Image of President Kennedy speaking in the parking lot of the Hotel Texas
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Image of President Kennedy speaking in the parking lot of the Hotel Texas
One original 35mm black and white negative with image taken by Fort Worth Press chief photographer Gene Gordon at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday, November 22, 1963. The image is of President John F. Kennedy speaking at a podium in a parking lot in front of the Hotel Texas. Shown standing from left to right behind President Kennedy are Marjorie Belew (Democratic Chairperson for Fort Worth), State Representative Don Kennard, Senator Ralph Yarborough (behind Kennedy's right shoulder), and Governor John B. Connally. The negative is on Kodak Tri-X Pan Film.
Image of President Kennedy speaking in the parking lot of the Hotel Texas
11/22/1963
Film
1 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (3.5 × 3.8 cm)
Gene Gordon Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
2014.087.0033
Gene Henderson Gordon (1929 - 2023) got his first job as a professional photographer at the age of 19 in 1948 at the Fort Worth Press, a Scripps-Howard newspaper launched in 1921. Less than five years later, Gordon was promoted to chief photographer, a position that he still held at the time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. Gordon covered the Kennedys' arrival at Carswell Air Force Base on the night on November 21st and, a few hours later, President Kennedy's parking lot speech at the Hotel Texas and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast in the hotel's ballroom. Following the assassination, he covered the funeral of Lee Harvey Oswald at Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth on November 25th. Gene Gordon remained at the Fort Worth Press until the paper ceased publication in 1975, after which he became a staff photographer, later chief photographer, at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He retired in 1997 after half a century as a professional photographer in Fort Worth. We were honored to record oral history interviews with Gene in 2003 and 2015. He also participated in two programs at The Sixth Floor Museum, including this Living History educational program in 2017: Living History with Gene Gordon (youtube.com). The Museum acquired his collection of Kennedy-related negatives and prints in 2014 and 2016. Gene Gordon passed away on March 16, 2023. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
A crowd of approximately 5,000 people gathered in the parking lot of the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth on the morning of November 22, 1963; many of them waiting more than three hours in drizzling rain for an opportunity to see the president. Shortly before 9:00AM, President Kennedy, accompanied by Vice President Johnson, Governor Connally, Senator Ralph Yarborough, Congressman Jim Wright and several Fort Worth officials, exited the hotel and approached a flatbed truck that had been set up with a podium. In his brief, impromptu remarks, President Kennedy proclaimed, "There are no faint hearts in Fort Worth," before apologizing that Mrs. Kennedy was still getting ready upstairs in the hotel. The president took time to shake a few hands before, around 9:10AM, heading back inside the hotel for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast in the hotel's ballroom. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
Image of President Kennedy speaking in the parking lot of the Hotel Texas
One original 35mm black and white negative with image taken by Fort Worth Press chief photographer Gene Gordon at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday, November 22, 1963. The image is of President John F. Kennedy speaking at a podium in a parking lot in front of the Hotel Texas. Shown standing from left to right behind President Kennedy are Marjorie Belew (Democratic Chairperson for Fort Worth), State Representative Don Kennard, Senator Ralph Yarborough (behind Kennedy's right shoulder), and Governor John B. Connally. The negative is on Kodak Tri-X Pan Film.
Image of President Kennedy speaking in the parking lot of the Hotel Texas
11/22/1963
Photographs
Speeches
Parking lot speech
Photographer
Newspapers
Kennedy, John F.
Connally, John
Gordon, Gene
Yarborough, Ralph
Kennard, Don
Belew, Marjorie
Hotel Texas
Fort Worth Press
Fort Worth
Film
1 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (3.5 × 3.8 cm)
Gene Gordon Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
2014.087.0033
Gene Henderson Gordon (1929 - 2023) got his first job as a professional photographer at the age of 19 in 1948 at the Fort Worth Press, a Scripps-Howard newspaper launched in 1921. Less than five years later, Gordon was promoted to chief photographer, a position that he still held at the time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. Gordon covered the Kennedys' arrival at Carswell Air Force Base on the night on November 21st and, a few hours later, President Kennedy's parking lot speech at the Hotel Texas and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast in the hotel's ballroom. Following the assassination, he covered the funeral of Lee Harvey Oswald at Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth on November 25th. Gene Gordon remained at the Fort Worth Press until the paper ceased publication in 1975, after which he became a staff photographer, later chief photographer, at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He retired in 1997 after half a century as a professional photographer in Fort Worth. We were honored to record oral history interviews with Gene in 2003 and 2015. He also participated in two programs at The Sixth Floor Museum, including this Living History educational program in 2017: Living History with Gene Gordon (youtube.com). The Museum acquired his collection of Kennedy-related negatives and prints in 2014 and 2016. Gene Gordon passed away on March 16, 2023. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
A crowd of approximately 5,000 people gathered in the parking lot of the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth on the morning of November 22, 1963; many of them waiting more than three hours in drizzling rain for an opportunity to see the president. Shortly before 9:00AM, President Kennedy, accompanied by Vice President Johnson, Governor Connally, Senator Ralph Yarborough, Congressman Jim Wright and several Fort Worth officials, exited the hotel and approached a flatbed truck that had been set up with a podium. In his brief, impromptu remarks, President Kennedy proclaimed, "There are no faint hearts in Fort Worth," before apologizing that Mrs. Kennedy was still getting ready upstairs in the hotel. The president took time to shake a few hands before, around 9:10AM, heading back inside the hotel for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast in the hotel's ballroom. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
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