JFK Remembered: On Television

President John F. Kennedy seemed to understand instinctively how to use the new medium of television. He held the first live televised Presidential press conference on January 25, 1961, and continued this regularly throughout his Presidency. This Souvenir Card depicts President Kennedy in a relaxed pose recognizing a reporter during a nationwide televised press conference in 1963.

During his presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy successfully used the television medium. The electoral votes from the state of Illinois were key to Kennedy's election, the majority of votes coming from Chicago. The choice of his portrait on the front of this local TV program guide insert for Chicago's American newspaper was likely to generate immediate interest.

This issue of TV Guide documented the unprecedented four-day, uninterrupted television coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the succession of President Lyndon B. Johnson and the national mourning. Produced a mere two months after the tragedy, this extraordinary issue recounted the hour-by-hour events, the television anchors and reporters who stayed on duty, and provided the reader with a memorial souvenir.