JFK News

New JFK exhibit at Dallas' Sixth Floor Museum includes never-before-seen video

Rare photo of JFK on his way to downtown Dallas.

Photo courtesy of Richard Clark Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza will commemorate the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination with a special exhibition, "Two Days in Texas," which revisits his November 1963 trip to Texas through eyewitness accounts and his own words.

Opening November 8, the exhibition takes a new approach by tracing the President’s footsteps through each of the cities on his last presidential tour, giving greater insight into the purpose and impact of his visit.

The exhibition will include original film footage, photographs, news articles, personal items, and new acquisitions, including the original Air Force One passenger manifest detailing the President’s trip throughout Texas, and a newly produced video of the Kennedy motorcade in Dealey Plaza incorporating amateur footage.

President Kennedy opened his Texas visit on November 21, 1963, with speeches in San Antonio and Houston that focused on Texas' role in medical research, space exploration, and national security.

The next morning, on November 22, he delivered an impromptu speech for a crowd of several thousand that waited in the rain to see him at his Fort Worth hotel, before giving what would be his final speech at a breakfast hosted by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce.

He then traveled to Dallas, where he was assassinated in a motorcade at 12:30 pm on the way to a luncheon. A planned visit to Austin would go unrealized.

Drawn from the museum’s collection of more than 95,000 artifacts relating to the assassination, highlights include:

The original Air Force One passenger manifest with details of the President’s trip to Texas and back to Dulles International Airport (VA)
A photograph from The Dallas Morning News depicting a crowd chasing after the presidential motorcade in San Antonio on November 21, 1963
A trombone played by Eastern Hills High School band member, William Cravens, at the Fort WorthChamber of Commerce breakfast, which marked the last time “Hail to the Chief” was performed for President Kennedy
A newly produced sequential video of the Kennedy motorcade in Dealey Plaza, using amateur home movies to fully document the turns from Main Street to Houston Street to Elm Street, the assassination, and the limousine speeding beneath the Triple Underpass on its way to Parkland Memorial Hospital. This innovative video showcases the Museum’s extensive holdings of eyewitness films, including the recent acquisitions of the Mark Bell and Jack Daniel 8mm home movies.
The bloodied shirt of Dr. Robert McClelland, who was among the physicians inside Trauma Room One in Parkland’s Emergency Room during the resuscitation efforts for President Kennedy following the shooting. Juxtaposing what was planned with what had happened, the shirt is paired with an image of the table setting for the Dallas Trade Mart luncheon that President Kennedy was expected to attend.
The record album sent to Texas Welcome Dinner ticketholders by the State Democratic Executive Committee featuring the President’s three delivered speeches on the trip to Texas and text of the undelivered speeches in Dallas and Austin

“In commemorating 60 years since this American tragedy, we wanted to reflect more deeply on President Kennedy’s time in Texas through his words, and the words and experiences of everyday Texans who he encountered, from the vantage point of today,” said Nicola Longford, Chief Executive Officer of The Sixth Floor Museum, in a statement. “In them, we can find truths that resonate with the current political moment, and the very ideals and struggles that continue to shape the public discourse.”

Designed to preserve the memory of the national tragedy, "Two Days in Texas" will also convey the turbulence felt by Texans who witnessed the events of November 21 and 22, 1963.

The exhibition, on view through June 16, 2024, is part of a series of 60th anniversary programming organized by The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza; additional initiatives will be announced in the coming months.

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Movie Review

Podcaster lets creepy noises get under her skin in Undertone

Photo courtsy of A24

Nina Kiri in Undertone.

While the horror genre is still capable of producing some innovative filmmaking, most of the output tends to fall back on jump scares and other tropes to deliver their terror. So when a film like the new Undertone tries something different, it should be applauded for the effort, even if it’s not as successful in its execution.

Evy (Nina Kiri) is a podcaster who co-hosts a show called Undertone, which focuses on paranormal videos and sounds they find on the internet. Her co-host, Justin (Adam DiMarco), lives in London, so - for kind of contrived reasons - in order to make the time difference between them work, Evy records at around 3 am her time. Evy - who lives at home with her bedridden, dying mother - is the skeptic of the two, consistently debunking clips that Justin presents to her.

Her doubts are tested when Justin brings in a series of 10 audio clips that purport to be about a boyfriend recording his girlfriend as she talks in her sleep. The audio begins in a lighthearted manner and quickly turns creepy and then sinister as unexplained things start happening. Evy senses that what she’s hearing is bleeding into her own world, especially when inexplicable actions take place in her mother’s bedroom.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ian Tuason, the film is effective early on when it introduces the story concept. Making great use of sound design, Tuason essentially puts the audience inside Evy’s head, where every little sound is heightened. Setting the podcast sessions in the middle of the night ups the anxiety level for both her and the audience.

However, as the film goes along it gets a little tedious watching Evy listen to the audio, even as Tuason attempts to keep the film dynamic by moving the camera around her. The premise of the story - progressively going through 10 clips - and Tuason’s framing of shots that focus as much on the background as they do on Evy seem to promise more interesting results than actually transpire.

What ultimately holds the film down more than anything is its lack of different viewpoints. The only other person who’s actually seen is Evy’s mother, who is unable to speak. Evy speaks to Justin, another friend, and a doctor over the course of the story, and while each broadens our understanding of Evy somewhat, none of them make her a truly three-dimensional person. Getting a little more information about her history might have helped the story work better.

Kiri does her level best to vary her acting in the various podcast scenes, and even when they start to get repetitive, she remains compelling and watchable. It’s difficult to judge the other actors based on audio alone, but knowing that DiMarco also starred in season 2 of The White Lotus helps to visualize him and his acting style.

Undertone does well in creating a spine-chilling mood, but it needed something beyond that to become a truly great horror movie. Tuason shows some promise as a filmmaker, especially in the way he uses the camera to create tension, but a more complete story will serve him better the next time around.

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Undertone is now playing in theaters,

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