Speaker 1: I think we have time for one final question. In
Speaker 1: the late fall of nine two, one of President John F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy's closest advisers, Arthur Schlessinger, Jr. Was driving in his
Speaker 1: car when all of a sudden, he heard the following
Speaker 1: question come over the airwaves, pity President. A familiar voice answered, well,
Speaker 1: I think they're pretty good. Now, let me say, I
Speaker 1: don't see why a person of the Jewish faith God
Speaker 1: be President of the United States. I know it's a Catholic.
Speaker 1: I could have a vote fire. But his confusion was
Speaker 1: cleared up when he learned the voice belonged to kennedy
Speaker 1: impersonator Van Meter. But Schlessinger was concerned enough that when
Speaker 1: he returned to the White House, he drafted a memorandum
Speaker 1: to the President. He wrote the following, This raises the
Speaker 1: question of what in hell a president of the United
Speaker 1: States ought to do about Mimickry. I'm guessing many of
Speaker 1: you have never heard of Von Meter, but for one
Speaker 1: brief shining moment. Okay, a twelve month period between late
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two in late nineteen sixty three, he was
Speaker 1: a really big deal. He had this parody album called
Speaker 1: The First Family, a spoof of the Kennedy's in old
Speaker 1: video clips. He looks like a distant Kennedy cousin, Young,
Speaker 1: clean cut with a thick head of hair and his
Speaker 1: jfk impression. He's uncanny. Just listen today will be in
Speaker 1: Nuclear de Ghamman, followed by the U N Bond issue.
Speaker 1: In a matter of the trade, agreemwach Now, first there
Speaker 1: is a most important matter to settle, Mr de gall
Speaker 1: yours was the chicken, Salad and coffee. That's a dollar
Speaker 1: forty first Families Well, in five weeks this album has
Speaker 1: broken all records in the history of the recording business.
Speaker 1: Its soul will get this three and a quarter million
Speaker 1: copies in five weeks. It took My Family album five
Speaker 1: years to sell that many copies. Had That was Late
Speaker 1: Night King of his day, Jack Parr marveling at the
Speaker 1: popularity of this one album and the star of the album,
Speaker 1: Von Meter was just about everywhere until all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he wasn't from Dallas, Texas. The flash apparently official
Speaker 1: President Kennedy died at one pm Central Standard Time. I'm
Speaker 1: mo Rocca and this is mobituaries this moment. Jfk impersonator
Speaker 1: Vaughan meter November death of a career. Are we recording
Speaker 1: me out? Okay? I've worked across the street from this building.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I thought it was maybe some
Speaker 1: an s a storage, you know that. I don't know
Speaker 1: people's finals. Okay. The CBS News Archives, Hey, it's Joe.
Speaker 1: That's Joe A. Lessie. He's managed the CBS archives for
Speaker 1: twenty two years now. He's the go to guy if
Speaker 1: you need anything that was shot by CBS News during
Speaker 1: the century. Even the first thing we have is from
Speaker 1: and that's William McKinley's inauguration. You're kidding. Let's go to
Speaker 1: the back. And then when I say to the back,
Speaker 1: we're going to the vault. Are the vault? It sounds
Speaker 1: it sounds very mysterious. It smells like fistromy or something. Well,
Speaker 1: that's going to lunch. That's so you're correct on that
Speaker 1: know what that is? That's film? Sometimes? All right, let's
Speaker 1: go this way. What are CBS is sort of greatest hits? Well,
Speaker 1: the thing that people ask for most is the assassination
Speaker 1: of President Kennedy. That seems to be a story that
Speaker 1: fascinates people from the beginning right up until today. People
Speaker 1: asked her at least once a week, and for good reason.
Speaker 1: That horrible day in November ended the president's life and
Speaker 1: changed the life of the nation. That's what Mr Oaks
Speaker 1: taught us in high school. There was America before the
Speaker 1: assassination and America after and before comedian Vaughan Meter was
Speaker 1: a household name, So surely the CBS archives would have
Speaker 1: something on the man. My friend Joe did not disappoint.
Speaker 1: Three tapes of a von Meter interview sounds promising, because
Speaker 1: that's unless as tapes are super short. That's a significant interview.
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's a good find, and so
Speaker 1: I took a look. But what I saw and heard
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly funny. So it looked like, you know, I
Speaker 1: could do this forever. There was no end of the
Speaker 1: pot of gold, but there was no rainbow either. It
Speaker 1: was no idea it was going to be that month.
Speaker 1: This is Vaughan Meter in on these tapes. He looks
Speaker 1: haggard and shake him sixty two years old, but a
Speaker 1: rough sixty two. This was all recorded for a short
Speaker 1: lived CBS cable network called Ion People. Meter was being
Speaker 1: profiled as part of a where Are They Now? Type series?
Speaker 1: Little of this footage made it to air Well. I
Speaker 1: was born in Waterville, A night of the flood. Abbott
Speaker 1: Vaughan Meter was born in nineteen thirty six in Waterville, Maine,
Speaker 1: and by all accounts, had a harrowing childhood. His father
Speaker 1: drowned when he was one, and his young mother moved
Speaker 1: from Maine to Boston to work as a cocktail waitress.
Speaker 1: Meter had to shuttle between Maine and Massachusetts for much
Speaker 1: of his youth, spending some of that time in children's homes.
Speaker 1: He says he started entertaining people to avoid punishment. When
Speaker 1: he got into trouble near the end of high school,
Speaker 1: his mother was institutionalized and Meter ran away to the army.
