SOMETHING WEIRD ABOUT THE BELL FILM

[Chris Bristow]

Anyone notice something out of place in between the Stemmons sign and the lamppost on the South side of Elm? It sure looks like a lamppost near Mary Moorman's position. It and another lamppost appear for about 3 seconds till the camera pans away. It happens around 1:30 seconds. The grass below it proves it is not the lamppost on the North side of main. It can't be the type of video glitch that smears different frames together because the background it correct. In fact there is a car passing behind the lamppost that blends with the other people moving past. But there was no lampost on South Elm. 
 
I have now looked at it on a big screen and I can see some grass beyond the lamppost and a curb below which would indicate the lamppost is actually the one on North Main. But i still can't figure out why Main St is not visible. If the camera angle was really low you might see all grass and no street and the grass between Main and Elm would appear like a sliver as it does in the image. But we are looking over the heads of the couple in the foreground so the camera was not low. Where is Main St.?

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by Chris Bristow

[John Butler]

Chris,

This is an interesting photo.  I'll pay attention and see what people have to say on this.  This may be helpful or not.  The most recent photos I have of Dealey Plaza is 1967.  I think I have pointed out the lampposts in question but, don't really know because lampposts and signs may have changed since the "big event".   I notice in the 1967 photo that the Stemmons and perhaps the R L Thornton signs are gone.  So, things have changed and this is a best guess.  It is hard to say.  The lamppost on Main Street may be the next pair down (further west).  I couldn't decide.  The paired lampposts may have not been there in 1963.  Your Bell frame doesn't show paired lampposts.

Edited September 1, 2018 by John Butler

[Chris Bristow]

John ,yes the lampposts have changed. The Brehman & West survey map of shows the old locations and many witness locations. After using the Google Earth street view I see that from Commerce St Main almost disappears. The camera is tilting up a bit and points over the couples heads but it must be around shoulder level. If Google Earth allowed us to drop the camera height to shoulder level i think it would reproduce the view we see in the photo.
 So I think i have to refute my own claim. The grass below the lamp post does not 'prove' anything.

[John Butler]

Chris,

Well that's a seriously wrong goof up and assumption on my part.  I thought I saw what might be two streets or a street and a side walk but, dismissed it as maybe be a photo mistake.  That is one strange example of foreshortening in the middle of the frame.  Is it foreshortening or film editing?  If that foreshortened area is natural then the cars should be tiny? Right?  Or, at least not as large as they are.  I don't see how that foreshortened area could occur on fairly level ground.

So, the photographer is on Commerce Street rather than Main Street and that presents a problem.  Why would Bell leave his elevated perch on the NW corner of Main and Houston and move to Commerce Street to film Elm Street?  Does that make sense?   Wouldn't he just move to the grass between Elm and Main?

In my poorly constructed and wrong assumption why would Bell move south across Main Street to film Elm Street when he was north of Main Street to begin with?  The Bell frame doesn't make sense.  The grass between Elm and Main becomes a thin strip and the grass between Main and Commerce becomes a thin strip and it just doesn't look natural.

The time of this frame is strange also.  The motorcade took about 5 minutes to go through Dealey Plaza because of various holdups.  The traffic shown in the frame indicates the motorcade has passed through Dealey Plaza and normal traffic has resumed.  The green Ford or Mercury doesn't look like a motorcade vehicle.

I don't know what to make of the frame other than it might be taken by someone other than Bell.  I have always thought that the Bell film has frames shot from to many different perspectives.  Some of which can be accounted for as military intelligence or a Fort Hood communications group photography.  There is to much editing going on in the Bell film to rely on anything in it.

Then this becomes a better interpretation of the Bell Frame:

     

Edited September 2, 2018 by John Butler

[Chris Bristow]

I think he might have gone over to Commerce to get a good picture because Dealey Plaza is smaller than it looks and maybe he needed to get farther back to get a good shot of the whole area from the South. Go on google Earth and take a look from Commerce North. It is an 8 foot eye altitude and it almost duplicates the Bell image. Commerce sits lower than Main too.