JFK Jr. salutes JFK
| JFK Jr. salutes JFK |
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| Stan Stearns , 1963 |
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Link to the picture |
JFK Jr. salutes JFK is the title of a monochrome shooting of US photographer Stan Stearns of 25 November 1963. It shows the three-year "John-John" Kennedy military salute in front of the coffin of his father John F. Kennedy . In the picture next to John-John are his older sister Caroline Kennedy , her mother Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy dressed in black and her uncles Robert and Edward Kennedypictured. The scene was shot by several photographers from different, slightly different angles. Among them is a color photo that shows both children in their distinctive light blue clothes. Stan Stearns' shot stands out among these shots because of its composition with the saluting John-John in the center and because of its fine grain .
Image description
The photo shows three-year-old John-John Kennedy saluting head-on. Behind him stands his uncle Robert F. Kennedy, behind him on the right his mother Jacqueline. To their right, almost completely covered, is John-John's older sister Caroline Kennedy . Also almost completely covered, to the right behind Jacqueline Kennedy, is Edward Kennedy . The image section is limited on the left by a uniformed flag bearer and on the right by a saluting general.
prehistory
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Funeral procession with John F. Kennedy's coffin en route from the White House to St. Matthew's Cathedral
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Caroline and "John-John" Kennedy are driven to St. Matthew's Cathedral
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American President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas on November 22, 1963, a Friday, while he was driving from the airport to the city center in an open car with his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy . A few hours after the President was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital , the body was flown to Washington, DC with Jacqueline Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson . After the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital , he was laid out in a closed coffin in the East Room of the White House for 24 hours on Saturday . On Sunday the coffin, covered with the flag of the United States , was carried to the Capitol on a horse-drawn carriage and laid out in the rotunda . There, about 250,000 mourners passed the coffin by the following day to say goodbye to Kennedy.
On Monday morning, Kennedy's coffin was first driven from the Capitol in a vehicle convoy to the White House. From there, a funeral procession led by the adults of the Kennedy family and more than 200 state guests continued on foot to St. Matthew's Cathedral. The children were driven in a limousine on this route. A requiem was celebrated in the cathedral . The Kennedy family then went down the steps of the cathedral, where Kennedy's coffin, covered with the flag of the United States, was placed on a carriage by the pallbearers in front of the immediate family members. Then he should be driven to Arlington National Cemetery . When the Kennedys were at the bottom of the stairs in front of the coffin, Jacqueline Kennedy whispered something in John-John's ear. John-John took a step forward and saluted his father. Since the funeral at Arlington National Cemetery was to take place without the children, it was the last chance the children had to say goodbye to their father. According to political scientist Larry J. Sabato, this scene made all of America cry.
John-John
From a very early age, John-John was enthusiastic about aviation and the military. For his entertainment, Secret Service agents deployed to protect the presidential family practiced the military salute with him . When Secret Service agents "General John" granted a wish they would salute and John-John greeted back with his left hand. It was only after a considerable amount of practice, in October 1963, that John-John greeted him with his right hand. A few weeks later, on Veterans Day , John-John accompanied his father to the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. His mother had explained to him that all soldiers salute the president as their commander-in-chief. When the soldiers greeted his father, he too could salute. During the public ceremony, John-John greeted his father on a hint from his companion.
During the presidential couple's trip to Dallas, Caroline and John-John stayed in Washington. When news of the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy reached the White House, Lynn Meredith, the Secret Service agent in charge of her protection, went to play with the unsuspecting children in a Washington park. They were later cared for in the Oval Office by Ben Bradlee , editor-in-chief of the Washington Post, and his wife Tony, both close friends of the Kennedys. Finally, even before Jacqueline Kennedy's arrival in Washington, both children were brought to their mother, Janet Auchincloss, in Georgetown . Monday, November 25th, 1963, began for John-John, who was his third birthday that day, with a Happy Birthday sung by his sister Caroline and his nanny. As a birthday present, Caroline gave him a toy helicopter. The children should attend the funeral services.
Jacqueline Kennedy was concerned that John-John would not be able to fully endure the ceremonies because of his age. In addition, John-John became increasingly restless in the cathedral and insisted on asking about his father. So she asked the Secret Service agent accompanying her to keep John-John busy during the service. The two went to a side room of the cathedral, in which several members of the military with duties during the funeral services were present. Just to distract the boy, and with no intention of having John-John perform the salute later, the agent practiced the military salute with John-John with the help of the soldiers .
The recording
Stan Stearns worked as a press photographer for United Press International in 1963 . On the day of Kennedy's funeral, he was assigned to accompany the funeral procession from the White House to St. Matthew's Cathedral and on to Arlington National Cemetery. Once there, he and 70 colleagues had to go to an assigned area behind a barrier that was actually only intended for 30 people. Stearns had equipped his camera with a lens with a focal length of 200 millimeters. Actually, his intention was to photograph Jacqueline Kennedy with the President's coffin. When he saw her lean over to John-John and whisper something in his ear, and John-John greeted his father's coffin, Stearns pressed the shutter button only once.
