From Ann-Margret: My Story
Soon after I got home to Los Angeles, everything about the world was suddenly, horrifyingly different. On November 22, I drove into Beverly Hills to shop. I parked my car, but before I got out, I sensed something eerie outside. Then I noticed the people on the sidewalk all had the same stunned expression. They walked around looking dazed, almost in shock. People in cars pulled over. It was as if everything around me was slowing down, stopping.
I turned on the radio and heard the horrible news: President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. All of a sudden, I was as numb and confused as everyone else. Time stopped for me as it did for everyone in the nation. I could not do anything but sit in the car and listen, hanging on every word the announcer spoke.
I started to cry. Only six months earlier I had sung at the President’s birthday party. I had coaxed him into a sing-along. I had looked into his eyes and been dazzled by his smile. I had fallen under the magic Kennedy spell.
I drove to Elvis’s house and found him glued to the TV. I sat down next to him. We stayed like that for what seemed an eternity – watching, waiting, and crying over the President’s death.
It didn’t matter that Elvis and I were in show business. In that horrible time, we were Americans, ordinary, concerned citizens, who, like everyone else, were devastated by the tragic loss of our country’s president and our generation’s finest leader. Elvis and I clung to each other, tried futilely to make sense of what had happened, and prayed for the future.
In addition, the following radio broadcast (plus memories of one eyewitness) is not to be missed.
Speaking of which, Stephen King’s 11/22/63
A horrible day for this country.
It’s the little fleeing moments that get me most, in all the things that have been posted this week, like this shot of Jackie watching her husband at the 1960 debate from the wings, https://twitter.com/History_Pics/status/402926480260608000/photo/1
And agreed on 11/22/63, I’ve been flipping through this week but I’m not ready for a reread just yet, the ending broke my heart so much. Magnificent book.
I know, I was feeling the itch to re-read it, almost directly following finishing the book – I did not want to let it go – but I have resisted going there so far. What a book.
And thanks so much for the Jackie shot!
11/22/63 by Stephen King I agree was fantastic. I actually listened to it on audible during a long trip… I think it was 19 hours of listening time but flew by.
Another aside to that particular date-Aldous Huxley passed away 11/22/63. Probably the least read obituary of a great author ever.
Who does the audio on 11/22/63? Is it King himself?
God, I loved that book. One of the details that really sticks with me is the paragraph where he describes his first gulp of root beer when he goes back in time, and how amazing the taste is.
That’s right, Aldous Huxley!! And didn’t C.S. Lewis also die on that same day?
The book was narrated by the great character actor Craig Wasson. He was spot on doing both southern and New England accents(Didga hea about the eaaahtquake?) And yes the tastes described were great as well as the descriptions of the cigarette smoke everywhere. I laughed out loud when Sadie was furious about the song Jake was singing in 1963… I met a drunken bar room queen in Memphis, she tried to take me upstairs for a ride?
That’s right!!
I so need to read it again – maybe next year. What a book.