JFK Coverage After Dallas Assassination: View From The Control Room | TV News Director Max A. Schindler
You Think What proudly presents a series of remembrances of a television news director’s career. Max A. Schindler worked for the NBC News Bureau in Washington, D.C. for many years. In this first article he describes directing news coverage following the Kennedy assassination; what it was like to be present while capturing the televised images of JFK’s coffin being removed from Air Force One upon its arrival at Andrews Air Force Base. How he felt as an eyewitness to history on that mournful November day in 1963 for all Americans, and people around the world.
View From The Control Room Segment#1
by Max A. Schindler
November 22, 1963
I was in my car on my way to work, about 4 or 5 blocks from the NBC News Bureau in Washington, DC. . At a red light a woman in the car next to me was screaming…I rolled down my window and she said “Turn on your radio”. I turned on the radio and heard that President John Kennedy and Governor John Connally had been shot in Dallas, Texas. I drove to the bureau and raced into the newsroom. It was chaotic and people were running around…many were not sure of what to do. The bureau chief told me to have my wife pack a bag, for an untold number of days, and to send it by cab. A plane had been chartered to take a group of us to Dallas for the coverage. Before my bag arrived we heard the special news bulletin the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was dead. I was then told a mobile unit had been sent to Andrews Air Force Base for the return of Air Force One. No one knew who would be on the plane…the coffin with JFK, Jackie Kennedy or the new President…Lyndon B. Johnson…but they were sure at some point Air Force One would return and we had to cover that event. All of the couriers were busy on assignments, and I was told to use my car and to get to Andrews.
It’s hard to say what happened to people in the DC area that day…some went home, some went to church to pray and some were walking and crying…but the roads were bumper to bumper with cars. I was trying to get to Andrews, but was making very little progress. An officer on a motorcycle was weaving his way between the two lanes of traffic on the highway. When he got to my car I told him who I was and why I had to get to Andrews…he looked at me and said…”You follow me”. I can’t begin to tell you how amazing he was on that terrible day. He turned on his siren and flashing red light, and we went over median strips, the shoulder of the road, the grassy areas in the middle and through the path that was cleared by his siren and flashing light. He got me to Andrews. I could not have made it there without him. I thanked him and rushed to the gate…I should have copied down the name on his badge ID…he deserved much more of a thank you from me and from NBC.
When I got to the gate there was all kinds of Secret Service security. I had a White House pass but it was not doing me any good at this time. Nancy Dickerson walked by, she was inside, and I shouted to her…she came over and I told her the problem I was having in gaining admittance. She spoke to the Secret Service Agents and told them if they didn’t let me in NBC would not be able to televise the event. They then checked my White House pass again and finally let me in. When I got to the NBC mobile unit I was told by the AT&T people that they only had equipment to hook up one network…they were not prepared for this…it usually took quite a bit of paper work to get phone lines installed for a television event…and since NBC was first on the scene they were hooking us up. Remember this was in the days before satellites, and microwave; the pictures were in black and white transmitted over AT&T phone lines.
We only had two cameras to use for this coverage and I talked the Air Force into letting us use two of those sets of stairs they use to board people on mid-size planes. I put one camera on each set of stairs figuring they would be high enough not to be blocked by all of the stills and reels that would be covering the event. I placed them so one could shoot wide shots and the other could shoot the close-ups from roughly the same angle.
When I finally got telephone communications in the mobile unit I called the bureau. They told me Air Force One was in route…no ETA available …and no information on who was on board Air Force One. I was told I would be the Producer and Director since they couldn’t get any other personnel out to Andrews or onto the base. We would be considered the pool for everyone…and our pictures would be seen all over the world.
We knew the spot where the plane would finally come to rest and we were told all of our lights had to be off until the motors were shut off…they didn’t want to blind the pilots. When the plane landed we turned off the lights. They taxied to the designated spot. The camera operators could not hear me in their headset over the roar of the engines. When they turned off the engines…we turned on the lights…and the operators could now hear me. At this point I still didn’t know who was on the plane…maybe they knew at the bureau…but I didn’t know. I had a feeling that at least the coffin was on the plane. There was a cargo-loading device near the gate and I figured it would be used to lower the coffin from the rear door. When it started to move we watched closely to make sure when the rear door opened the coffin would be coming out and not dirty dishes from the flight. Almost all of us said in unison…”There’s the coffin.” I took the camera showing it. The interior of the mobile unit was very silent, which is very unusual, and I remember saying to the crew over the headset…”Do you all realize that’s the President of the United States in that coffin?”…It was a moment of realization. We had seen pictures of the motorcade in Dallas and some pictures from the hospital …however, this visually was the first concrete evidence for the American public that JFK was dead…it was a very emotional moment for all of us. As the coffin was being lowered I could see Jackie and Robert Kennedy were on the cargo loader with the coffin. Bobby must have arrived and entered through the front door. I also noticed one member of the escort party gently patting the coffin of his Commander-In-Chief in a very emotional farewell. When the loader reached the bottom Bobby jumped down and helped Jackie down. I couldn’t help but notice her blood stained suit. As they loaded the coffin into the ambulance serving as a hearse Jackie went to get in. The door appeared to be locked; someone was able to open it from inside. She got in, Bobby got in, the coffin was loaded, and they drove away. We did not have helicopters to cover the departure and it was getting dark. I had the camera follow the vehicles as far as possible before telling the operator to slowly pan back to Air Force One. I thought that was it…but a few seconds after the camera had panned back Lyndon Johnson came out of the front door.
Many senators, cabinet officers and government officials greeted him. He went to a bank of microphones to make his first address to the public as the President of the United States. His wife was at his side. He said how tragic a loss and what a great loss this was for the country and for the Kennedy family…Then he said …”I will do the best that I can…that is all I can do…I ask for your help and God’s.” After being greeted by more government dignitaries.…Sen. Everett Dirksen and Sen. Hubert Humphrey…the Senate Minority and Majority Leaders and others…he left Andrews.
One of the News magazines said the camera panning from the line of vehicles carrying the coffin…back to Air Force One…and LBJ coming out …visually and dramatically portrayed the passing of the baton from the old to the new president. I said I really didn’t have anywhere else to go with the camera; I didn’t know President Johnson was on the plane.
In 1965 I directed “A Conversation With The President”. It was to air on all three networks…at the time ABC, CBS and NBC. It was to be videotaped and the correspondents were Frank Reynolds of ABC, Dan Rather of CBS and Ray Scherer of NBC. During one of the breaks in the taping I asked the President about that day at Andrews when I had the camera pan back to Air Force One, and if he was watching TV in the plane. He said …”Damn right and I figured that was my cue to come out.” I didn’t ask him…if I hadn’t panned back to the plane how long he would have stayed there. So much for the dramatic portrayal of the passing from the old to the new.
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