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Speaker 1: Hi everyone, it's Moe. We'll be back with an all

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Speaker 1: new episode of the podcast next Wednesday, but this week

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Speaker 1: we're reaching into our archives all the way back to

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Speaker 1: season one to share the very first episode of Mobituaries,

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Speaker 1: Von Meeter and the Death of a Career. This November

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Speaker 1: twenty second marks sixty years since the assassination of President

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Speaker 1: John F. Kennedy. Pretty Much anyone who is alive on

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Speaker 1: that day remembers where they were when they heard the

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Speaker 1: devastating news out of Dallas, Texas. But no one experienced

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Speaker 1: that day or its aftermath in quite the same way

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Speaker 1: that von Meeter did. He was the comedian who'd skyrocketed

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Speaker 1: to fame with his uncanny impersonation of jfk In an

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Speaker 1: instant that dark day, his livelihood ended and his life

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Speaker 1: radically changed. It's an episode we're proud of. We hope

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Speaker 1: you appreciate it, and be sure to tune in again

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Speaker 1: next week for an all new deep dive into the

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Speaker 1: people and things who never got to send off they deserved.

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Speaker 2: I think we have time for one final question.

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Speaker 1: In the late fall of nineteen sixty two, one of

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Speaker 1: President John F. Kennedy's closest advisors Arthur Schlessinger Junior was

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Speaker 1: driving in his car when all of a sudden, he

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Speaker 1: heard the following question come over the airwaves.

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Speaker 2: That's in office.

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Speaker 3: What do you think the Chans offer Jewish president?

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Speaker 1: A familiar voice answered.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think they're pretty good.

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Speaker 4: Now, let me say, I don't see why a president

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Speaker 4: of the Jewish faith not be President of the United States.

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Speaker 4: I know, as a Catholic I could never vote for him.

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Speaker 1: But other than that, his confusion was cleared up when

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Speaker 1: he learned the voice belonged to Kennedy impersonator Vaughon Meeterer,

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Speaker 1: but was concerned enough that when he returned to the

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Speaker 1: White House he drafted a memorandum to the President. He

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Speaker 1: wrote the following, This raises the question of what in

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Speaker 1: hell a president of the United States ought to do

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Speaker 1: about mimicry. I'm guessing many of you have never heard

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Speaker 1: of von Meder, but for one brief shining moment, Okay,

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Speaker 1: a twelve month period between late nineteen sixty two and

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Speaker 1: late nineteen sixty three, he was a really big deal.

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Speaker 1: He had this parody album called The First Family, a

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Speaker 1: spoof of the Kennedys. In old video clips, he looks

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Speaker 1: like a distant Kennedy cousin, young, clean cut with a

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Speaker 1: thick head of hair, and his JFK impression he's uncanny.

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Speaker 4: Just listen today will be in nuclear de Shamelin, followed

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Speaker 4: by the un bond issue and a matter of the

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Speaker 4: trade agreement. Now first, there is a most important matter

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Speaker 4: to settle, mister gall yours was the chicken, Salad and coffee.

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Speaker 2: That's a dollar forty.

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Speaker 5: Family well in five weeks, this album has broken all

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Speaker 5: records in the history of the recording business.

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Speaker 3: It's sold well.

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Speaker 5: Get this, three and a quarter million copies in five weeks.

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Speaker 5: It took My Fair Lady album five years to sell

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Speaker 5: that many copies. I had.

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Speaker 1: That was late night King of his day, Jack Parr

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Speaker 1: marveling at the popularity of this one album. And the

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Speaker 1: star of the album, Von Meeter, was just about everywhere

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Speaker 1: until all of a sudden he wasn't.

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Speaker 6: From Dallas, Texas. The flash apparently official President Kennedy died

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Speaker 6: at one pm Central Standard time.

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Speaker 1: I'm Morocca and this is mobituaries. This mobent jfk impersonator

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Speaker 1: von Meeter November twenty second, nineteen sixty three. Death of

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Speaker 1: a career.

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Speaker 7: Oh are we recording.

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Speaker 8: Now, Okay, I've worked across the street from this building,

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Speaker 8: and I had no idea. I thought it was maybe

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Speaker 8: some NSA storage unit. I don't know how people's final

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Speaker 8: It's okay.

