Mr. Willis passed away in Dallas on January 27, 1995, from leukemia.

On November 22, 1963, Phil Willis took a series of twelve photographs around Dealey Plaza just before and just after the assassination of President Kennedy. Several of those photos were deemed important to the investigation into the slaying; all of them became part of the official record. Willis himself appeared before the Warren Commission, as did his daughter Linda Kay.

In the British television documentary The Men Who Killed Kennedy, Mr. Willis said that all the Warren Commission wanted to hear was that three shots had come from the Texas School Book Depository. He said he never doubted that, but added, "I am very dead certain at least one shot, including the one that took the President's skull off, had to come from the right front. And I'll stand by that to my death. Over my mother's grave."

One of the Willis photographs that raised suspicion on the part of Warren Commission critics was #8, which appeared to show Jack Ruby in front of the Texas School Book Depository building at the time of the assassination. Willis himself believed the man looked like Ruby. Recent reports, however, indicate it may have been another man.

Phil Willis was also a decorated war hero who was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by the Japanese. His patrol captured the first prisoner of war taken by the United States in World War Two, on December 8, 1941.

After the war, he served two terms in the Texas legislature.

The roof over the stage collapsed but the walls of the two-story movie theater which doubles as a museum remained standing. The flames did not reach the 1,080-seat auditorium, although about two feet of water pooled on the floor of the pit area in front of the screen.

The damage, however, was "not irreparable," said Battalion Fire Chief Mike Jones.

The five-alarm fire was believed to have started in a furnace shortly before 3am. It was brought under control about daybreak.

General Manager Ron DuBois was asleep upstairs when the fire began but was not injured. "I ran out of here in my underwear," he said.

Oswald was arrested inside the theater in suburban Oak Cliff just hours after Kennedy was shot on Nov. 22, 1963. Nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald two days later in the Dallas police garage whle Oswald was being transferred to the county jail.

Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder and sentenced to death. He died of lung cancer on Jan. 3, 1967.

The Texas Theatre, built in 1931 by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, has been hamstrung by financial problems and went into foreclosure in June 1992. A family-owned corporation, Texas-Rosewin-Midway Inc., bought the building from United Artists Theatres in July 1993 and saved it from being razed.

The Italian renaissance-style theater, located three miles from where Kennedy was gunned down, reopened January 20 [1995] after being dark for about three years. One of the new attractions: a lobby display with pictures and other memorabilia surrounding the Kennedy assassination, including Oswald's arrest and slaying.

The newsletter of the Citizens for Truth in the Kennedy Assassination ceased to appear in the Fair Play mailbox last fall, right after we sent in a renewal to our subscription to this worthy publication. We tried mightily, but were unable to find out what had happened with Probe until just recently.

It turns out Probe was just suffering from growing pains, according to Dennis Effle, Probe editor and CTKA Vice-Chairman. In a recent telephone interview, he told Fair Play that the reason for the long delay between issues was the introduction of new software. "I had to learn QuarkXpress," he said, referring to the popular desktop publishing program. "This will make it look a lot better. But it's taken some time learn--a lot more than we thought."

The wait is over, though. The first issue of volume two appeared in the Fair Play mailbox in mid-February; Effle says the second issue is not far behind. He and co-editor James DiEugenio apologized for the delay in a cover letter to subscribers, and further stated:

We are proud of the new magazine type format of our publication and expect to place it with newsstand distributors in the near future. We believe that the ability to reach outside the established research community and begin the process of educating the general public in regards to this case has started with this publication.

Since its debut, Probe has been an excellent source of information on developments in the JFK case--in particular, its ongoing coverage of the Assassination Records Review Board. Fair Play is very pleased to welcome back this valuable resource.

The 486 frames constitute the first amateur 8-millimeter film placed in the registry. The grainy, color film, which has long been key evidence in the various investigations into the assassination, was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

It was among 25 films added to the registry.

Others include E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982); The African Queen, with Humphrey Bogart's 1951 Oscar-winning performance opposite Katharine Hepburn; and the 1944 Meet Me in St. Louis, in which Judy Garland sings on a trolley.

The registry was established in 1988 to preserve film deemed culturally, historically or esthetically important. James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, announced the new titles, bringing the list to 150 movies.

"It was very important to represent the whole body of amateur film which is important to our heritage," David Francis, chief of the motion picture division of the Library of Congress, said of the Zapruder film. "Here is a film which is probably the most famous amateur film of all time."

Once a film is listed on the registry, the library tries to get the best print or negative of the work, said spokesman Craig D'Ooge. The film then is preserved in vaults at the Library of Congress.

The original Zapruder film was sold to Life magazine for $150,000 shortly after Kennedy's assassination. In 1975, Time Inc. sold the film back to the Zapruder family for $1; the family has retained ownership.

"I feel strongly about every film that's made, even ones that are considered kitsch," said Roddy McDowall, the actor and member of the National Film Preservation Board, which helps choose the films. "The main thing is to raise the level of consciousness of the form, probably the most important art form of the 20th century."

McDowall was a child star of two movies previously chosen for the registry, How Green Was My Valley and Lassie Come Home.

The registry now numbers 150 films selected for preservation at the Library of Congress.

This story was first reported in November 1994.

* * *