Speaker 1: He ultimately was stationed in Germany, where he met the
Speaker 1: first of his four wives and played in a band.
Speaker 1: After his time in the service, he did a risque
Speaker 1: piano act around the New York City area and then
Speaker 1: moved on to Greenwich Village, where he owned a politically
Speaker 1: themed comedy routine. It was at this point that he
Speaker 1: dropped his first name, Abbot. He became Vaughan Meter, and
Speaker 1: then one fateful night a voice came out of Meter.
Speaker 1: It was the President of the United states John F. Kennedy. Yes,
Speaker 1: the gentlemen over there, sir. When when are we going
Speaker 1: to sandomd to the mode whenever Mr Goldwater wants to go.
Speaker 1: Meter started to reserve the last ten minutes of his
Speaker 1: routine for an impression of Kennedy's live television press conferences.
Speaker 1: My name is Bob Booker. I've just been in the
Speaker 1: entertainment business all my life, and I've been very lucky.
Speaker 1: And I also forgot to turn off my phone. No,
Speaker 1: that's fine. If it's if it's a gig, pick it up.
Speaker 1: I don't even Back in the nineteen sixties, Bob Booker
Speaker 1: was a disc jockey who, along with his partner Earl Doud,
Speaker 1: wanted to capitalize on the fascination with the new president
Speaker 1: as well as the popularity of comedy albums. These were
Speaker 1: the days of Stan Freeberg, Shelley Berman, Nicholson May, and
Speaker 1: the great Bob Newhart, who had just one Album of
Speaker 1: the Year at the Grammys, a first for a comedy album.
Speaker 1: That classic bit with new Heart as President Lincoln's press
Speaker 1: agent still holds up. I actually heart hard. I'll get it.
Speaker 1: Burt sort of a drag. So we were looking for
Speaker 1: the next thing to do, like, you know, so we
Speaker 1: could have a meal. The next day. We said, you know,
Speaker 1: Kennedy make a great album. So what was your concept
Speaker 1: for this album. You've got this giant star. He's a
Speaker 1: movie star, he's a political star, he's he's a world star.
Speaker 1: I got in such a good looking man with this
Speaker 1: beautiful wife. Right. We said, if you take this character
Speaker 1: and the family and put them in everyday situations, that's funny.
Speaker 1: This was the beginning of what would become the First
Speaker 1: Family album. The only problem was they had no idea
Speaker 1: who could play the head of this First Family, that
Speaker 1: is until they turned on the TV the evening of
Speaker 1: July three. But he's from the New School and has
Speaker 1: served his apprenticeship in the little clubs that feature you know,
Speaker 1: the topic of comedians, the kids with the rye offbeat
Speaker 1: comments on life today. Does that voice sound familiar? It's
Speaker 1: Jim Backus a k A. Mr Magoo a k A.
Speaker 1: Thurston Hall of the Third from Gilligan's Island. He was
Speaker 1: hosting a summer replacement show called Talent Scouts on CBS
Speaker 1: and I know, I know you're going to be delighted
Speaker 1: with the TV debut of Mr. Vaughan Meter. Meeter started
Speaker 1: off with his take on the news headlines of the day.
Speaker 1: There's there's one there might be a little more familiar
Speaker 1: to you. Congressman read Write of Alabama was quoted as saying,
Speaker 1: literacy test ain't proven nothing. Listen. I have no idea
Speaker 1: how funny or fresh his topical stuff actually was. There's
Speaker 1: that old quote from playwright George S. Kaufman, satire is
Speaker 1: what closes on Saturday Night. But his impression of Kennedy
Speaker 1: was and is nothing short of sensational. He's doing my action,
Speaker 1: he's doing my gestures, and he's using my lines. Do
Speaker 1: not ask what this country can do for you. That's
Speaker 1: one of my original lines. When he did Kennedy, it
Speaker 1: was perfect, absolutely perfect. Bob Booker and Earl Zoud had
Speaker 1: found their man. But there was something else striking about
Speaker 1: that performance, a kind of disclaimer he made at the
Speaker 1: end of his starmaking routine, something I can't imagine any
Speaker 1: comic doing today. Yes, I'd like to make one final
Speaker 1: statement at this time, and I would like to make
Speaker 1: that final statement as myself, Von Meter And that is
Speaker 1: the thing. Thank you for the United States, a country
Speaker 1: where it is possible for a young comedian like myself
Speaker 1: to come out on television before millions of people and
Speaker 1: kid it's leading citizen. Thank you nice. It's very interesting
Speaker 1: to me because he was to me non controversial. I
Speaker 1: wanted to get the respective of a modern day presidential impersonator.
Speaker 1: I decide how big my failures are, and they're the
Speaker 1: biggest play Meet Anthony at Tamanick. He impersonates President Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: most recently on Comedy Central's The President Show. I wonder
Speaker 1: if that caution was sort of to say, listen, I'm
Speaker 1: making fun with him, not of him. This is a
Speaker 1: telegram that right after von Meter made his television debut,
Speaker 1: he wrote a telegram of the White House. He wrote
Speaker 1: this to the President. Dear Mr President, I respectfully call
Speaker 1: your attention to the Talent Scouts Show, which we taped
Speaker 1: last night for viewing on CBS Television Tuesday night, July
Speaker 1: three at ten pm. I impersonated you, but I did
Speaker 1: it with great affection and respect. Hope it meets with
Speaker 1: your approval, respectfully, von Meter. Wow, that is wild. We
Speaker 1: actually went through eleven. I think uh turned down. Booker
Speaker 1: and Dowd had their concept there, Kennedy and a demo
Speaker 1: of the album No One was Biting, though. Booker remembers
Speaker 1: one meeting at ABC. In the room that day was
Speaker 1: Jim Haggarty, who was the vice president of News and
Speaker 1: a former White House Press secretary under Eisenhower, Kennedy's predecessor.