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Speaker 1: The CBS News.

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Speaker 3: Archives, O lock, Hey, it's Joe.

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Speaker 1: N That's Joe Alessi. He's managed the CBS Archives for

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Speaker 1: twenty two years now. He's the go to guy if

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Speaker 1: you need anything that was shot by CBS News during

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Speaker 1: the twenty first, twentieth century. Even the nineteenth.

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Speaker 9: First thing we have is eight from eighteen ninety seven,

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Speaker 9: and that's William McKinley's inauguration.

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Speaker 1: You're kidding, Let's go to the back.

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Speaker 9: And then when I say to the back, we're going

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Speaker 9: to the vault.

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Speaker 4: Are the vault?

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Speaker 10: Vault?

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Speaker 2: It's the vault.

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Speaker 9: It sounds it sounds very mysterious.

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Speaker 1: It smells like pastrami or something. Well, I've realis lunch.

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Speaker 5: So you're correct on that.

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Speaker 2: No, what that is?

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Speaker 9: That's sometimes all right, Let's go this way.

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Speaker 1: What are CBS's sort of greatest hits.

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Speaker 9: Well, the thing that people ask for most is the

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Speaker 9: assassination of President Kennedy. That seems to be a story

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Speaker 9: that fascinates people from the beginning right up until today,

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Speaker 9: people ask for at least once a week.

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Speaker 1: And for good reason. That horrible day in November nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty three ended the president's life and changed the life

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Speaker 1: of the nation. That's what mister Oakes taught us in

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Speaker 1: high school. There was America before the assassination and America

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Speaker 1: after and before comedian Vaughan Meter was a household name,

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Speaker 1: So surely the CBS archives would have something on the man.

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Speaker 1: My friend Joe did not disappoint.

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Speaker 8: Three tapes of a von Meter interview sounds promising, because

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Speaker 8: that's unless those tapes are super short.

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Speaker 1: That's a significant interview.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, I think it's a good find.

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Speaker 1: And so I took a look. But what I saw

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Speaker 1: and heard wasn't exactly funny.

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Speaker 3: So it looked like, you know, I could do this forever.

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Speaker 3: There was no end to the thought of gold, but

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Speaker 3: there was no rainbow either. It was had no idea

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Speaker 3: it was gonna be that months.

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Speaker 1: This is von Meter in nineteen ninety eight. On these

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Speaker 1: tapes he looks haggard and shake him sixty two years old,

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Speaker 1: but a rough sixty two. This was all recorded for

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Speaker 1: a short lived CBS cable network called Ion people. Meter

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Speaker 1: was being profiled as part of a where Are They Now?

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Speaker 1: Type series. Little of this footage made it to air.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 3: I was born in Waterville the Night of the flood.

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Speaker 1: Abbot von Meeter was born in nineteen thirty six in Waterville, Maine,

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Speaker 1: and by all accounts, had a harrowing childhood. His father

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Speaker 1: drowned when he was one, and his young mother moved

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Speaker 1: from Maine to Boston to work as a cocktail waitress.

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Speaker 1: Meeter had to shuttle between Maine and Massachusetts for much

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Speaker 1: of his youth, spending some of that time in children's homes.

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Speaker 1: He says he started entertaining people to avoid punishment. When

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Speaker 1: he got into trouble near the end of high school,

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Speaker 1: his mother was institutionalized and Meter ran away to the army.

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Speaker 1: He ultimately was stationed in Germany, where he met the

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Speaker 1: first of his four wives and played in a band.

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Speaker 1: After his time in the service, he did a risque

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Speaker 1: piano act around the New York City area and then

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Speaker 1: moved on to Greenwich Village, where he owned a politically

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Speaker 1: themed comedy routine. It was at this point that he

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Speaker 1: dropped his first name, Abbott. He became Vaughan Meeter and

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Speaker 1: then one fateful night, a voice came out of Meter.

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Speaker 1: It was the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy.

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Speaker 5: Yes, the gentleman over there, sir, When are we going

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Speaker 5: to send a man to the moon?

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Speaker 3: Whenever, mister Goldwater wants to go right with.

