Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: July 15th, 2004
President Kennedy On Television, 1963
This slide of the week: PRESIDENT KENNEDY ON TELEVISION, 1963, was inspired by my visit to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza in Dallas last week. Having just watched a video of an ABC NEWS special aired last November about that fateful day in Dallas forty years ago, my Kennedy-curiosity was as peaked as it could possibly be.
The Sixth Floor Museum is in the legendary school book depository building where Oswald fired the fatal shots. The exterior of the building remains virtually as it was that day. But the sixth floor, with the exception of the recreation of the “sniper’s perch” near the corner window, bears no resemblance to its former warehouse appearance. Fifteen years ago the space transformed into a most engaging and informative display with incredible photos, films, and artifacts that tell one of the most famous events in the history of the universe. The omni-present ‘you-are-there” feeling ads a big dose of reality to the experience.
Hundreds of bigger-than-life still and moving images of the superstar President and First Lady surround you. In display, their timeless, top-of-the-world style and elegance clashes with the tawdry lives of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. Many people there that day tell their story on video, giving the subject more depth and clarity. At the same time, the most significant 8mm home movie ever taken—the famous Zapruder footage–plays on a loop. Only Zapruder, a local dressmaker, captured Kennedy being shot. His Bell and Howell movie camera is showcased nearby.
I learned to walk November 22, 1963, the day Kennedy was assassinated. I was eleven months old. My mother says I walked around in circles all day in front of the television. What were you doing that day
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
July 2004
2 Comments on “President Kennedy On Television, 1963”
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December 1st, 2006 at 6:57 pm
I was 13 years old and living in California at the time of the assassination.
I was home ill (probably faking it) from school.
I was in my room watching a comedy show called “Pete & Gladys” starring Harry Morgan and Cara Williams when
a SPECIAL BULLETIN came on and disrupted my comedy show.
The newscaster came on to say that there was a shooting during the Kennedy motorcade.
(I am uneasy with these special bulletins to this day due to this horrible day!).
Shocked I ran to the kitchen to inform my grandparents. My grandfather was doing the dishes and he thought I was joking as used to joked about this very thing in the past.
But I was able to get him to go to the television set to see the news. Then my grandmother joined us.
At first we thought that the news was only about a shooting that didn’t involved the President.
Turned out it was the worst that could have happened as President Kennedy was beloved by most of the public.
We were all shaken by the events of that day.
Everyone was upset and crying.
When President Kennedy was in office my feelings as a child was that everything was so wonderful! Americans seems to be very happy!
After President Kennedy’s Presidency ended life in the U.S. seemed to go down hill.
That is how I remember it.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:05 am
i was in first grade, staying with my aunt, and awaiting my little brothers birth. he was born a week after the assasination.it was the warmest november ever 75 degrees in massachusetts that week. my mother was hanging clothes on the line before she went off to the hospital.