July 31, 1964 - The showing of a film depicting highlights of President Kennedy’s life has been scheduled, after much indecision, for the final night of the Democratic National Convention.
The film will be part of a memorial ceremony Aug. 27, just before President Johnson’s speech accepting the party’s Presidential nomination.
Earlier plans had called for the ceremony to be held on the opening of the Atlantic City convention, Aug. 24.
The timing of the ceremony was regarded as such a delicate matter that the convention arrangements committee avoided a decision and left the problem to John Bailey, the party’s National Chairman.
Bailey subsequently communicated with the White House, which had been mulling over the question for at least a week, and the Aug. 27 date was fixed. President Johnson reportedly settled the matter himself.
The indecision, according to one unofficial explanation, stemmed from concern among some Presidential advisers and perhaps the President himself that the Kennedy film — if shown before the convention balloting — might touch off a demonstration for the nomination of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy for Vice President.
This could be embarrassing both to the late President’s brother and to Mr. Johnson, who has now publicly ruled out the Attorney General as a Vice-Presidential possibility.
Another explanation, also unofficial, was that President Johnson believed his campaign would be off to an excellent start if his acceptance speech immediately followed the Kennedy film.
The speech and the film, coming so close together, would dramatize his closeness to President Kennedy and his New Frontier Administration and perhaps increase support for Mr. Johnson among Kennedy admirers.
All three major television networks plan to broadcast the entire memorial ceremony, including the film.
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