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Speaker 8: Meter started to reserve the last ten minutes of his

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Speaker 8: routine for an impression of Kennedy's live television press conferences.

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Speaker 10: My name is Bob Booker. I've just been in the

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Speaker 10: entertainment business all my life, and I've been very lucky.

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Speaker 10: And I also forgot to turn off my phone.

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Speaker 2: Now, that's fine.

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Speaker 1: If it's a gig, pick it up.

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Speaker 10: I don't even know this Bruce.

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Speaker 1: Back in the nineteen sixties, Bob Booker was a disc

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Speaker 1: jockey who, along with his partner Earl Dowd, wanted to

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Speaker 1: capitalize on the fascination with the new president as well

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Speaker 1: as the popularity of comedy albums. These were the days

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Speaker 1: of Stan Freeberg, Shelley Berman, Nichols and May, and the

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Speaker 1: great Bob Newhart, who had just won Album of the

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Speaker 1: Year at the Gram's, a first for a comedy album.

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Speaker 1: That classic bit with Newheart as President Lincoln's press agent

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Speaker 1: still holds up.

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Speaker 5: I sweetheart, how's jEdit Bert.

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Speaker 9: Sort of a drag?

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Speaker 10: So we were looking for the next thing to do, like,

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Speaker 10: you know, so we could have a meal the next day.

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Speaker 10: We said, you know, Kennedy make a great album.

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Speaker 1: So what was your concept for this album.

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Speaker 10: You've got this giant star. He's a movie star, he's

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Speaker 10: a political star, he's he's a world star. I got

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Speaker 10: in such a good looking man with this beautiful wife. Right.

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Speaker 10: We said, if you take this character and the family

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Speaker 10: and put them in everyday situations, that's funny.

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Speaker 1: This was the beginning of what would become the First

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Speaker 1: Family album. The only problem was they had no idea

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Speaker 1: who could play the head of this First Family, That

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Speaker 1: is until they turned on the TV the evening of

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Speaker 1: July third, nineteen sixty two.

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Speaker 11: No, but he's from the New school and has served

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Speaker 11: his apprenticeship in the little clubs that feature you know,

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Speaker 11: the topic of comedians, the kids with the rye offbeat

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Speaker 11: comments on life today.

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Speaker 1: Does that voice sound familiar? It's Jim Bacchus aka mister

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Speaker 1: Magoo aka Thurston Howl, the third from Gilligan's Island. He

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Speaker 1: was hosting a summer replacement show called talent Scouts on CBS.

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Speaker 11: And I know, I know you're going to be delighted

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Speaker 11: with the TV debut of mister Vaughan Meeter.

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Speaker 1: Meeters started off with his take on the news headlines

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Speaker 1: of the day.

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Speaker 4: There's one that might be a little more familiar to you.

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Speaker 4: Congressman read Write of Alabama was quoted as saying, literacy

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Speaker 4: test ain't proven nothing.

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Speaker 1: Listen, I have no idea how funny or fresh is

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Speaker 1: topicals stuff actually was. There's that old quote from playwright

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Speaker 1: George S. Kaufman, satire is what closes on Saturday Night.

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Speaker 1: But his impression of Kennedy was and is nothing short

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Speaker 1: of sensational.

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Speaker 4: He's doing my act, he's doing my gestures, and he's

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Speaker 4: using my lines. Do not ask what this country can

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Speaker 4: do for you.

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Speaker 2: That's one of my original lines.

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Speaker 10: When he did Kennedy, it was perfect, absolutely perfect.

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Speaker 1: Bob Booker and Earl Dowd had found their man. But

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Speaker 1: there was something else striking about that performance, A kind

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Speaker 1: of disclaimer he made at the end of his starmaking routine,

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Speaker 1: something I can't imagine any comic doing today.

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Speaker 4: Yes, I'd like to make one final statement at this time,

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Speaker 4: and I would like to make that final statement as

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Speaker 4: myself von Meta, and that is the thing. Thank you

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Speaker 4: for the United States, a country where it is possible

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Speaker 4: for a young comedian like myself to come out on

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Speaker 4: television before millions of people and kid leading citizen, thank

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Speaker 4: you good night.

