AN ANONYMOUS PERSON SAID:
I've heard [the audio clip embedded above] before and it is remarkable, but I always wondered how odd it was that people would be attending a concert by the Boston Symphony somewhere around 4-4:30 in the afternoon, even if it was a Friday.
JFK was pronounced dead at about 1 p.m in Texas, so word would get out to the nation between then and let's say within the next 20-30 min. Whether it was 2 or 3 hours difference between Texas and [the] East Coast, still, wasn't it kind of early for a symphony concert?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
You've raised a good point about the "afternoon" concert on 11/22/63. And it's the exact same question that I myself have asked for years too.
I've never actually confirmed the location of the Boston Symphony concert when conductor Erich Leinsdorf made his announcement to the crowd. I have speculated in the past that the Boston Symphony was possibly performing in London at the time (which would make more sense to me, time-wise, because England would have gotten the news of JFK's death in the early evening on Nov. 22, a much more logical time to be having a concert).
But in a book written by Associated Press correspondent Relman Morin (portions of which are discussed in Vince Bugliosi's excellent JFK book, "Reclaiming History"), Morin says the concert was being held in Boston, which means that the concert must have started in the early afternoon, Boston time. And on a workday (Friday), too. It just seems a bit strange.
"In Boston...'the Boston Symphony broke off a Handel concert to play a funeral march by Beethoven'." -- "Reclaiming History"; Page 98 [Source: "Morin, 'Assassination', pp.78–79".]
Erich Leinsdorf's 11/22/63 announcement also seems to indicate that President Kennedy had already died (vs. just an announcement that the President had been wounded and might still be alive), which also seems kind of odd to me (no matter WHERE the concert was being held), because almost a full hour went by between the first bulletins of the shooting in Dallas and JFK's death being confirmed at 1:33 PM CST.
So if Leinsdorf's announcement was really a DEATH announcement, it would mean that the concert crowd apparently was not informed of the shooting until well over one hour after it occurred.
But, regardless of location, the Erich Leinsdorf/Boston Symphony clip is an amazing piece of audio (and remarkably clear as well).
It's a very rare thing to hear a large group of people reacting with gasps of shock and horror as they receive the first news of a tragic event.
[An extended version of the Boston Symphony audio clip can be heard HERE.]
David Von Pein
November 23, 2009
