DALLAS — Nov. 22 this year will mark 60 years since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas' Dealey Plaza.
And the Texas Theatre, which is entwined in the history of that day, is offering a one-of-a-kind program to commemorate the anniversary.
"We do lots of other things 364 days a year, but on 11/22, we’ll own the history and we’ll lean into it and we’ll try to make everything as original as possible and talk about that day," Texas Theatre Co-Owner Barak Epstein said.
It was, of course, at this Oak Cliff movie house where Lee Harvey Oswald -- caught while watching movies following Kennedy's assassination -- was arrested and later charged with killing the president.
For this year's anniversary, the theatre is offering a chance to feel what it may have been like to sit in that same space where Oswald was -- by screening the movies he was watching on that day.
The theater will be opening at 12:45 p.m. on the 22nd, with its first screening kicking off at 1:20 p.m. -- a partial showing of "War is Hell," the movie Oswald watched that day.
“War is Hell is technically a lost film," Epstein said. "It does not exist in its completed version in any way we can find, so we show a 38 minute version of War is Hell.”
That screening will follow with a screening of the second movie scheduled to play at 2:45 p.m. that day called "Cry of Battle." Both the movies will play at the times they were advertised to be playing at in the Dallas Morning News on that day.
A neat facet to both of these screenings is that individual tickets for each will cost the same to see on the 60th anniversary as they would have on that day in 1963 -- just 90 cents.
“Cry of Battle probably did not screen that day," Epstein said. "It was on the program for 2:45, but because of all the commotion and what was happening, that 2:45 screening probably never happened. But we do it anyway.”
Throughout the day, a photo exhibit will also be open in the Texas Theatre's lobby detailing Oswald's presence in Oak Cliff, curated by John Slate from The Dallas Municipal Archives.
At 4 p.m., the theatre will then screen the 1967 documentary "Rush to Judgment," which shows lawyer Mark Lane traveling around Dallas to interview witnesses, friends of Oswald and others connected to the assassination. For anyone who can't make the 4 p.m. screening that Wednesday, there will also be a 7:30 p.m. screening the night before, on Tuesday, with tickets available here.
The ticketed evening program will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a theatrical re-creation of Warren Commission interviews with two Texas Theatre employees from when Oswald was arrested, Julia Postal and Butch Burroughs. Also interviewed by the Warren Commission was John Brewer, the man who saw Oswald enter the Texas Theatre. Those interviews make up a show called "He Shoulda Bought a Ticket," which is directed by Eric Steele and stars Max Hartman and Dian Bachar.
“The people that were at the Texas Theatre that day that were interviewed for the Warren Report, we’re gonna have them reading their scripts, as actors, on stage," Epstein said.
Named after Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Warren Commission was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate JFK's assassination, and later concluded Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy -- although those findings would later be found controversial by some.
To wit: The night will; be capped off by a 7:30 p.m. presentation of the director's cut version of Oliver Stone's "JFK" -- a sprawling political epic more than three-and-a-half hours long, which Stone described at the time of its 1991 release as a "counter-myth" to the Warren Commission's "fictional myth." Many, however, consider the film controversial due to its embracing of conspiracy theories.