This year has been full momentous historical anniversaries, like the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and the Rev., Dr Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech, but I can’t help but recall that day in history burned into many American minds when on November 22,1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Where we you when President Kennedy was assassinated?
My younger readers are too young to really remember President Kennedy or know of his assassination except from American history class. I can recall being excused from school and being glued to the black and white television set watching history unfold on such a sad occasion. For the first time people could watch TV and listen to Walter Cronkite report to the nation that the president was dead then continue to follow the news and see the funeral days later. The early stages of social media.
Fifty decades later this week, President John F. Kennedy is still captivating the nation, news coverage, documentaries, commemorative issues, items, books. The Kennedy’s continue to have presence in American history. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg was recently appointed Ambassador to Japan.
Americans have images embedded into our minds of the double-breasted pink wool Chanel suit with the pill box hat worn by fashion icon Jackie Kennedy. Note, it wasn’t until the Warren Commission Report was published in October 1964 when we saw photos in color of the pink Chanel suit. The Chanel suit is stored out of the public view until 2103, according to a deed of daughter, Caroline Kennedy, the only surviving heir. When the 100-year deed expiries, the Kennedy family descendants will renegotiate the matter according to Wikipedia.
Some deets on the pink Chanel suit. I like how then President Kennedy asked Jackie what she was going to wear in Dallas. It was revealed in an interview with William Manchester after the event, Kennedy said her husband had told her:
“There are going to be all these rich Republican women at that lunch…wearing mink coats and diamond bracelets. And you’ve got to look marvelous as any of them. Be simple – show these Texans what good taste really is.” The pink suit, which it was said, was one of her husband’s particular favorites, had first been shown by Coco Chanel in her 1961 fall/winter collection.
Another symbol that still resonates as a symbol of that day is the black presidential Lincoln Continental limo that carried President and Jacqueline Kennedy motorcade with then Governor, Connally and his wife. The convertible found a home at the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. After President Kennedy’s assassination, the car was armored and a permanent roof was installed, the shifting focus from presidential access and visibility to protection and security.
The Newseum in Washington, D. C., more than 300,00 people have already visited exhibits displaying the first United States Press International bulletin on the assassination, the revolver carried by one of the Secret Service agents and a collection of intimate photographs. There is a 16-minute documentary titled “A Thousand Days”. President Kennedy was in office for only 1036 days.
On Friday, November 22, 2013, the Newseum will host “JFK Remembrance Day,” featuring a number of daylong JFK-themed discussions with authors, journalists and filmmakers. All events are included with museum admission.
Before came Olivia Pope, image consultants and media gurus were creative controlled contributions by Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Coretta Scott King controlling the legacy of their husband’s imprint left on American history. Both widows after the assassinations of their husbands conducted interviews to major magazines and newspapers. On the weekend following the assassination and state funeral, Mrs. Kennedy invited journalist Theodore White to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis for an exclusive interview to serve as as the basis for an essaying a forthcoming issue of Life magazine dedicated to President Kennedy according to James Pierson’s How Jackie Kennedy Invented the Camelot Legend after JFK’s Death.
President Kennedy was fond of the Broadway musical Camelot, the lyrics of which were the work of Alan Jay Lerner, JFK’s classmate at Harvard. Camelot had a successful run on Broadway from 1960 to 1963. President Kennedy was said to be fond of the following concluding song in the play:
“Don’t ever let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was Camelot.”