Richard Bak's essay in the current issue of Hour Detroit recalls a day that for Baby Boomers and their parents carries the same sense of horror as 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.
Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, was a bleak autumn day in Detroit. Trees were bare. Here and there, piles of wet leaves waited to be burned at curbside and in the alleys. Temperatures were in the 50s. Ex-Gov. John Swainson, lunching downtown, described a sky filled with “low, foreboding black-gray clouds, and strange cloud formations,” according to a 1983 magazine article.
That morning, in a meeting of shareholders at the Statler-Hilton, William Clay Ford bought the Detroit Lions for $6 million; some observers thought the price was too steep for a team six years removed from its last championship. The final weekend of the college football season was at hand, with Michigan set to host Ohio State while Michigan State prepared to meet Illinois in East Lansing, the winner going to the Rose Bowl.
Meanwhile, Ward’s Automotive reported that the U.S. auto industry was on pace to set a single-year record for vehicle production while Michigan Gov. George Romney slammed fellow Republican (and presidential hopeful) Barry Goldwater for his support of right-to-work legislation.
In the classifieds, the Detroit Police Department advertised for recruits (starting salary: $5,650); Stu Evans Lincoln-Mercury offered to put car buyers in a new ’64 Comet for $2,115; and Robert Hall featured boys suits “in the newest fall shades” for under $12. Denim was not yet a ubiquitous fashion choice, though “western dungarees” could be found at Shopper’s Fair for $1.97. The top attractions at local theaters and drive-ins were The V.I.P.s, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and John Wayne’s latest western, McLintock!. The new WKNR (“Keener 13”) music guide had just been delivered to record stores, hi-fi shops, and department chains like Korvette’s and Federal’s. At No. 1 for the week of Nov. 21-28 was the Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie.” The station’s “key song of the week” was by a local girls group called the Chevells: “Another Tear Must Fall.” The flip side was “It’s Goodbye.”
A thousand miles and a time zone away, big and friendly crowds greeted the president’s motorcade in downtown Dallas.
