Mid-century films and newsreels always seem to show some incredible way in which the world has changed and this “lost” footage of John F. Kennedy visiting Chicago for the first time as president in 1961 has plenty of that. It’s not particularly BangShift-y, I suppose, in that there isn’t any drag racing, but the rooftop-mounted camera from JFK’s motorcade captures a pretty unbelievable sight: Cars line both sides of the road while the motorcade saunters casually through the stopped cars. In there, car nuts will recognize a dozen or so iconic cars and that alone is pretty cool.
The film also features a few seconds of the first jet-powered Air Force One (a Boeing 707) and, for tragic reasons, the last convertible presidential limousine. It’s all part of the pretty awesome YouTube archive The Museum of Classic Chicago Television, which also hosts a number of entertaining old car commercials (and more) from the Chicagoland area. But this one is pretty unique among the MoCCT’s offerings, it’s a cool glimpse at presidential and automotive (and presidentially automotive) history from a half-century ago.
