Rare Video Clip of Jack and Jackie Kennedy in DC

The Kennedys and Georgetown are as big a part of Washington legend as Camelot itself.
Whether it’s Martin’s Tavern, where
JFK reportedly proposed to
Jacqueline Bouvier in booth 3, or Holy Trinity Catholic Church, where JFK and Jackie and so many other
Kennedys have worshiped, or 3307 N Street, Northwest, where the couple lived at the
time he was elected President, the village is a hub of Kennedy lore.

A new and intriguing glimpse of the Kennedys in Georgetown emerged over the weekend.
It’s a nine-minute black-and-white video clip of Jackie Kennedy doing an interview
on the
Home show hosted by
Arlene Francis, recorded in 1957. It includes footage of Jackie and her dog charmingly making the
rounds of the neighborhood—to the dry cleaner, the grocery store, and Rose Park.

There’s also a compelling moment with JFK himself, talking politics in an almost timeless
patois. For context, it’s the moment in the future President’s ascent after being
nominated for Vice President at the 1956 Democratic National Convention and actually
announcing his candidacy for the presidency, the race he won in 1960. By then he and
Jackie had moved to the N Street house.

The home in the clip is at 2808 P Street, Northwest, in a section of Georgetown known
as the East Village. It is one of more than a half dozen homes where either Jack or
Jackie lived in Georgetown between 1949 and 1964.

Carol Ross Joynt