Like these men in Hyannis Port (above), most Americans watched the progress of Kennedy's dramatic march to victory on television. They saw a vote race as close an any in modern times, a recognition of defeat without concession, and a couple of memorable individual performances.

Nixon went out ahead in total popular vote at the very start of the evening, but Kennedy soon took the lead and held to it. His margin grew rapidly, until his plurality reached something between 1.8 million and more than 2 million, depending on which channel you were tuned to.

Then, around 1 a.m., Nixon votes began to pour in. Although this influx was felt more in raw popular vote than in the electoral college, it nonetheless made things too close for Kennedy to claim a victory. By one count, Kennedy hovered a delicious one electoral vote away from victory for something like two hours. NBC gave California and the decision to Kennedy at 7:19 a.m., but Nixon continued to cut into Kennedy's popular-vote edge. Figures late Wednesday night showed that Kennedy's lead had dropped to approximately 320,000 out of more than 65 million votes cast.

Vice-President Nixon's appearance at 3:15 a.m. was turbulent with conflicting emotions. Nixon himself was more or less conceding, but he could not bring himself to say the words of surrender. His wife, Pat, fought to control her tears. And Nixon, trying to convey his honest feelings, was continually frustrated by an animalistic crowd almost made a farce out of his

Television cameras focused Lyndon Johnson when he arose Wednesday. Perhaps the most breezily of all the higher-ups, he protect interest only in scrambled eggs spent most of his time leering at pretty Nancy Hanschmann.

But Henry Cabot Lodge was the of the show in his early-morning performance. Looking dazed and the worse for wear, he told report "I'm just Citizen Lodge now. Just Citizen Lodge." Summing up his career amused. "I've served 17 years in election office. and four. . . five. . . ah. . . is pointed office." When one of the asked him. "Do you plan to a book?" Lodge replied, "What is mean, a book?"