/internal/media/dispatcher/42805/fullImage of President Kennedy speaking at the Fort Worth breakfast11/22/19631 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (3.5 × 3.8 cm)FilmGene Gordon Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza2014.087.00910One original 35mm black and white negative with image taken by Fort Worth Press chief photographer Gene Gordon of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast held at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday, November 22, 1963. This image shows a large crowd of people seated at rows of set tables, and press photographers along the aisle taking photographs. The negative is on Kodak Tri-X Pan Film. This image is number 8.
All negatives and strips were previously stored in plastic negative storage pages numbered and organized by Gene Gordon. Most of the pages mirror the contact sheets in this collection. This negative was previously stored in the top left pocket of the page named "Sleeve #11" (2014.087.0220) and labeled "JFK #7 F8." See also "G-8" on large contact sheet, 2014.087.0140.Photographs648493.81000762003.492506985043718Negative (b&w)0E-10Original 35mm black and white negative with image taken by Fort Worth Press chief photographer Gene Gordon of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast held at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday, November 22, 1963. This image shows a large crowd of people seated at rows of set tables, and press photographers along the aisle taking photographs. The negative is on Kodak Tri-X Pan Film. This image is number 8.
PhotographsSpeechesPhotographerPressNewspapersFort Worth breakfastTrip to TexasKennedy, John F.Gordon, GeneHotel TexasFort Worth PressFort Worth Chamber of CommerceFort WorthConstruction began on the historic Hotel Texas in downtown Fort Worth in 1920, with a two-story addition and ballroom completed in 1963. On the night of November 21, 1963, the Kennedys stayed in Suite 850. The hotel, renamed the Sheraton-Fort Worth in 1968, was renovated in 1970 in order to serve as the official hotel for the newly-constructed Fort Worth Convention Center. This renovation, however, did not last long. The hotel was gutted and extensively renovated once again in 1979, reopening in 1981 as the Hyatt Regency Fort Worth. The name subsequently changed to the Radisson Fort Worth in 1995 and, in 2006, to the Hilton Fort Worth (which is still its name as of 2024). The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 1979. - Stephen Fagin, CuratorGene Henderson Gordon (1929 - 2023) got his first job as a professional photographer at the age of 19 in 1948 at the Fort Worth Press, a Scripps-Howard newspaper launched in 1921. Less than five years later, Gordon was promoted to chief photographer, a position that he still held at the time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. Gordon covered the Kennedys' arrival at Carswell Air Force Base on the night on November 21st and, a few hours later, President Kennedy's parking lot speech at the Hotel Texas and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce breakfast in the hotel's ballroom. Following the assassination, he covered the funeral of Lee Harvey Oswald at Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth on November 25th. Gene Gordon remained at the Fort Worth Press until the paper ceased publication in 1975, after which he became a staff photographer, later chief photographer, at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He retired in 1997 after half a century as a professional photographer in Fort Worth.
We were honored to record oral history interviews with Gene in 2003 and 2015. He also participated in two programs at The Sixth Floor Museum, including this Living History educational program in 2017: Living History with Gene Gordon (youtube.com). The Museum acquired his collection of Kennedy-related negatives and prints in 2014 and 2016. Gene Gordon passed away on March 16, 2023. - Stephen Fagin, CuratorObject featured in special exhibition, Two Days in Texas, November 8, 2023 through September 28, 2024.