JFK's Last Night Alive Caught on Tape

Footage of President John F. Kennedy's last night has been released.

ByABC News
February 22, 2011, 11:44 AM

Feb. 22, 2011— -- Original footage from President John F. Kennedy's last night alive has been donated to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas after being transferred from film to video.

The home movie was donated after sitting in a chest of drawers in Roy Botello's living room.

Watch 'World News With Diane Sawyer' for more on this story tonight on ABC

Kennedy and the first lady made an impromptu stop at the Rice Hotel in Houston Nov. 21, 1963, as part of a planned five-city visit to Texas that would have ended at a dinner in Austin.

The Houston stop was to attend an event for the League of the United Latin American Citizens, replete with a crowd of photographers and a mariachi band.

Kennedy was assassinated the following day in Dallas.

Bottello, now 88, was the Scholarship Corporation Chairman of the league in San Antonio at the time. He shot the silent color home movie on an 8mm camera from his seat in the front row. He not only captured Kennedy's and the first lady's speeches but also the arrival and welcoming of other dignitaries in extremely clear close-up shots.

The footgage also shows the president -- all smiles -- leaving the dinner with a slew of photographers in his wake.

Botello recalled how "everyone went nuts."

The president spoke shortly before 9 p.m. in the hotel's grand ballroom.

He then introduced the first lady who, without notes, addressed the crowd in Spanish.

"I'm glad to be here today," the president said in the original footage. "In order for my words to be even clearer, I'm going to ask my wife to say a few words to you also."

The crowd cheered "ole" as Jacqueline Kennedy finished speaking. Vice President Lyndon Johnson also attended the event.

"I know that anything I say now would be anticlimactic in light of what this lovely, gracious lady has said," Johnson is heard saying on the tape. "But I know I speak for all of you when I say that we are very proud and very happy that we have our beloved president and our lovely first lady here with us tonight."

The museum which chronicles the assassination and legacy of President Kennedy.