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Image of a White House Press bus at Dallas Love Field
Image of a White House Press bus at Dallas Love Field

Image of a White House Press bus at Dallas Love Field

Object number2018.006.0014
Date11/22/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer Rudy Clauss
Photographer Vera Clauss
ObjectSlide
Credit LineRudy and Vera Clauss Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumCardboard, Film
Dimensions2 × 2 in. (5.1 × 5.1 cm)
DescriptionOriginal 35mm color slide taken by amateur photographers Rudy and Vera Clauss showing a White House Press bus at Dallas Love Field on November 22, 1963. The bus takes up the whole frame of the image as the motorcade gets underway. The driver, possibly Continental Trailways bus driver Joe Savage, is seen in silhouette.
Curatorial Commentary

There were two White House press buses in the Dallas motorcade, both provided by Continental Trailways in Dallas. The driver of the first bus was identified as Joe Savage, but the driver of this second bus remains unknown. Among the passengers on the second White House press bus were Sid Davis of Westinghouse Broadcasting and Seth Kantor, a reporter with Scripps-Howard who later wrote a controversial book about Jack Ruby in 1978. Unlike the first White House press bus, which did allow at least two reporters to exit the bus in Dealey Plaza, the driver of the second bus - based on the recollections of Seth Kantor - did not allow anyone to exit his bus in the plaza even though at least one reporter demanded to be let off. The first bus followed the motorcade directly to Parkland Memorial Hospital. However, the second bus went as scheduled to the Dallas Trade Mart where Davis, Kantor and other reporters had to get separate rides to Parkland Hospital.

There was a total of four cloth "White House Press" banners made, one for each side of the two buses. The only known banner to still exist, removed from the first bus and saved by driver Joe Savage, is part of the Museum's Collection (2003.060.0001). -- Stephen Fagin, Curator