Tower Varizoom 8mm movie camera
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Tower Varizoom 8mm movie camera
Sears' Tower brand Varizoom 8mm movie camera, model 584.91250, used by Tina Towner to film the presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. Towner's father Jim Towner took photos with a still camera while Tina used this camera to capture images of the limousine as it passed the front door of the Texas School Book Depository and of Dealey Plaza after shots were fired. This camera was apparently manufactured for the department store Sears by Bell & Howell based on its Model 8125, under Sears' house brand "Tower." The case is black with silver-colored metal trim.
Tower Varizoom 8mm movie camera
circa 1960
Metal, plastic
5 15/16 × 3 × 7 7/16 in. (15.1 × 7.6 × 18.9 cm)
Towner Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
2015.009.0006
The two Towner cameras are both on display in the Museum's exhibit "John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation." - Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections
The Towners' camera, like other 8mm cameras of the era, did not record sound. (Super 8mm cameras came along in the 1960s with the ability to record sound at the same time that moving images were captured.) Tina had operated the family camera before and knew how to use it. - Gary Mack, Curator
Tower Varizoom 8mm movie camera
Sears' Tower brand Varizoom 8mm movie camera, model 584.91250, used by Tina Towner to film the presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. Towner's father Jim Towner took photos with a still camera while Tina used this camera to capture images of the limousine as it passed the front door of the Texas School Book Depository and of Dealey Plaza after shots were fired. This camera was apparently manufactured for the department store Sears by Bell & Howell based on its Model 8125, under Sears' house brand "Tower." The case is black with silver-colored metal trim.
Tower Varizoom 8mm movie camera
circa 1960
Cameras
Grassy knoll
Eyewitnesses
Dealey Plaza
Home movie
Motorcade
Assassination
Towner, Tina
Chicago
Japan
Metal, plastic
5 15/16 × 3 × 7 7/16 in. (15.1 × 7.6 × 18.9 cm)
Towner Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
2015.009.0006
The two Towner cameras are both on display in the Museum's exhibit "John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation." - Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections
The Towners' camera, like other 8mm cameras of the era, did not record sound. (Super 8mm cameras came along in the 1960s with the ability to record sound at the same time that moving images were captured.) Tina had operated the family camera before and knew how to use it. - Gary Mack, Curator
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