Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: Stringsinger
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 12:14 PM

I was repairing shingles on the roof of my Topanga Canyon home outside of L.A.
I remember not trusting the reports coming in on the radio.

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 11:10 PM

G'day all,

My memory association with the Dallas Shooting is more peripheral ... and, in its way apposite.

A week or two before, Doug, the leader of our Anglican parish Youth Fellowship had buttonholed me and said (~) " I see that you've turned 18. I usually round up enough fit young blokes to fill my Kombi Wagon ... every three months ... and trundle in to the Red Cross Blood Bank - are you in for that?" I reckoned that sounded like a good thing to do and, brisk and early Saturday 23 November 1967, I lined up for a seat in back of Doug's Kombi ... and off to the older Sydney Blood Bank, up the north end of York Street!

We had all signed in (or, newbies like me, had registered ...) and, while we waited, Doug nipped out for a morning newspaper. He came back quite disturbed ... and announced: "They've shot President Kennedy". We were all amazed and aghast ... this being before TVs were blaring out into the early Sydney morning (17 hours ahead of Dallas time) so the morning paper story was the first we heard of it!

I guess that this memory has, ever since reonateed (in 'sympathy' ... if not in direct connection) with the reasons for blood donation ... and has been sitting at the edge of my realisation that I have, more or less, been regularly donating blood ( ... and now blood Plasma - every fortnight for 50 years! Whenever someone comments that I must'have been donating for a long time I always find myself dating my donations from that same morning we all heard of Kennedy's death!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 10:43 AM

I remember hearing or reading some years ago that when his death was announced at some Republican Party event, or at their offices, people were cheering. But later, when the enormity of the event (for America, if not for people in Britain, judging by some of the comments above)was realised, there was a more sober and respectful reaction by his political opponents.
Derek

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: greg stephens
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 09:45 AM

I have a folkie memory of the Saturday night (the day after the assassination). I was involved in the Heritage Society at Oxford University, and we had a special party sing around arranged: a coach load of visitors coming from the Cambridge university folk club(called the St Lawrence Society). It was a strange evening with people singing right on songs mostly, as you would expect. Kevin McGrath (McGrath of Harlow here on Mudcat) had already written a song about the killing; as far as I can remember so had Mike Sutton (Mike from Northumbria on Mudcat). I had written one myself, but I did not perform it, Kevin having got his in first, and he was a great deal better at that sort of thing than I was!

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 25 Nov 13 - 06:35 AM

I recall that Take Your Pick was on ITV (ATV then?) and was interrupted and didn't come back on. Can't remember after that...

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 06:33 AM

There you are - we must have switched the telly off, but my feeling was the globe was there for a long long time. Can't say it specifically was there after the telephone call, but as I had to walk down to the telephone box and talked for less than 5 minutes - money was important in those young days - I was away maybe 20 minutes.
Mybe Harry Worth wasn't worth it (pun intended but serious comment).

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 24 Nov 13 - 05:30 AM

About 7pm - 7.30pm I was in the Main Hall at Cecil Sharp House helping Peter Kennedy set things up for a concert. The janitor walked up to Peter and said, "Your namesake has just been shot dead.". I didn't get what he was saying, but Peter said, "What? President Kennedy?" After that, the rest of the night was a bit of a blur.

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: selby
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 03:33 PM

I was 12 only thing I can remember was I was in a scout gang show someone announced it and then we carried on. It really meant nothing in our house.
Keith

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: G-Force
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 01:31 PM

I remember it very clearly. The news of the death came through in early evening UK time. BBC TV had stopped normal programs while news of the shooting was being reported. Then they announced the death, whereupon the news program came to an end and the screen reverted to the rotating globe for about 15 - 20 minutes, then the next program (the Harry Worth Show) came on, which somehow seemed less than appropriate.

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 01:21 PM

No idea. I was 10 and it meant nothing to me apart from it was supposed to be something scary. Without wishing to be disrespectful I still don't know what all the fuss was about. The American president has very little to do with my life.

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 12:08 PM

I was in Hamilton, New Zealand. TV only arrived in NZ in 1960 and I don't think Hamilton had it in 1963 - I first saw it in Auckland in 1967. My father heard the news on the radio and passed it on.

Didn't see RFK's assassination on TV either. I was with a few friends sitting on the roof of the student hostel listening to the radio, sharing a bottle of wine to celebrate the demise of yet another overprivileged warmongering American plonker who had it coming.

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 11:41 AM

I was out with others that Friday night (singing for the late Norman Buchan MP when he was the candidate for West Renfrewshire near Paisley in Scotland) and while we were tuning up in the kitchen of a community hall, Norman came in and said that Kennedy was dead -- which we thought was a sick joke.

Anyway, we did the meeting, and the news seemed to be true. We drove back to Glasgow where we were due to stay with Norman and his wife Janey, the late MEP. When we got back late, Janey had cooked spaghetti bolognaise for us all, and we sat clustered round the black and white TV to watch endless discussion -- with little real information, as I recall -- and (I think) the occasional link to the US, which seemed at the cutting edge of technology but which provided little new information.

I remember going to bed and wondering what the morning would bring.

The next day we all took off into Glasgow to make our individual journeys home - one friend to have his 21st birthday - feeling that the world had been changed irreparably.

Don't know what might have been on TV earlier in the evening, but we were back in Norman's house some time around 11.15pm, I think.

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: DMcG
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 07:05 AM

I turned ten the previous September, so don't remember a great deal about it in terms of programmes. But I do remember I was told by my mother while there was a news programme playing in the background and this was early morning, so I presume it was the morning after the announcement.

Subject: RE: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 07:00 AM

I've been thinking about this myself. A letter writer to the Guardian says that the TV programme Take Your Pick was cancelled.
My memory is that they made the announcement some time in the region of 7-9pm, and then had film of an orchestra playing some music. But I was only 12.
Looking at the reproductions of the front pages of the newspapers in yesterday's Guardian, it is incredible to see how quickly it all happened. Saturday's paper reported the assassination, Monday's the killing of Oswald and Tuesday Kennedy's funeral.
Derek

Subject: Folklore: UK TV - the Day Kennedy died
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 06:53 AM

I have been hearing references to the TV programmes they showed on UK TV the night Kennedy was assassinated. Harry Worth was mentioned.

Now I do remember the 60's and I WAS THERE, and I distinctly remember there being nothing on BBC but a rotating globe. And switching to ITV was as bleak. This has stuck with me over the years as a vivid memory. Attached to the memory was the telephone call to a girlfriend talking about the events & what wasn't on TV.

No Programmes! So how come people who weren't there remember differently?
OK - by Saturday the Government decided it was not the start of the Cold War and we had the immortally re-written TW3 with David Frost about to launch a global career. So

What do UK Mudcatters remember of the Friday TV that day?