Speaker 1: He said, I think the Communists will love it. I
Speaker 1: think Russia will love it, and every communist country in
Speaker 1: the world will love it. And he slammed the door
Speaker 1: behind him going up. He was outraged. So we were
Speaker 1: just insulting the president and his family. It was not
Speaker 1: a man, but a great sense of humor. Mr. It
Speaker 1: doesn't sound like it. But didn't give you any doubt,
Speaker 1: did you for a moment, go boy, maybe this is disrespectful.
Speaker 1: Maybe we shouldn't do it. This was placed number twelve
Speaker 1: that we had been thrown into the street. Okay, I
Speaker 1: didn't discourage us at all. We knew we had a record.
Speaker 1: I would have bet anything on it. We did bet
Speaker 1: everything on it. While ABC passed, the president of the
Speaker 1: network suggested they try a smaller label called Cadence, run
Speaker 1: by Archie. Blier picked up the phone, called him set
Speaker 1: the meeting. The next morning. We went over and they
Speaker 1: bought it. In they'd overcome one hurdle getting a record deal,
Speaker 1: but as it turned out, recording the album before a
Speaker 1: live audience came with its own set of challenges. This
Speaker 1: is a special report from CBS News the Cuban crisis.
Speaker 1: Talk about an evening. Oh what an evening. That's the
Speaker 1: night of President Kennedy's big speech about the Cuban crisis.
Speaker 1: And we had the TV sets in the back room
Speaker 1: and we watched the speech where everybody believed they are
Speaker 1: coined to war. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has
Speaker 1: established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites
Speaker 1: is now in preparation on that imprisoned. So the show starts,
Speaker 1: the audience has no idea that President Kennedy is on
Speaker 1: TV addressing the nation about this really terrible crisis. Yes
Speaker 1: it was, and how does the show go? Perfect? And
Speaker 1: I did have a fear that the cast had heard
Speaker 1: this speech also, so we did. We did a quick
Speaker 1: little speech right before Hey, it's showtime, We're going out
Speaker 1: there and kill Okay, and everybody did. It didn't affect anybody.
Speaker 1: After making it through that crisis within a crisis, Bob
Speaker 1: Booker handed off the album to a DJ friend at
Speaker 1: w i n S Radio in New York and he
Speaker 1: was going on the air in ten minutes and I said,
Speaker 1: look what I've got and he looked at it and
Speaker 1: he played one cut and he said, Jesus Bob, that's asational.
Speaker 1: He went on the air for three hours. He played
Speaker 1: the album continuously, No More Family for a while. Now,
Speaker 1: I promise you now turn off the light. Good Night, Jackie,
Speaker 1: good night, jack Night, Bobby night ethel Every light in
Speaker 1: the place lit up. I mean it was crazy. The
Speaker 1: phone calls from the other stations were coming in, television
Speaker 1: bookings for all in three hours, Broken Wide Open, One Jock,
Speaker 1: the first Family album took off like a rocket, and
Speaker 1: Von Meter was in for the ride of his life.
Speaker 1: Van Meter was playing a gig in Detroit and didn't
Speaker 1: know what hit him. I couldn't believe it's like it.
Speaker 1: Back to New York and I walked down the street
Speaker 1: and heard my voice being broadcast and they just couldn't
Speaker 1: keep up with it. I mean, it was on fire.
Speaker 1: Can you give me a sense of what that felt like?
Speaker 1: What did you think? No this, no way, no insanity.
Speaker 1: Everyone wanted Van Meter to appear on their show, including
Speaker 1: beloved singer Andy Williams, who was hosting a popular new
Speaker 1: variety series on NBC. Welcome to our show. Thank you
Speaker 1: very much, Andy. It's a pleasure to be here. You know.
Speaker 1: I've been looking forward all the week to h working
Speaker 1: with Vaughan because I wanted to sit right next to
Speaker 1: the guy who was sold well. He's had the most
Speaker 1: successful album in the history of the record is the
Speaker 1: First Family album. Okay, there's a good reason the First
Speaker 1: Family was the best selling album of its time. It's
Speaker 1: a total blast. It's not really a satire. It's parody
Speaker 1: the kind of fun zany takeoff that I used to
Speaker 1: love reading in Mad Magazine when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: like when they turned chips into chimps, or the Godfather
Speaker 1: into the odd Father. That kind of a thing. It's
Speaker 1: not really meant to make you think. It's meant to
Speaker 1: make you laugh. Okay, so some references may not play
Speaker 1: for today's audiences. Have you drive a hide bug like Monopoly?
Speaker 1: With Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirkson. I'll show you
Speaker 1: a boardwalk and park place, but a surprising amount of
Speaker 1: it really holds up. You'd like to ask the following
Speaker 1: question Speak English, Jackie, Sure? The Jackie sounds more like
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe, which probably didn't make the first lady very happy.
Speaker 1: But come on, to be fair, who didn't think the
Speaker 1: real Jackie sounded a little like Maryland during that famous
Speaker 1: TV tour of the White House. Yes, this room is
Speaker 1: everything in it really is from the time of President Monroe.
