He Played Kennedy. Then He Became Himself.

He Played Kennedy. Then He Became Himself.
The cabby said, ‘Did you hear about Kennedy in Dallas?’ I said to him, ‘No, how does it go?’ I thought he was telling me a joke.”
Lenny Bruce opened his first post-assassination performance with the line, “Boy, is Vaughn Meader screwed.” (Actually, he used a different adjective.)
James Hagerty, who had been President Dwight Eisenhower’s press secretary, said
that it demeaned the presidency and that “every Communist country in the world would love this record.” But Kennedy himself seemed to enjoy it — and even gave copies of the record as Christmas presents.
When people write about Vaughn Meader — and each anniversary of the assassination, for a long
time, inspired journalists to do just that — they often describe his life as tragic.
“The First Family” sold more than a million copies in its first two weeks, pushing the debut album of Peter, Paul & Mary out of the No.
Meader, who died in 2004, wasn’t dear to people in Hallowell
because he’d once done an impression of someone else; he was loved for who he was — a battered, imperfect soul, still in the throes of becoming himself
His comedy record, “The First Family,” was a lighthearted look at the Kennedys, with his pitch-perfect imitation of John F. Kennedy at its core.
By the time I met him in the late 1990s, he’d become — well, the phrase “town drunk” sounds unduly harsh,
and it also fails to capture how deeply beloved he was by many in Hallowell, Me.