Comcast, library offering digital glimpse of JFK
In the four-minute video, John F. Kennedy jabs the air with his finger and pounds the podium with his fist as he talks tough about communism to an enthusiastic Boston Garden crowd. It was his last speech as a presidential candidate.
The black-and-white clip, recorded on the night before the 1960 presidential election, is one of 50 video segments that will be available for free to 20 million Comcast customers nationwide, beginning tomorrow. In partnership with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Comcast is hosting the collection of Kennedy videos for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy presidency.
The video collection, one of the largest public offerings of Kennedy content outside of the JFK Library, was assembled from the library’s digital archive. It includes speeches, presidential debates, newsreels, campaign commercials, and documentary films.
“We’re always looking for new ways to provide access to the treasures at the library,’’ said library director Tom Putnam, “so the Comcast video-on-demand offering is a wonderful venue for us.’’
The Comcast collection of videos is part of a much larger trove of John F. Kennedy digital material that will be made available this week in connection with the 50th anniversary celebration. Today in Washington, D.C., Caroline Kennedy, Kennedy’s daughter and the president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and David S. Ferriero, archivist of the United States, will unveil the nation’s largest online presidential archive. The digital collection will include papers, photographs, and recordings from Kennedy’s presidency.
Putnam said the emphasis of the library’s online archive will be raw footage and primary documents, more suitable for students and scholars.
The footage on Comcast, by contrast, will be oriented toward produced pieces, including 12 documentaries and films and 10 presidential campaign commercials.
The Comcast collection also will include 14 of Kennedy’s most famous speeches and all four 1960 presidential debates between Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.
“It’s a huge collection of content that previously was only available at the library,’’ said Diana Kerekes, vice president of entertainment services at Comcast.
The Kennedy videos will be available on Comcast from Jan. 14 through Feb. 25. To access the videos, Comcast customers need to go to “On Demand,’’ then to “Top Picks,’’ then to “JFK 50 Years.’’ The online digital archive can be accessed via the Kennedy Presidential Library website at www.JFKLibrary.org.
D.C. Denison can be reached at denison@globe.com. 
