Recording ‘59 JFK speech to be played in Illinois theater

DEKALB, Ill. (AP) - The soon-to-be-candidate for U.S. president says in a speech that Americans are taking their liberty for granted and going soft.

No, it wasn’t any of those vying to win the upcoming Nov. 8 election. It was John F. Kennedy in a speech at a northern Illinois theater on Oct. 25, 1959, shortly before he declared he was running for president.

The (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle reports (https://bit.ly/2f1PZDm) that a rare recording of the speech has been donated to the theater, the Egyptian Theatre in the DeKalb. And it’ll be played there Tuesday night. It’ll be heard in a public forum for the first time since then-Sen. Kennedy delivered the 18-minute speech.

The Democrat spoke about the Cold War and contended that Americans had “gone physically, mentally, morally and spiritually soft.”