was sick in bed.

The found JFK photos

For decades, Kennedy's 1960 visit to Dallas with Lyndon Johnson was virtually unknown. But in 2013, when I asked our then photo archivist Jerome Sims for pictures of that day, he uncovered some treasure. Late Dallas Morning News photographer Clint Grant covered the visit and spent hours within a few feet of JFK and LBJ. He took hundreds of photos. Sims found all the negatives.

In a motorcade through downtown Dallas, 175,000 people crowded the car as Kennedy and Johnson went to Memorial Auditorium. Once the candidates were inside the building, Grant shot photos from every angle.

I also found silent TV news film of the Memorial appearance. When I uncovered the entire audio of the speech, we dubbed it onto our clips of news film.

Keeping it real

As Macdonald and Draper planned the first episode, I spent weeks sending photos and minutiae about that day. Every bit of it is now in the scene.

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The cheap pennants that lined the interior walls of Memorial? They're there. Two African-American reporters in a sea of white faces? They're there. The helmeted ROTC escorts on each side of the stage? They're there.

"The photos you supplied were used by all areas of our production team to re-create the scene as authentically as possible," says Draper. "The art/production design team, the costume department, props department and assistant director's department used the beautifully clear black-and-white photos to dress the scene around Kennedy at the podium."

Of course, there are no close-up shots of Kennedy. But his voice is clear and resonant.

As the world knows, JFK never arrived to give his speech in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. But on Sept. 13, 1960, he did. A big chunk of that 1960 Dallas speech can now be heard in Hulu's first episode of 11.22.63.