Speaker 1: Of course, the album does its own take on that
Speaker 1: tour and left at the day Medicine Peanot Room. While
Speaker 1: most of the jokes are pretty gentle, there are a
Speaker 1: few digs, as the Richard Nixon dumb waiter. One of
Speaker 1: the biggest laughs comes here when the President divvyes up
Speaker 1: Caroline and John John's bath tool, nine of the pet Boat,
Speaker 1: two of the Yogi Bearra beach balls, the ball of
Speaker 1: Hilly Putty belonged to Caroline, nine of the pet Boat,
Speaker 1: one of the Yogi bear A beach balls, and the
Speaker 1: two Howdy Duty plastic bouncing clowns. Baby John. The rubbishwan
Speaker 1: is mine. I'm imagining people everywhere, like at home, around
Speaker 1: the water cooler, at work, repeating that rubber swan line,
Speaker 1: and apparently they did. I thought it was pretty funny.
Speaker 1: Anthony and Tamanek, who impersonates President Trump knows the album well,
Speaker 1: his grandfather played it for him when he was growing up.
Speaker 1: But I also wanted his take on how Meter looked
Speaker 1: as Kennedy. Is it a good impression? Yeah, it is
Speaker 1: a good impression. It's a good impression because the good
Speaker 1: impression doesn't require any makeup or a kuchma. The idea
Speaker 1: should be that the presence of the person is what
Speaker 1: you feel like. There's a will that presents Kennedy in
Speaker 1: that moment. There is not, and I say this with
Speaker 1: a great pride, there is not one ugly joke in
Speaker 1: the entire thing. There's not even a really nasty political
Speaker 1: joke anywhere in the album. Yes, it's all very safe
Speaker 1: from today's vantage point. Turns out, and this was a
Speaker 1: surprise to me. The producers in cast were pushing the
Speaker 1: limits of comedy. I had the first I must level
Speaker 1: with you, I had some misgivings about this idea for
Speaker 1: reasons of my own. That's Late Night host Jack Parr
Speaker 1: again he was Johnny Carson before Johnny Carson issuing a
Speaker 1: disclaimer before inviting von Meter on stage. Part then goes
Speaker 1: on to quote feigned anthropologist Margaret Mead, She too had
Speaker 1: weighed in on the First Family album, because well why not,
Speaker 1: She told Life magazine, quote, this making fun of people
Speaker 1: in authority is very healthy. It is the difference between
Speaker 1: democracy and tyranny. End quote. The album continued selling like crazy.
Speaker 1: What was the White House thinking? Remember presidential advisor Arthur Schlessinger,
Speaker 1: who was so concerned about that voice on the radio
Speaker 1: that he wrote a memo about the dangers of impersonating
Speaker 1: the president. He wrote, the radio listener twirls his dial,
Speaker 1: comes in in the middle of things, and rarely listens
Speaker 1: with full attention. Anyway, Chlessenger concluded on an ominous note,
Speaker 1: remember orson Welles and the Martian invasion. Again, this comedy
Speaker 1: seems completely benign today. The boy it raised an alarm
Speaker 1: in the president's inner circle. Well, it got dangerous because
Speaker 1: the people around Kennedy, around any president, are so protective.
Speaker 1: The minute they heard someone doing Kennedy on the air
Speaker 1: so accurately, because Vaughn was really good with it, they
Speaker 1: went screaming. They even went to the FCC to try
Speaker 1: and stop the album. Clearly, and thankfully, those attempts weren't successful.
Speaker 1: But I was fascinated to learn that Schlessinger took the
Speaker 1: time to go back to the days of FDR to
Speaker 1: seek out some kind of precedent with regard to presidential impersonations.
Speaker 1: It turns out Franklin Roosevelt's press secretary, Stephen Early, had
Speaker 1: directly asked media outlets not to give airtime to Roosevelt impersonators.
Speaker 1: It's been a long time since the President and his
Speaker 1: family have been subjected to such a heavy barrage of
Speaker 1: cheasing and fun poking and satire. And they've been books
Speaker 1: on backstairs at the White House, and cartoon books with
Speaker 1: clever sayings, and uh photo albums with balloons, and the
Speaker 1: and the rest, and now a smash hit for record.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us whether you read and listen to
Speaker 1: these things and whether they produce annoyment or enjoyment. Annoyment
Speaker 1: now they do. Yes, I have read them and listened
Speaker 1: to them. Actually I listened to Mr Meted record, but
Speaker 1: I thought it sounded more like Teddy than it did me.
Speaker 1: But that's not von Meter, as JFK. That is the
Speaker 1: actual President of the United States talking about von Meter
Speaker 1: in one of his life press conferences. According to many accounts,
Speaker 1: the President did enjoy the album and even gave out
Speaker 1: copies for Christmas. Do you know why he loved it?
Speaker 1: Made a human being out of him, took him down
Speaker 1: off the pedestal. He was one of us. He just
Speaker 1: looked a lot better than all of us. Von Meter
Speaker 1: went on to win a Grammy for Best Comedy Performance
Speaker 1: and the First Family one Album of the Year. The
Speaker 1: First Family beat out the likes of Tony Bennett and
Speaker 1: Ray Charles. Von Meter was living the dream, right. It
Speaker 1: just took over. The voice you're hearing now is the
Speaker 1: older Meter from that interview that I got from the archives.
Speaker 1: You know, I go on Sullivan. I'd asked him if
Speaker 1: I could play a thing I song. I wanted it,
Speaker 1: to desperately play some music, saying some songs. No no chance,
Speaker 1: no chance, no chance. So I just sell in line,
Speaker 1: you know, and and did it. And I had to
Speaker 1: get sued to do a volume too, because I didn't
Speaker 1: want to do a volume too. They sued me for
Speaker 1: a million dollars. In early nineteen sixty three, while Meter
Speaker 1: was on a concert tour the album, Bob Booker and
Speaker 1: Earl Dowd began developing fresh material for a second volume
Speaker 1: of the First Family album, at which time Vaughan said
Speaker 1: I don't want to do Kennedy anymore. You heard that right, Meter,
Speaker 1: who almost overnight went from barely scraping buying clubs just
Speaker 1: storing in the country's most popular album, was sick of
Speaker 1: the Kennedy act. But I wasn't very content with any
Speaker 1: of it, and maybe it was the Kennedy thing that
Speaker 1: I couldn't get out of. But album producer Bob Booker
Speaker 1: was having none of it. I said, we have a
Speaker 1: deal to do it. He said, I don't care about it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to have to do Kennedy the rest
Speaker 1: of my life. He said, I want to do my act.
Speaker 1: And this is the time I had to say, Van,
Speaker 1: you don't have an act. You never had an act.
Speaker 1: If you give this up, you're not gonna be working anywhere.
Speaker 1: Was that hard for you to say no? Because it
Speaker 1: was the truth. And I wanted the album and just
Speaker 1: do what we have contractually, and then go do anything
Speaker 1: you want in your life. If I never see you again,
Speaker 1: that's fine, and just do what you promised you would do.
Speaker 1: How did he take it when you told him you
Speaker 1: don't have an act? How did he know he was
Speaker 1: offended by that? He said no? So I can go
Speaker 1: do my act? Said, there was no act. There was
Speaker 1: no act in the talent skill right, it was Kennedy
Speaker 1: that was it. Volume two was released in the spring
Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty three and sold fairly well, but nowhere
Speaker 1: near the original album. One of the sketches, which today
Speaker 1: seems pretty haunting, imagines the Kennedy's enjoying retirement in n
Speaker 1: I certainly enjoyed being president, Bobby enjoyed being president, Jetty
Speaker 1: enjoyed being president, and then I enjoyed being president again.
Speaker 1: Once I was in, I couldn't find the way out,
Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm sorry he found the way out. On
Speaker 1: the morning of November nine, sixty three, the Associated Press
Speaker 1: published a story by veteran Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas which
Speaker 1: started as follows, It's always a bit surprising to find
Speaker 1: the new starring show business trying to run away from
Speaker 1: the thing that made him famous. Today's example is Van Meter.
Speaker 1: Thomas thing goes on to write, he also was searching
Speaker 1: for ways to destroy his image as a JFK imitator.
Speaker 1: Meter didn't have to search much longer. Here is a
Speaker 1: bulletin from CBS News in Dallas, Texas. Three shots were
Speaker 1: fired at President Canaday's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first
Speaker 1: reports say that President Canada, that's the older Von meter Well.
Speaker 1: I just got booked at the Democratic clubn in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: and I flew into Wisconsin from New York. And when
Speaker 1: I got in the cab, the cab driver said, you here.
Speaker 1: Kennedy got shot in Dallas. And I said, no, how
Speaker 1: does it go? Because I thought it was another Kennedy
Speaker 1: joke because people, you know, everywhere I went, people and say, Joe,
Speaker 1: do you hear about jack and did this? And Jackie
Speaker 1: out of the punchline, you know, so I thought it
Speaker 1: was just another being set up. Somebody recognized me. He
Speaker 1: was setting me up for another Kennedy joke, you know.
Speaker 1: I said, how's it go? And then I heard on
Speaker 1: the taxi cab radio that that's what happened. So I
Speaker 1: went to the hotel, got drunk, and got the next
Speaker 1: plane out and went back to New York. And I
Speaker 1: guess they stayed drunk. Bob Booker was having lunch in
Speaker 1: Greenwich Village when he heard the news. The phone rang
Speaker 1: and it was my secretary and she said, Kennedy has
Speaker 1: been shot. And I just threw some money on the
Speaker 1: table and left. It was devastating, absolutely devasating. I called
Speaker 1: Archie Blaier the minute I got back, and I said,
Speaker 1: get the albums wherever they are, because they're out with
Speaker 1: constributors all over the country. I said, get your hands
Speaker 1: on all of them. We're gonna chop him up. I
Speaker 1: want no part of cashing in on this man's death.
Speaker 1: And just like that, Van Meter's meteoric rise to fame
Speaker 1: was over. Did you ever see Vaughan again? Oh? I
Speaker 1: talked to him a couple of times. I don't think
Speaker 1: I ever did see him again. Well, it was over.
Speaker 1: It's over over. You know, John's gun So I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear me playing him if it isn't me,
Speaker 1: I don't want to, you know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: be him. Listen, I am. I think his issue and
Speaker 1: this armchair now it's us, was that he did not
Speaker 1: have a good division between the character and himself Trump impersonator,
Speaker 1: Anthony and Tamanick. But he basically doesn't know where he
Speaker 1: ends or Kennedy ends and he begins. And he might
Speaker 1: have just been a person who just didn't think about
Speaker 1: his psyche before he got into it. Well, it broke
Speaker 1: my heart really uh at the time, but I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, well, now I can go on to something else.
Speaker 1: But I couldn't. I was. I mean that they didn't
Speaker 1: want it, and nobody else know that he wanted nothing
Speaker 1: else from me. That's what they wanted, and they couldn't
Speaker 1: let go of that. I'll never forget. New York City
Speaker 1: is cold as it is. I'm walking down Second Avenue
Speaker 1: and a steel riveter, a rivet with a hard hat,
Speaker 1: sees me and stops his rivet and walks over and
Speaker 1: squeezes my hand assist. Oh, so sorry, man, And like,
Speaker 1: you know, I was getting that, you know, it's like
Speaker 1: almost pity. And I think I had to go to
Speaker 1: a great extent. I know I did. I stayed drunk,
Speaker 1: and then after that I stayed drugged to get away
Speaker 1: from pity feeling sorry for me, you know, And so
Speaker 1: I get to feeling sorry for myself. I don't know.
Speaker 1: So imagine if like the one thing that you were
Speaker 1: getting your momentum on just got pulled from you, and
Speaker 1: then everyone's like, oh, that's so bad, almost as if
Speaker 1: also it's like everyone was like your career is over,
Speaker 1: and maybe almost like he wants to shout I'm not dead,
Speaker 1: and also I thought this, but maybe I'm wrong. But
Speaker 1: they would also be like, I don't want this. I
Speaker 1: don't show your pity and love for him, don't don't
Speaker 1: put it to me. Meter would go on to say
Speaker 1: that he seemed to be a living reminder of a tragedy.
Speaker 1: It's worth remembering that in November of nine, he was
Speaker 1: just twenty seven. I mean, that's usually the start of
Speaker 1: a career. One week after the assassination, comedian Lenny Bruce
Speaker 1: was back on stage in New York. Bob Booker saw
Speaker 1: him and says he remembers a moment that its since
Speaker 1: become legendary. And he grabbed that microphone and he said,
Speaker 1: boyd did Vaughan Meter get screwed? Not exactly that word, Okay,
Speaker 1: and you're you're free to say it if you want
Speaker 1: to say no, he said, boy did Vaughan Meter get fucked?
Speaker 1: Now the critics took him apart for this. I have
Speaker 1: never heard a laugh that big in a house in
Speaker 1: my life, because Lenny had the ability to say your
Speaker 1: most inner thought in public that you would never dare say.
Speaker 1: Everybody in the theater had thought that I had gotten
Speaker 1: calls from people saying poor Vaughan. I said, poor Vaughan.
Speaker 1: How about poor jack Kennedy? For Christ's sake, right, I
Speaker 1: think about poor Vaughan. One of the best presidents we
Speaker 1: ever had, in my opinion, was dead assassinated. Is that
Speaker 1: a story? It's not about Van Meter? Gut No. Von
Speaker 1: Meter hadn't, but he was collateral damage. Another line attributed
Speaker 1: to Lenny Bruce was that they should put two graves
Speaker 1: in Arlington, one for Kennedy and one for Meter. After
Speaker 1: the president's death, Meter wrote a condolence letter to Jackie Kennedy.
Speaker 1: Although we never met, He wrote, I felt as though
Speaker 1: I had known him all my life. I was given
Speaker 1: by fate the ability to impersonate his voice and to
Speaker 1: copy his gestures. I sincerely hope that a part of
Speaker 1: what I did found its way to him and gave
Speaker 1: him and his family a few pleasant moments. Yes, beautiful letter, handwritten,
Speaker 1: It's sent two different books. Actually did he get a response?
Speaker 1: She hated him. That's Van Meter's widow, Sheila. She holds
Speaker 1: a copy of the letter. Mrs Kennedy did hate the
Speaker 1: album when it first came out. She referred to meet
Speaker 1: her as a rat in a memo, and here's her
Speaker 1: conversation with Arthur Schlessinger a few months after the assassination.
Speaker 1: What did you think of all these kits about him,
Speaker 1: so like the First Family and so on? Do you
Speaker 1: ever listen to them? I think he listened. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure he listened to all of that record. I listened
Speaker 1: to one side and then I threw it away because
Speaker 1: they didn't want my children to see it, And well
Speaker 1: he wasn't, but I guess he sort of took it,
Speaker 1: you know. I thought it was so un fair, those things,
Speaker 1: She went on to say. I mean, I thought it
Speaker 1: was so mean. I didn't care if they make fun
Speaker 1: of me or anything, but when they make fun of
Speaker 1: little children. In the year after the assassination, Meter didn't
Speaker 1: disappear completely. He popped up on television a few times
Speaker 1: in four but never again as a JFK. That same year,
Speaker 1: he put out his own album called Have Some Nuts,
Speaker 1: later another one called if the Shoe Fits So pick
Speaker 1: up your phone right now and contribute, contribute the name
Speaker 1: of a communist and put us over the top. While
Speaker 1: they received some nice reviews, they just didn't sell. He
Speaker 1: traveled the country for the next decade, But, as Sheila
Speaker 1: Meter recalls, the man she called by his birth name,
Speaker 1: Abbott never found that second act. He insisted on writing
Speaker 1: his own stuff, and it didn't He needed a writer,
Speaker 1: you know. That's he would never have succeeded in something
Speaker 1: like the First Family if there hadn't been an Earl
Speaker 1: Doubt and a Bob Booker to write it. He was
Speaker 1: a delivery man. Abbot delivered, Abbot spoke. Abbot had a
Speaker 1: voice that felt like warm oil was being rubbed into
Speaker 1: your skin. It was beautiful. I mean, that sounds great.
Speaker 1: I mean there's no shame in being, as you so
Speaker 1: well put it, a delivery man. That's what he was.
Speaker 1: So why was it he okay with that? I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. He turned to a variety of substances.
