Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

November 22nd, 1963 and 1968. Two great albums came out!
With The Beatles and The White Album both released on this date. Their second studio LP which benchmarked their meteoric rise in '63, and the latter one in '68, (and just as great), which gave you some insight into what would be the makings of their solo work, and the beginning of the end. Irony?

Something else happened November 22, 1963. What was it?

I can't recall. I was with my parents near the Dallas County Records building watching the Presidents motorcade come by that day. I was 12, and was allowed to skip school. A few seconds after he past where we were standing...

Wow. Were you really there?

Yeah, I was there, standing sort of between the Records building and the Criminal courts building, or what is an alley way. A few people were in front of us. His motorcade past, Kennedy was seated on our side of the street. It was probably just less than thirty seconds when he made the turn, and not shortly afterwards Dallas police suddenly swarmed the area around Elm. No one, I mean no one knew what was going on, including the cops. The cars in the back of the motorcade almost proceeded as if nothing had happened, and frankly, they couldn't have known what had happened. Some accelerated there speed and others didn't. Folks just began moving towards the same point, like a herd of sheep. Not even knowing why. We, my folks and I, heard nothing, saw nothing.
It all seems kind of surreal now. It was just bizarre at the time.

My next door neighbor works for the museum that has been established in the former school book depository. He handles group visits and special events at the museum.

You know, I don't think I've driven down through that part of downtown more than three or four times since then. I've never been to the museum or back to the spot on Houston.
I did return to Dallas the following September (I lived in Fort Worth) to see the four guys who I originally started this thread about.

Randy, I've always thought that museum does a nice job. It could easily be inappropriate. I have visited there 3 times. When you see the Zapruder film and other pictures it always seemed like a large area. I was surprised to see how compact the area really is.

Stan, I was in my crib napping and my mother said when she heard the news on the radio while she was ironing, I all of a sudden woke up crying.

Sad day indeed.

Stan: The assassination site is kind of weird to visit. There are always people standing around or looking up at the window in the school book depository (day or night, rain or shine). Before I learned my way around downtown, I used to make a wrong turn and always find myself driving the motorcade route (ooops! there's the window and there's the grassy knoll again, here comes the triple overpass...).

Funny you should say that, Randy, about getting your signals crossed. A long time ago when I was in for an interview at KZEW (if you recall the station) I had to venture over to the Belo building for it. It was when I left I got cross-wise and wound up going down Elm. It is also the last time I was around the immediate area of Dealey. I did see Dealey just this last October. I was at the train station where you can barely make out the Depository from there.

It's funny because Dealy gives me sort of a sad, creepy feeling, while Ford's Theater doesn't feel that way at all to me. Maybe Lincoln's death is more historical while Kennedy's is still more emotional.

As a teenager in Dallas during the 1970's, of course I remember KZEW. My first car had a Zoo Freak sticker on the back window. Getting back to the Beatles, I believe the hotel where they stayed was converted into a low security prison facility before being torn down.

I don't even remember where they stayed, and I don't have a great recollection of the show, even though I was in attendance. They might as well have put a transistor radio on the stage. It was just a blur of noise. The start of the show was temporarily delayed because of a bomb threat. I didn't know this until the next day.

I believe the name of the hotel was either The Ambassador or The Continental. It was a non-descript white 4 or 5 story structure on the west side of Stemmons Freeway (I-35).

I stayed at the Edgewater in Seattle not long, where the Beatles stayed. The hotel turned their suite into a shrine, all Beatles memorabilia. There is a famous pic of them fishing from their room. I also included a shot of one of the beds in the room. I just got to visit the room. The price was high enough for a regular room without paying for a suite.