Skip to main content
Photograph of the Texas Theatre
Photograph of the Texas Theatre

Photograph of the Texas Theatre

Object number2003.006.0042
DateNovember 1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Creator Federal Bureau of Investigation
ObjectPhotograph (b&w)
Credit LineNat Pinkston Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions3 1/2 x 5 in. (8.9 x 12.7 cm)
DescriptionBlack and white photographic print of the Texas Theatre with part of Jefferson Boulevard visible in foreground. The photo was taken in November 1963 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as evidence in the days following the assassination of President Kennedy. A car labeled "White Rock Cabs" is parked in front of the store on the right side of the photograph. The marquee of the theater reads "Cry of Battle, Van Heflin, War is Hell" on both sides. A billboard with an image of a wagon with a loaf of Mrs. Baird's bread and the text "Pick Freshness" is visible on the right side of the building, next to the theatre facade.
Curatorial Commentary
This FBI photographic print was in the personal collection of retired agent Nat A. Pinkston (1915-2011). Pinkston was a Dallas attorney prior to joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He retired from the Dallas FBI office in 1967 after twenty-eight years of service. Pinkston was involved in the local assassination investigation, notably tracing ownership of the Mannlicher-Carcano found in the Depository to employee Lee Harvey Oswald. He was also dispatched to the Texas School Book Depository on December 2, 1963, after Lee Harvey Oswald's clipboard was discovered in the northwest corner of the sixth floor near where the rifle had been found shortly after the assassination. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator
According to the Texas Theatre program schedule from November 21-27, 1963, the three hour and twenty-five minute entertainment program during the week of the Kennedy assassination began with twenty minutes of advertisements and cartoons with the film, War is Hell, starting at 1:20PM. After a five-minute intermission, a second feature, Cry of Battle, started at 2:46PM. The entire program began again at 4:25PM and once more at 7:50PM with the theater closing shortly after 11:00PM. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested on Friday, November 22, around 1:50PM, approximately thirty minutes after War is Hell started. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator