Geraldo Rivera Oral History
Object number2021.001.0071
Date08/10/2021
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Geraldo Rivera
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file), Born digital (.m4a file), Born digital (.mp4 file)
DimensionsDuration: 41 Minutes
Terms
- Oral histories
- Press
- Reporter
- Zapruder film
- Interviews
- Assassination
- Author
- Oswald, Lee Harvey
- Oswald, Marguerite
- Kennedy, John F.
- Zapruder, Abraham
- Rivera, Geraldo
- Groden, Robert J.
- ABC
- Dallas
- Authors, Filmmakers, and Researchers (OHC)
- Abraham Zapruder Film (OHC)
- Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)
- Lee Harvey Oswald (OHC)
- Popular Culture (OHC)
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Geraldo Rivera. Rivera is a recognized Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist and commentator. As host and executive producer of the ABC television program, Goodnight America, he was the first to nationally broadcast the Abraham Zapruder film on March 6, 1975. This landmark program was followed by subsequent episodes in which Rivera interviewed a wide range of Kennedy assassination authors and key figures, including Marguerite Oswald.
Interview conducted over Zoom on August 10, 2021 by Curator Stephen Fagin. The interview is 41 minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryDescribed in the opening credits as "a second generation TV newsmagazine," Geraldo Rivera's groundbreaking ABC television program, Goodnight America, aired a total of thirty-three episodes between 1974 and 1977. The first national broadcast of the Abraham Zapruder film, with narration by assassination researcher Robert Groden, occurred during the last segment of episode 14, aired on March 3, 1975. The following 70-minute episode (#15), which aired on March 27, 1975, was fully devoted to the Kennedy assassination and featured an impressive list of guests, including former Assistant White House Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff, former U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough and assassination researchers/authors Mark Lane, Josiah Thompson, Jim Bishop, Cyril Wecht and Dick Gregory. Another episode (#26), aired more than a year later on August 23, 1976, was devoted in large part to possible connections between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. In this 66-minute episode, Rivera interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, Marguerite; Jack Ruby's sister, Eva Grant; former Carousel Club comedian Wally Weston; investigative journalist Jack Anderson; and CIA undercover operative and convicted Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis. All episodes of Goodnight America are available for viewing in full on Geraldo Rivera's website: Geraldo Rivera: Good Night America. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator
