1960 Democratic National Convention

New York: NBC Television Network, 1960. Four vintage photographs from NBC News of the 1960 Democratic National Convention. "NBC photo by Frank Carroll" stamp on the verso of each. Laid in is an NBC News mimeo snipe.

One photograph is of the floor of the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, largely empty, prior to the beginning of the convention, one photograph of the press, with newscaster David Brinkley in foreground, being shown the convention hall from the upper balcony, and two of the press trolley escorting reporters, photographers, and newscasters to the convention hall, one of which has Brinkley, standing, conversing with other reporters.

The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena on July 11-15 and nominated Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for president and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas for vice president. The other top presidential candidates at the convention were Stuart Syminton, Adlai Stevenson, Robert B. Meyner, and Hubert Humphrey.

Kennedy delivered his acceptance speech on the last day of the convention from the adjacent Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum which outlined his vision of "a New Frontier," in contrast with Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, being "a set of challenges" rather than "a set of promises," which he summed up with "not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them," predicting his Inaugural address in which he famously declaimed, "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

The convention was the setting for Norman Mailer's famous profile of Kennedy, Superman Comes to the Supermarket, which was published in Esquire magazine in November 1960, and would set the stage for Mailer's "creative non-fiction" or "New Journalism," along with Truman Copote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe.

9 x 7 inches. Near Fine.

[Book #148537]