Speaker 1: Was the cocaine, There was the LSD. There was a psilocybin,
Speaker 1: There was the the rum and coke. Was the marijuana,
Speaker 1: and they all had their effects, every one of them.
Speaker 1: You know, he was a different person with each one.
Speaker 1: Why do you think he'd used so many substances escape,
Speaker 1: running away, getting getting into going toward a new life,
Speaker 1: a new reality for him. I think one of the
Speaker 1: characters inspired by these substances was a blue bunny. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's correct, a blue bunny. Meter also had a messianic complex,
Speaker 1: which led in two to a production of a Jesus
Speaker 1: comedy album called Wait for It, The Second Coming. I
Speaker 1: tell parallels. Would you care to hear something? What are
Speaker 1: you on? Make me laugh? I'm afraid that they are
Speaker 1: very humor. I'll be to judge that. Run it down?
Speaker 1: So he's playing Jesus? Is it funny? Kind? Did it
Speaker 1: so well? He pursued his passion for honky talk music
Speaker 1: and even appeared in a few movies in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: including the commercial flop Linda Lovelace for President. Eventually, he
Speaker 1: moved back to his home state of Maine. And you know,
Speaker 1: I should apologize. I'm on television. I really should apologize
Speaker 1: to every woman that ever known me, because I really
Speaker 1: didn't know how to treat women. Something we haven't talked
Speaker 1: much about is Meter's personal life. As mentioned earlier, he
Speaker 1: was married four times. Sheila was number four. They met
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen eighties in Maine. Sheila was running
Speaker 1: away from her own addictions when she came across a
Speaker 1: flyer advertising von Meter playing piano at a nearby in
Speaker 1: Did you know who that was? I did, but you know,
Speaker 1: it didn't really register. He was only a voice, you know,
Speaker 1: a voice, that's all he was from that comedy album
Speaker 1: from the First Family, And I really didn't register him
Speaker 1: as a living, being, visible, touchable person. They would be
Speaker 1: together for twenty years. She describes a controlling relationship with
Speaker 1: highs and lows, and a man deeply conflicted by the
Speaker 1: thing that had once made him so famous. Was he
Speaker 1: haunted by the whole experience awful awful, awful awful, But
Speaker 1: he also didn't let anybody know it. At the same
Speaker 1: time he was letting everyone know it. He was a dichotomy.
Speaker 1: He I've never known anyone who could be so many
Speaker 1: things at the same time. And as far as how
Speaker 1: he looked back on the First Family experience, was there
Speaker 1: a dichotomy there? Was? He haunted by it. But then
Speaker 1: also I wanted people to know he was Meter or
Speaker 1: well he did that. That's he wanted to be known
Speaker 1: as von Meter. But on the other hand, he didn't
Speaker 1: want anything to do with von Meter. He was abbot
Speaker 1: and he wrote his music, and he entertained people, and
Speaker 1: he played the piano and that's what he wanted. They
Speaker 1: say every man must say rejection. They say every man
Speaker 1: let's fall. But I swear I see my reflection somewhere
Speaker 1: high upon the wall. Coming up. Von Meter as Kennedy
Speaker 1: one final time. In February, von Meter was wintering with
Speaker 1: friends in Florida. He seemed happy, playing piano at a
Speaker 1: local bar. He hadn't been a star for years, and
Speaker 1: then out of the blue, he got a call from
Speaker 1: CBS producers wanted to profile Meter for a new cable
Speaker 1: show hosted by paulas on Coming Up on PS. He
Speaker 1: sounded like JFK. He looked like JFK. It made him
Speaker 1: world famous. Now, while you've been listening to von meter speak,
Speaker 1: it's important to note that back in there was a
Speaker 1: producer sitting across from him asking him the questions. I
Speaker 1: was struck immediately by his appearance. You know, full headed,
Speaker 1: gray hair and a big beard. This is Kevin Huffman.
Speaker 1: He was a young CBS producer at the time. What
Speaker 1: do you think his self image was when you were
Speaker 1: sitting there. Oh, he was one of the least confident people.
Speaker 1: You know, it's all this bravado like. On the one hand,
Speaker 1: he's aggressive, and if you look at you know, the tape,
Speaker 1: sometimes he looks at me. And I watched it just now,
Speaker 1: and I could see the aggression on his side, like,
Speaker 1: you know, what are you going to ask me next? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, I've got my story to tell and I'm
Speaker 1: not quite confident here. But I also noticed that when
Speaker 1: he does go into bits, his eyes darted around a
Speaker 1: little bit, like he's looking for an audience, very much
Speaker 1: like the camera crew, you know, behind me, or a
Speaker 1: part of the audience, you know. When he finally kind
Speaker 1: of shed the act, that's when I felt like I
Speaker 1: was starting to get to the real guy. She'll revealed
Speaker 1: to me the reason for her husband's weariness, his defensiveness.
Speaker 1: What do you remember from when CBS came down to
Speaker 1: you an interview of him in Florida. His disappointment meter
Speaker 1: had boasted to Sheila and his friends that TV anchor
Speaker 1: Paula is On would be coming down to do the interview.
Speaker 1: When he opened the door to find Kevin, I think
Speaker 1: that broke his heart. Broke his heart, it did, It
Speaker 1: embarrassed him, and he didn't tolerate embarrassment. What happened at
Speaker 1: the end of the interview, This was sad Um. You
Speaker 1: know we I think towards the end of the interviews
Speaker 1: when I asked him to do the voice, and which
Speaker 1: I felt was kind of a big moment for him,
Speaker 1: like him doing the voice to me was like a
Speaker 1: really cathartic and possibly damaging things. I don't know, it
Speaker 1: messed him up. I want to play this moment in
Speaker 1: its entirety because more than anywhere else you can hear
Speaker 1: what a struggle it was just being von Meter me
Speaker 1: doing my jobs. I didn't ask you if you would
Speaker 1: do the voice for you wouldn't be doing your job.
