Ich Bin Ein Pop Star

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, circa 1961. Photo Library Of Congress/Getty Images.

Washington may have been the first. Lincoln emancipated the slaves. FDR had the New Deal. But John F. Kennedy, with his youth, telegenic looks, soignée, trendsetting wife and Rat Pack connections, was America’s first pop president. From his triumphant televised debate with a pale, shifty-eyed Richard Nixon to his shocking assassination, no president has captivated the imagination of the entertainment industry quite like JFK. In honour of the 42nd anniversary of his death, here’s a few of our favourite Kennedy-related pop culture artifacts.

From the 1967 film Camelot. Photo Warner Bros/Getty Images.

Camelot
Loosely based on the legend of King Arthur, Lerner and Loewe’s musical Camelot premiered on Broadway in December 1960. After its sluggish start, the show became an overnight hit after it was revealed that the original cast album was a favourite of John and Jackie Kennedy. Feeding the myth of the fairy-tale Kennedy administration, the musical’s eponymous hit song became the unofficial theme of the White House. JFK’s favourite lyrics were: “Don’t let it be forgot / That once there was a spot / For one brief, shining moment that / was known as Camelot.” The musical was turned into a feature film in 1967.

“Happy Birthday, Mr. President”
In a dress so tight, she had to forego her bra and panties, Marilyn Monroe cooed birthday greetings to her lover, JFK, on May 19, 1962 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, surprising him afterwards with the gift of an engraved gold Rolex. A few months later, Monroe was found dead of a drug overdose. Rumours persist that the doomed actress was killed because of her relationship with Kennedy and fears of high-ranking officials that a scandal could topple the presidency.

The Manchurian Candidate
John Frankenheimer’s 1962 thriller about a former Korean War POW turned political assassin due to Communist brainwashing is inextricably linked to Kennedy’s assassination. Not only did it touch on contemporary issues like Cold War paranoia, but Kennedy himself, a friend of star Frank Sinatra, championed the film when United Artists aired concerns that it was too controversial to release. It was long — and falsely — rumoured that the film was pulled from circulation following JFK’s death. It’s even been conjectured the film was one of the triggers that led Lee Harvey Oswald to kill the president.

First Family, featuring Vaughn Meader. Courtesy Cadence Records.

Vaughn Meader
For one year, comedian Vaughn Meader was the biggest name in entertainment. Capable of an uncanny JFK impression, Meader’s debut comedy album, 1962’s The First Family — a gentle send-up of the popular Kennedys — was a hit, selling seven and a half million copies within a few months of its release. Overnight, Meader became a star, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and selling out clubs in Las Vegas. And then, well… just a year after The First Family came out, Kennedy was assassinated. Within a week of his death, all copies of the album were pulled from stores and Meader’s upcoming performances were cancelled. Kennedy’s death all but destroyed the comedian’s career. Meader’s spirit lives on in Showbiz, a new novel by Toronto writer (and Arts Online contributor) Jason Anderson.

Andy Warhol’s Jackie series
Pop artist Andy Warhol, best-known for his immortalization of the Campbell’s Tomato Soup can and prediction that “in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,” was inspired to create a series of works about the First Lady after seeing news photos of her following the assassination. From 1963 to 1968, he captured Jackie Kennedy in a series of affecting paintings and screen prints that follow her from glamorous socialite to grieving widow. Warhol, of course, was also famous for his rendition of another of Kennedy’s women: Marilyn Monroe.

Abraham, Martin and John
Bronx-born Dion DiMucci had several hits in the 1950s and 1960s as a solo singer and with the doo-wop group the Belmonts, including A Teenager in Love. But a heroin addiction stalled his career for several years. By 1968, he kicked the habit and found God, returning with the mild folkie hymn Abraham, Martin and John, a civil-rights era tribute to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy: “Didn't you love the things that they stood for? / Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?”

Dead Kennedys
The San Francisco hardcore band may have tastelessly named itself after the fatally cursed political family, but tastelessness was the whole point. Formed in 1978 by lead vocalist Jello Biafra, the Dead Kennedys combined punk music with radical politics to become one of the most notorious US bands of the 1980s. California Über Alles, a scathing criticism of then-governor Jerry Brown, was the band’s first single. In 1985, the band was charged under California’s obscenity laws for a sexually explicit poster included with its Frankenchrist album. The lengthy ensuing court case contributed to the band’s eventual demise.

Oliver Stone’s JFK
Stone’s conspiracy-theory magnum opus stars Kevin Costner as a New Orleans district attorney who believes the Warren Commission’s account of Kennedy’s assassination is a lie. Bloated, paranoid but somehow compulsively watchable, the three-hour, $40-million JFK is the best-known piece of film about Kennedy’s death since the Zapruder footage.

Mayor Joseph Fitzpatrick Fitzgerald Fitzhenry Quimby
With his Boston accent and Irish Catholic name, the mayor of The Simpsons’ fictional Springfield could be a long-lost Kennedy cousin. A notorious womanizer, embezzler and self-aggrandizer, the mayor is the cartoon series’ straw-man politician. Quimby is committed to the high-tech industry (investing $100 billion to build a satellite-based defence system that can also descramble porn) and favours increased immigration from Russia, the Philippines and all other major stripper-producing nations. In a health-care stump speech, he promised that "with enough will, we can end crabs in our lifetime."

George Magazine

Page turner: A New York University student looks at the September 1999 issue of George magazine, the last one edited by founder John F. Kennedy, Jr. Photo Henny Ray Abrams/AFP/Getty Images.

Founded in 1995, George was the brainchild of JFK’s son, John F. Kennedy Jr. Melding politics and celebrity — the first cover featured Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington — the magazine never managed to capture enough of a readership to stay afloat; it didn’t survive Kennedy’s premature death. The magazine may have just been ahead of its time. TV shows like The West Wing, Commander-In-Chief and The Daily Show, as well as hipster Beltway blogger Wonkette, all owe a debt to George’s popularization of Washington politics.

Rachel Giese writes about the arts for CBC.ca.

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