Family donates JFK film, copyright to museum

Nix footage considered 2nd in importance only to Zapruder's By David Flick / The Dallas Morning News The family of an air-conditioning maintenance man whose home movie captured

Monday, November 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Nix footage considered 2nd in importance only to Zapruder's

By David Flick / The Dallas Morning News

The family of an air-conditioning maintenance man whose home movie captured one of the most dramatic moments of Nov. 22, 1963, has donated the film rights to The Sixth Floor Museum.

The "Nix film" includes the arresting image of Jacqueline Kennedy scrambling across the trunk of the presidential limousine after the shooting of President John F. Kennedy. The film is considered second in importance only to the Zapruder film, said Jeff West, executive director of the museum.

"What's considered so significant is that it was filmed from the opposite direction of the Zapruder film. It shows so much of the grassy knoll," Mr. West said.

The family's gift to the museum consists of the copyright and a first-generation copy of the film, meaning it was made directly from the original, which was lost. The camera that took the footage is on loan from the family and is on display at the museum.

The Zapruder film, the 26-second footage shot by Abraham Zapruder, a Dallas dressmaker, shows the presidential motorcade at the moment of the shooting. A first-generation copy of that film was donated to the museum this year.

Orville Nix Sr., who maintained air conditioners for the General Services Administration, took his 8 mm home movie during a break from his job at a nearby government office. Mr. Nix died in January 1972.

"Dad was real crazy about his camera. He would film clouds, inanimate objects. We have about two hours of planes taking off from Love Field," said Orville Nix Jr., who lives in Brownsboro, Texas.

"We looked at 8 mm film that would put you to sleep if it wasn't your own camera."

On Nov. 22, 1963, the elder Mr. Nix brought his camera to work at the U.S. Post Office Terminal Annex, next to Dealey Plaza. He filmed footage of the approaching motorcade and had turned away to walk back to work when he heard gunshots, his son said.

Mr. Nix said his father trained his camera on the motorcade, catching a puff of smoke and a glimpse of the president. He then captured the famous image of the first lady climbing across the back of the limousine. In the same footage, Secret Service agent Clint Hill is seen climbing onto the back of the vehicle as it disappears under a triple underpass.

Mr. Nix's father was uncertain about what his camera had captured. He dropped the undeveloped film into a weekend slot at a film-processing store.

The next day, late Sunday evening, the elder Mr. Nix received a call from the store, telling him it looked as if he had filmed the assassination.

The younger Mr. Nix, who was 24 at the time, accompanied his father to the processing studio.

"They took us down some corridors and projected the film on a white wall," he said. "I'll never forget it. We watched it again and again and again."

After first giving the film to the FBI, the family sold the film and its rights to United Press International for $5,000. The wire service returned the copyright to the family in 1992 but had lost the original film.

Mr. Nix said the family decided to donate the film to the museum because "they've always been real kind to us. We've had a good relationship with them, and we just felt it was something we wanted to do."

It's no accident that the Nix film is not as well known as the Zapruder film. The elder Mr. Nix said he was afraid the attention would upset his mother and insisted that UPI agree not to connect the family to the film.

"My dad liked to stay out of the limelight," his son said.

Mr. Nix has been invited to be a part of a panel at the museum Tuesday night as part of a 37th anniversary commemoration of the JFK assassination.

Mr. West said acquisition of the Nix film adds to the importance of the museum as a center of assassination study.

Almost four decades later, the film has made Mr. Nix and his family a center of attention. Mr. Nix still sometimes enjoys showing the film to classes.

Nonetheless, he said, he wishes there were nothing to show.

"I'd just as soon not be a part of it," he said. "I don't think anybody could be happy about a president being killed."