Video interview and photos: Jack Ruby’s fedora hits the auction block at Dallas’ Heritage Auction Galleries

by John P. Meyer

Doug Norwine, Director of Music and Entertainment Memorabilia at Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, gave me an up-close-and-personal look at some key items on consignment for their forthcoming 20th Century Icons auction, set for Nov. 6-8, 2009. He also consented to sit down and talk about them on camera. As you'll see (and hear), Doug is one enthusiastic fellow when it comes to historical memorabilia, and he's ALL FIRED UP about this particular auction.

And for good reason.

We'd already heard about the Jack Ruby hat, it being the fedora worn when the Dallas strip club owner pumped a bullet into the gut of Lee Harvey Oswald as the accused presidential assassin was being escorted from Dallas Police headquarters on Nov. 24, 1963.

Then we got word that a copy of the Dallas Morning News from Nov. 22, 1963 -- signed by President John F. Kennedy -- was also going to be up for grabs. (Naturally, we're talking about a morning edition.)

Out interest peaked when we heard, a week or so later, that a rocking chair once rocked in by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had also been attached to the auction agenda. It had been purchased for Dr. King's use by his literary agent, Hermine Popper, who bought it in 1966 for somewhere between $25 and $50.

It was at this point that we decided a trip to Heritage Auction Galleries at 3500 Maple Ave. would be time, and gasoline, well spent. I took along my camera to photograph these rare artifacts of American history before they potentially disappeared from the public view forever.

I was directed to a viewing room inside the high security Heritage offices, where Norwine and his team of specialists (including Garry and Jose) brought in the items already described, plus some additional ones I never expected to see.

These included:

* A guitar signed by Stevie Ray Vaughn.

* A note signed by Marilyn Monroe, as "Marilyn Monroe Miller."

* Two additional Jack Ruby items, including the X-ray used to diagnose his brain cancer; and a set of leg shackles with which he was chained to the hospital bed to prevent his body from being purloined after his death.

You'll be able to bid online for items in the 20th Century Icons auction beginning in early October. Here's the link. For the real action, though (and the free refreshments!), you'll want to show up at Heritage in person on the days of the auction.