Tower Varizoom 8mm movie camera
Object number2015.009.0006
Datecirca 1960
ClassificationsArtifacts
Photographer
Tina Towner Pender
ObjectCamera
Credit LineTowner Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumMetal, plastic
Dimensions5 15/16 × 3 × 7 7/16 in. (15.1 × 7.6 × 18.9 cm)
DescriptionSears' 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.
Curatorial CommentaryThe 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
circa 1960
circa 1963
