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Woman Who Put JFK Outdoors Sees History Repeat
Wyman Will Watch Obama At Invesco Field 48 Years After Arranging Kennedy's Acceptance At Los Angeles Coliseum
by Brian Friel
Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008
On Thursday night, California superdelegate Rosalind Wyman, 78, will be at Invesco Field to see another Democratic senator accept her party's presidential nomination in a big outdoor stadium.
Forty-eight years ago, Wyman watched Sen. John F. Kennedy, D-Mass., deliver his acceptance speech at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. In fact, it was her idea.Back in 1960, Wyman was a Los Angeles council member who represented the city in convention planning. (Three years earlier, incidentally, she had played a key role in getting the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to L.A.) She vividly remembers debating with Robert Kennedy and adviser Larry O'Brien about holding JFK's acceptance speech in the 110,000-seat coliseum, rather than at the cramped sports arena that served as the convention hall.
"I can see Bobby to this day, sitting in the room with his feet up, going back and forth," Wyman said. "They were very concerned because nobody had ever done anything like this." It was already Monday when they kicked around the idea, and Robert Kennedy worried about generating a large crowd in time for the Friday speech -- or risk having his brother talk to empty seats.
"Once we made a decision," Wyman recalled, "Bobby said, 'Wyman, you're young. This may be the end of your political career if you're wrong.' I was petrified. I don't think I slept from then on."
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http://www.nationaljournal.com/conventions/co_20080824_1061.php