Bobby

Tuesday, June 4, 1968: the California presidential primary. As day breaks 'Robert F. Kennedy' (qv) arrives at the Ambassador Hotel; he'll campaign, then speak to supporters at midnight. To capture the texture of the late 1960s, we see vignettes at the hotel: a couple marries so he can avoid Vietnam, kitchen staff discuss race and baseball, a man cheats on his wife, another is fired for racism, a retired hotel doorman plays chess in the lobby with an old friend, a campaign strategist's wife needs a pair of black shoes, two campaign staff trip on LSD, a lounge singer is on the downhill slide. Through it all, we see and hear RFK calling for a better society and a better nation. It's June 4, 1968, the day of the California Democratic presidential primary. At the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, the campaign headquarters of New York Senator 'Robert F. Kennedy' (qv)'s presidential bid, there is optimism as he is seen by many as the savior to get the United States out of its current troubled times, especially in dealing with a war the public doesn't want and thinks it can't win. In addition to the those working on the campaign, others at the hotel are dealing with their daily lives which reflect both the troubled times and the hope and optimism of the campaign: a young couple about to get married as part of the anti-war effort; hotel staff dealing with race relations among their own, specifically between whites, blacks, and Mexicans; hotel staff dealing with marital relations among their own; senior hotel staff chatting about the twilight of their lives over games of chess; those looking forward to what they see as 'Don Drysdale' (qv)'s inevitable record-breaking sixth consecutive shut-out at that evening's Dodgers' game; a couple of campaign volunteers feeling guilty about getting high versus doing their volunteer job for the day of convincing a couple of hundred people to vote for the Senator; a Czech reporter wanting five minutes with the Senator for a good news story for her Socialist newspaper; the hotel's diva-ish and alcoholic entertainer and her husband contemplating her professional future; and an upper middle class New York couple more concerned about public perception than the realities of their marriage. But all hope for a bright American future comes to a halt at 12:06am on June 5, 1968...