JFK's Final Days: November 8, 1963
Once again, it's surprised that Thurston Clarke doesn't tell us what President John F. Kennedy was doing on November 8, 1963 (50 years ago today), considering that it was the third anniversary of his election as President of the United States. Once again, it is the JFK Library which answers this question for us. At this link is an audio recording of a meeting that President Kennedy had with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. This discussion touches on a variety of subjects including the TFX aircraft contract issue, as well as the futures of General Thomas Power and General Curtis LeMay, the 1964 presidential campaign, the Fiscal Year 1965 (FY1965) Budget review and stockpile discussion with Congress, and Admiral George W. Anderson’s conduct during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Tonight marks another event remembering President Kennedy and his assassination. If you're watching the National Geographic Channel tonight at 7:00 p.m., you can watch Bill Paxton narrate the documentary “JFK: The Final Hours”. Here is a blurb on the program provided by the network:
Few events have been more scrutinized than the minutes and hours following the fatal bullets fired by Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov. 22, 1963. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy has been analyzed repeatedly from every angle and every perspective, but this leaves us with no real insight into his humanity. JFK: The Final Hours, narrated by Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Bill Paxton (“2 Guns,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Hatfield & McCoys”), takes both in-depth and birds-eye views of the final day of Kennedy’s life through first-hand accounts from people who were among the last to interact with him, oblivious at the time to their truly remarkable brush with history, along with the everyday objects whose connection to the event transformed them into priceless artifacts. The film will also premiere on the National Geographic Channel internationally in 171 countries and 48 languages. In an interview following the assassination, Jackie Kennedy said “Now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man.” JFK: The Final Hours will recast the fallen president as the man he was by revealing the intimate moments he shared with friends and strangers in his final hours. Paxton was among those who encountered Kennedy shortly before his death as a member of the crowd in the parking lot of Fort Worth’s Hotel Texas where Kennedy gave one of his last public speeches just three hours before his death.
In the documentary, Paxton states, “I was eight years old that day, and I remember thinking it was like seeing a movie star. There stood a man at the peak of his life and his career, but little did he or any of us know that in three hours he would be murdered in cold blood.”
Among the others interviewed for the documentary are:
1. Clint Hill: the Secret Service agent who leapt on to the bumper of the Kennedy’s limo after the fatal shots rang out.
2. Buell Frazier: the man who gave Lee Harvey Oswald and his “curtain rods” a ride to work the morning of the assassination. In the documentary he recreates the trip to the Texas School Depository in an identical vehicle to the one he drove that day.
3. Dr. W.E. Welch: he showed the Kennedys around San Antonio’s Brooks Air Force Base before they made their way to Dallas.
4. Gary Bakewell: he was a member of the Texas Boys Choir who sang at the president’s last meal, a breakfast hosted by the Chamber of Commerce at the Texas Hotel.
5. Corkie Friedman: wife of the Fort Worth’s mayor at the time, who was a guest at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
6. Tina Towner: she was then a 13-year-old girl who joined her father on the corner of Houston and Elm to watch the presidential motorcade. She was entrusted with the family's 8mm camera to take footage of the limo as it rounded the 120 degree turn. Once the limo passed, she turned the camera off just before three shots rang out.
On Sunday (November 10, 2013) the network will also air "Killing Kennedy", a film produced by Scott Free Productions and based on the best-selling book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. The film stars Rob Lowe (asJohn F. Kennedy), Will Rothhaar (as Lee Harvey Oswald), Michelle Trachtenberg (as Marina Oswald) and Ginnifer Goodwin (as Jacqueline Kennedy).
Following is a video of a short clip from tonight's program:
Tonight marks another event remembering President Kennedy and his assassination. If you're watching the National Geographic Channel tonight at 7:00 p.m., you can watch Bill Paxton narrate the documentary “JFK: The Final Hours”. Here is a blurb on the program provided by the network:
Few events have been more scrutinized than the minutes and hours following the fatal bullets fired by Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov. 22, 1963. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy has been analyzed repeatedly from every angle and every perspective, but this leaves us with no real insight into his humanity. JFK: The Final Hours, narrated by Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Bill Paxton (“2 Guns,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Hatfield & McCoys”), takes both in-depth and birds-eye views of the final day of Kennedy’s life through first-hand accounts from people who were among the last to interact with him, oblivious at the time to their truly remarkable brush with history, along with the everyday objects whose connection to the event transformed them into priceless artifacts. The film will also premiere on the National Geographic Channel internationally in 171 countries and 48 languages. In an interview following the assassination, Jackie Kennedy said “Now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man.” JFK: The Final Hours will recast the fallen president as the man he was by revealing the intimate moments he shared with friends and strangers in his final hours. Paxton was among those who encountered Kennedy shortly before his death as a member of the crowd in the parking lot of Fort Worth’s Hotel Texas where Kennedy gave one of his last public speeches just three hours before his death.
In the documentary, Paxton states, “I was eight years old that day, and I remember thinking it was like seeing a movie star. There stood a man at the peak of his life and his career, but little did he or any of us know that in three hours he would be murdered in cold blood.”
Among the others interviewed for the documentary are:
1. Clint Hill: the Secret Service agent who leapt on to the bumper of the Kennedy’s limo after the fatal shots rang out.
2. Buell Frazier: the man who gave Lee Harvey Oswald and his “curtain rods” a ride to work the morning of the assassination. In the documentary he recreates the trip to the Texas School Depository in an identical vehicle to the one he drove that day.
3. Dr. W.E. Welch: he showed the Kennedys around San Antonio’s Brooks Air Force Base before they made their way to Dallas.
4. Gary Bakewell: he was a member of the Texas Boys Choir who sang at the president’s last meal, a breakfast hosted by the Chamber of Commerce at the Texas Hotel.
5. Corkie Friedman: wife of the Fort Worth’s mayor at the time, who was a guest at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
6. Tina Towner: she was then a 13-year-old girl who joined her father on the corner of Houston and Elm to watch the presidential motorcade. She was entrusted with the family's 8mm camera to take footage of the limo as it rounded the 120 degree turn. Once the limo passed, she turned the camera off just before three shots rang out.
On Sunday (November 10, 2013) the network will also air "Killing Kennedy", a film produced by Scott Free Productions and based on the best-selling book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. The film stars Rob Lowe (asJohn F. Kennedy), Will Rothhaar (as Lee Harvey Oswald), Michelle Trachtenberg (as Marina Oswald) and Ginnifer Goodwin (as Jacqueline Kennedy).
Following is a video of a short clip from tonight's program: