JFK and dark tourism: A fascination with assassination

International Journal of Heritage Studies

Volumn 2, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 198-211

  Foley, Malcolm ^a   Lennon, J John ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Dallas; Death; JF Kennedy; Tourism

Indexed keywords

EID: 0011228344     PISSN: 13527258     EISSN: 14703610     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13527259608722175     Document Type: Article

References (28)

1. C. Rojek. Ways of Escape - Modern Transportations in Leisure and Travel London: Macmillan. 1990. p.136 and see particularly pp.136-145
2. M. Berman. All That is Solid Melts into Air. London: Verso. 1983. p.95
3. 3 Urry offers an analysis of the 'tourist gaze' based upon a number of criteria. Firstly. the place to be visited must be differentiated in some aspects from experiences conventionally assumed in the daily life of tourists. Another dimension of the extraordinary may be the recognition and interpretation of signs which form part of an established context of tourism related objects. Lastly, an apparently ordinary object can be given singularity because of local signage authenticating its distinctiveness. See J. Urry. The Tourist Gaze. London: Sage. 1990
4. Palmer offers a lengthy discussion of many aspects of mortality and how practices differ world-wide in relation to death. See G. Palmer. Death: the trip of a lifetime. San Francisco: Harper. 1993
5. The view of Baudrillard on the critical importance of repetition in defining reality is made even more pertinent via an internet search wherein a typical return for a search on the Kennedy Assassination will yield some 8216 web sites. Writings on the assassination. conspiracy theories and endless video clips evidence the fascination with the event Typical of the products on offer is Secrets of a Homicide. a computer recreation of the JFK assassination which provides a range of digitally recreated sequences detailing the JFK assassination and entry of the bullet from some eighteen different perspectives provided In a 3D specialist Research edition video tape. See J. Baudrillard. Simulations, New York: Semiotext 1983. and Secrets of a Homicide http//www.mstnet/dmyers/jfk/index.htm
6. Useful discussion of key visual memory triggers is given by S. Knapp. Collective Memory and the Actual Past. New York: Representations. 1989
7. T. White. America in Search of Itself, New York: Warner. 1982. p.174
8. Neilson Company. TV Responses to the Death of a President', cited in World Listened and Watched: a special report on broadcasting. 2 December. 1963
9. For further examination see Broadcast Magazine Comments on Coverage: Well Done 2 December. 1963. p. 50
10. See for example M. · Lane & D. Freed. Executive .Action. 1973. and L Singer. Parallax View. 1973. which have both been made into films: JFK the celebrated treatment of the Kennedy assassination by Oliver Stone (which was based primarily on: J. Garrison, On the Trail of Assassins. 1988: J. Marrs. Crossfire. 1989: and J. Newman. Kennedy and Vietnam. 1992) caused considerable controversy and served to reignite passions some twenty eight years after the event of the assassination. Furthermore films centring on related individuals continue to be developed e.g. Libra. 1993 - a film about Lee Harvey Oswald, and Ruby. 1992 - a film centring on Jack Ruby
11. This is an excerpt from J. Connally discussing the 25th Anniversary of JFK's Assassination on Nightline on ABC News, quoted in B. Zelizer. Covering the Body - the Kennedy assassination, the media and the shaping of collective memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1992. p.186
12. Excerpt from John F Kennedy Library. The New Museum of John F Kennedy Library. Columbia Point Boston. MA 02125, p.2
13. Dallas County Historical Foundation The Sixth Floor. John F Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation, Dallas. Texas. 1989
14. Dallas County Historical Foundation, History and the Significance of the Landmark District. The Sixth Floor Press Release. Dallas. Texas. 1994. p.5
15. Dallas County Historical Foundation. The Sixth Floor Museum Records Banner Year. The Sixth Floor Press Release. Dallas. Texas. 1994
16. Dallas County Historical Foundation, The Sixth Floor: John F Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation. Dallas, Texas. 1989. p.l
17. The actions of the family during this period are well documented in B. Zelizer, Covering the Body - the Kennedy assassination, the media and the shaping of collective memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1992
18. Edward Kennedy quoted in R. Aguirre. 'Family Objections Won't Halt JFK Exhibit' Dallas Times Herald, 1988. p. 3
19. The extent of the President's widow's involvement in the design and choice of architect is detailed in A. Reid. 1M Pei. Boston: Bison Group. 1995
20. The director's views on The Sixth Floor were available in full in state and in local press at the time. See. for example. Associated Press. "Kennedy Friends Upset by Museum Plans'. Dallas Times Herald 6.1.1988. p. 1
21. See for example B. Minutaglia. 'Quiet Healers in Dallas', life Magazine, 21 November. 1993. pp.22-28
22. Quoted in M. Read. 'Kennedy Museum's Sixth Floor' Dallas Times Herold, 20 April 1991, p-Al
23. Taken from an interview conducted by the authors with C. Price. 'Interview with Marketing Director The Sixth Floor'. 14 Nov. 1994. Dallas. Texas
24. Quoted in J. Collins, 'JFK Assassination Exhibit Nears Opening on The Sixth Floor". Dallas Times Herald, 20 May, 1989. p. 1
25. In this case, Richard Sellars. National Parks' Service Historian and Chief of the National Park Service. South West Regional Cultural Resource Centre. Santa Fe. New Mexico, has compared The Sixth Floor development favourably with the $8.8M project to renovate the Lorraine Motel (site of the assassination of Martin Luther King) and establish a National Civil Rights Centre in Birmingham. Alabama. Once again the process of comparison and peer alignment has emerged along with the historical/educative justification for the development of such dark attractions
26. For greater elaboration see M. Foley & J. Lennon. War and Cultural Tourism in Berlin and London, paper presented at The Urban Environment: Tourism Conference September, 1995. South Bank University
27. For further discussion see S. Walsh. The Representation of the Past. London: Routledge. 1992
28. C. Rojek. Ways of Seeing: modern transformations in leisure and travel. Macmillan. 1993. p.170