Speaker 1: I'd have to think of a clever line. Why do
Speaker 1: the voice? You know, save up that voice? All these years,
Speaker 1: and we did not have a punch line, not have
Speaker 1: the line to use the voice for no. Look at
Speaker 1: the brain. The brain doesn't react to do it, just
Speaker 1: shuts off the switch. Am my on and off? Switch
Speaker 1: went on? Somebody used to do the voice. My switch
Speaker 1: went off. I can't, No, I can't. Two years ago
Speaker 1: and conquered Massachusetts. A shot was fired that was heard
Speaker 1: around the world. Thirty something years ago, in Dallas, Texas,
Speaker 1: another shot was fired that was heard around the world.
Speaker 1: The first bullet fired from the conquered bridge signaled the
Speaker 1: birth of the American Spirit. The second bullet fired from
Speaker 1: the Texas Book Depository attempted to win that spirit, and
Speaker 1: we have seen in the last thirty something he is
Speaker 1: how nearly successful that second bullet was. Mhm. But in
Speaker 1: the final analysis, there is no bullet, There is no bomb.
Speaker 1: There is no power on the face of this earth
Speaker 1: that can destroy the American Spirit. Maybe he'd say something
Speaker 1: like that. I don't know. It's not funny what he's
Speaker 1: saying here. It's a little bit dark, but it's also thoughtful,
Speaker 1: kind of deep, even I don't know, optimistic. A totally
Speaker 1: different jfk impersonation once again, Anthony and Tamanik. It was
Speaker 1: interesting because in a weird way, I watched it and
Speaker 1: aligned with it. I was like, oh, it's you. You.
Speaker 1: You are doing the same thing. You're using this vessel
Speaker 1: to make a greater point, right, so we you know.
Speaker 1: We wrapped up the interview and he got up immediately
Speaker 1: and I followed him. But he went right into the
Speaker 1: kitchen and grabbed a court of vodka, cracked opened the
Speaker 1: lid and just started jugging. He said, look, I needed this,
Speaker 1: you know, I couldn't um, I got through your whole interview.
Speaker 1: I did everything, but this is you know, I have
Speaker 1: to do this. I wasn't judging him. I can't help
Speaker 1: but wonder if Van Meter would have been better off
Speaker 1: if he'd never discovered he could imitate Kenna. But what
Speaker 1: do I know? Maybe after a very tough childhood he
Speaker 1: was simply faded to have a rough go of it
Speaker 1: in life. If you could get into a time machine
Speaker 1: and you could go back to the moment that he's
Speaker 1: approached by Bob Booker and Earl Dowd to do the
Speaker 1: first Family album, what would you tell him as a
Speaker 1: time traveler from the future, Do it, dear, and I'll
Speaker 1: be right here. I'll be in the background. No one
Speaker 1: will see me, no one will hear me, but I'll
Speaker 1: be here for you, I would say, do it sure?
Speaker 1: Why not? That Van Meter interview from was the last
Speaker 1: the public would hear from him. He died six years
Speaker 1: later on October four, just one day after my father died.
Speaker 1: Pop always talked about the time before Kennedy was shot
Speaker 1: is a more innocent time. He heard the news on
Speaker 1: the car radio and pulled the light blue VW bug
Speaker 1: he was driving the first car my parents ever owned
Speaker 1: over to the side of the road and wept. It
Speaker 1: was a different time, one where the presidency was held
Speaker 1: in such regard that von Meter would end his routine
Speaker 1: with the assurance that it was all in good fun.
Speaker 1: We're never going back to that time, and I'm not
Speaker 1: saying we should try, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't
Speaker 1: pay our respects, not just a van Meter, but also
Speaker 1: to that time before that horrible day. So I want
Speaker 1: to end this mobituary with some sound from near the
Speaker 1: end of the First Family album Sweet, Disarmingly Innocent and
Speaker 1: yes funny, Oh no, everybody taking it together with Biguinness.
Speaker 1: Yeah next time. On Mobituaries TV sitcom deaths and Disappearances,
Speaker 1: they did not have room in the writing for the
Speaker 1: older brother, because the fans became the older brother. I
Speaker 1: certainly hope you enjoyed your first mobile Be sure to
Speaker 1: rate and review our podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries
Speaker 1: on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Morocca. For more great content, including video of
Speaker 1: the older vond Meter, please visit mobituaries dot com. You
Speaker 1: can subscribe to Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. This
Speaker 1: episode of Mobituaries was produced by Megan Marcus. Our team
Speaker 1: of producers also includes Gideon Evans, Kate mccauliffe, Megan Dietree,
Speaker 1: and me Morocca. It was edited by Kate mccaulliffe and
Speaker 1: engineered by David Herman. Indispensable support from Genius Tensky, Kira Wardlow,
Speaker 1: Zach Gilcrest, Richard Warrer, the team at CBS News Radio,
Speaker 1: the JFK Presidential Library, and Joe Allessie at the CBS
Speaker 1: News Archives. Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart and,
Speaker 1: as always, undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John carp
Speaker 1: without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're
Speaker 1: enjoying Mobituaries the podcast, may I invite you to check
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