Immediately afterwards, Stearns asked several colleagues if they had recorded the moment. Since everyone said no, he initially assumed that he was the only one who had documented the scene. Contrary to his assignment to accompany the funeral procession to Arlington National Cemetery, Stearns went to the UPI offices with his only photo in order to develop the film himself. In the picture office he was greeted by angry superiors who suspected him to be in Arlington. Stearns developed the negative himself and needed an unusually long development time, 17 minutes, to get the image as fine-grained as possible. Upon seeing the developed negative, Stearn's supervisors admitted that he took "THE photo of the funeral." The recording was distributed worldwide with the reference UPI / by Stan Stearns and in many cases it was printed full-page. At the time, naming a press photographer by name was very unusual. Only Life accidentally printed the photo without naming the photographer. On the occasion of the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr. in July 1999, JFK Jr. salutes JFK was reprinted on the covers of Life and Time , this time with false Corbis-Bettman credits .
| John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father's casket in Washington, 1963 |
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| Dan Farrell , 1963 |
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Link to the picture |
There are more photos of John-John's last greeting to his father. They include a color shot by photographer Dan Farrell, who was there for the New York Daily News . In this photo it can be seen that both siblings were dressed almost identically, with a light blue dress or coat, white socks and dark red shoes. It was not uncommon for children up to the age of eight to dress the same way.
effect
A series of images taken on the day of Kennedy's assassination and at the funeral service has made a deep impression on the American nation because these recordings capture the drama and bring it to mind again and again - on television, in films, in books and in magazines . This includes the shot from the Zapruder film , which shows the fatally wounded president collapsing in the car. This also includes the photo showing the swearing-in of his successor Lyndon B. Johnson on the plane, as well as the one that John-John's sister Caroline shows as she puts her hand under the flag that covers her father's coffin. The recordings of saluting John-John are also considered iconographic.
Doubts about the authorship
In an obituary in the New York Times for the American press photographer Joe O'Donnell , who died in 2007, he was assigned the photo JFK Jr. salutes JFK . Research initiated by professional colleagues has shown that the photograph, presented as his own work, was just an enlargement of a section of the picture taken by Stearns. Other photos that O'Donnell had claimed for himself could also be identified as work by other photographers. This included recordings from the 1940s that documented meetings of heads of state and the effects of the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Apparently O'Donnell had embellished his biography over decades with the achievements of professional colleagues, but without making any significant profit. His relatives attribute the appropriation of strange images to O'Donnell's dementia , which began in the 1990s .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d JFK jr salutes JFK on famouspictures.org, May 15, 2013, accessed on November 11, 2020.
- ^ Larry J. Sabato: The Kennedy Half-Century. The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy . Bloomsbury, New York 2013, p. 32.
- ↑ Steven M. Gillon: America's Reluctant Prince. The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. Penguin 2019, ISBN 978-1-5247-4238-6 , pp. 41-42.
- ↑ Steven M. Gillon: America's Reluctant Prince. The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. Penguin 2019, ISBN 978-1-5247-4238-6 , pp. 50-51.
- ↑ a b Vince Devlin: JFK funeral: Montana man played role in iconic John Jr. photo , Missoulian , November 24, 2013, accessed November 11, 2020.
- ↑ Steven M. Gillon: America's Reluctant Prince. The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. Penguin 2019, ISBN 978-1-5247-4238-6 , pp. 59-60.
- ↑ a b c Marianne Fulton: The Bizarre Story of Joe O'Donnell , The Digital Journalist , August 2007, accessed November 11, 2020.
- ↑ Matt Flegenheimer: Stan Stearns, Photographer of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s Salute to Father, Dies at 76 , The New York Times , March 3, 2012, accessed November 11, 2020.
- ↑ JFK Jr.'s heartbreaking salute to his father's coffin , irishcentral.com, December 22, 2019, accessed November 11, 2020.
- ↑ Matt Schudel: Dan Farrell, 84, photographer who captured funeral salute by JFK's son , The Washington Post , April 14, 2015, accessed November 11, 2020.
- ↑ John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father's casket in Washington, 1963 , rarehistoricalphotos.com, September 8, 2016, accessed November 11, 2020.
- ↑ Mention of these moments, recordings and their effect in Robert A. Caro : The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4), Alfred A. Knopf, New York City 2012, p. 599, ISBN 978-0- 679-40507-8 .
- ↑ Michael Wilson: Known for Famous Photos, Not All of Them His , The New York Times , September 15, 2007, accessed November 11, 2020.
- ^ Clark Hoyt: Pictures Worth a Thousand Questions , The New York Times , September 16, 2007, accessed November 11, 2020.