Art News

Home Movie of President Kennedy in Houston Donated to Sixth Floor Museum

DALLAS, TX.- The Rice Hotel in Houston was the second stop of a planned five-city Texas visit that was to have finished at a fund-raiser dinner in Austin. The Kennedy assassination happened in Dallas the next day. Shortly before 9 p.m. in the hotel’s grand ballroom, President Kennedy spoke to a group of several hundred from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). He then introduced First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy who spoke, without notes, in Spanish. The room erupted in cheers of “olé.” At the time, Roy Botello (bo-TAY-oh) served as the LULAC Scholarship Corporation Committee Chairman. As one of the top officials of the host committee, Botello had close access to the Kennedys that evening. He brought along his home movie camera and captured silent color film of the Kennedy arrival, welcoming dignitaries, a mariachi band and both Kennedys addressing the crowd. “Roy Botello showed his home movie for the first time publicly last year and has generously donated