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Speaker 12: It was very interesting to me because he was to

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Speaker 12: me non controversial.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to get the perspective of a modern day

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Speaker 1: presidential impersonator.

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Speaker 12: I decide how big my failures are, and they're.

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Speaker 1: The biggest way Meet Anthony Tammanik. He impersonates President Donald Trump,

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Speaker 1: most recently on Comedy Central's The President Show.

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Speaker 12: I wonder if that caution was sort of to say, listen,

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Speaker 12: I'm making fun with him, not of him.

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Speaker 8: This is a telegram that right after von Meter made

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Speaker 8: his television debut, he wrote a telegram of the White House.

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Speaker 12: He wrote this to you President. Yeah, dear mister President,

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Speaker 12: I respectfully call your attention to the Talent Scouts Show,

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Speaker 12: which we taped last night for viewing on CBS Television

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Speaker 12: Tuesday night, July third, at ten pm. I impersonated you,

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Speaker 12: but I did it with great affection and respect. Hope

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Speaker 12: it with your approval, respectfully. Von Meter. Wow, that is wild.

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Speaker 10: We actually went through eleven I think turned down.

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Speaker 1: Booker and Dowd had their concept, their Kennedy, and a

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Speaker 1: demo of the album. No One was biting, though. Booker

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Speaker 1: remembers one meeting at ABC. In the room that day

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Speaker 1: was Jim Haggerty, who was the vice president of News

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Speaker 1: and a former White House Press secretary under Eisenhower, Kennedy's predecessor.

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Speaker 10: He said, I think the Communists will love it. I

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Speaker 10: think Russia will love it, and every communist country in

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Speaker 10: the world will love it. And he slammed the door

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Speaker 10: behind him and going out. He was outraged, right, So

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Speaker 10: we were just insulting the president and his family. He

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Speaker 10: was not a man with a great sense of humor.

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Speaker 8: Mister, it doesn't sound like it. But did it give

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Speaker 8: you any doubt? Did you for a moment, go, boy,

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Speaker 8: maybe this is disrespectful. Maybe we should didn't do it.

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Speaker 8: This was place number twelve that we'd been thrown in

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Speaker 8: the street. Okay, didn't discourage us at all.

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Speaker 10: We knew we had a hit record. I would have

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Speaker 10: bet anything on it. We did bet everything on it.

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Speaker 1: While ABC passed, the president of the network suggested they

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Speaker 1: try a smaller label called Cadence, run by Archie Blyier.

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Speaker 10: Picked up the phone, called him set the meeting. The

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Speaker 10: next morning. We went over and they bought it instantly.

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Speaker 1: They'd overcome one hurdle getting a record deal, but as

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Speaker 1: it turned out, recording the album before a live audience

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Speaker 1: came with its own set of challenges.

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Speaker 11: This is a special report from CBS News the Cuban Crisis.

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Speaker 10: Talk about an evening. Oh what an evening.

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Speaker 1: That's the night of President Kennedy's big speech about.

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Speaker 10: The Cuban crisis. And we had the TV sets in

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Speaker 10: the back room and we watched the speech where everybody

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Speaker 10: believed going to.

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Speaker 3: War within the past.

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Speaker 7: We unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series

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Speaker 7: of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that

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Speaker 7: imprisoned island.

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Speaker 1: So the show starts.

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Speaker 8: The audience has no idea that President Kennedy is on

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Speaker 8: TV addressing the nation about this.

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Speaker 1: Really terrible crisis. Yes it was, And how does the

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Speaker 1: show go?

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Speaker 10: Perfect? And I did have a fear that the cast

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Speaker 10: had heard this speech also, so we did. We did

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Speaker 10: a quick little speech right before Hey, it's showtime. We're

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Speaker 10: going out there and kill okay, and everybody did it.

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Speaker 10: Didn't affect anybody.

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Speaker 1: After making it through that crisis within a crisis, Bob

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Speaker 1: Booker handed off the album to a DJ friend at

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Speaker 1: WIS Radio in New York, and.

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Speaker 10: He was going on the air in ten minutes, and

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Speaker 10: I said, look what I've got and he looked at

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Speaker 10: it and he played one cut and he said, Jesus, Pob,

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Speaker 10: that's a satial. He went on the air for three hours.

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Speaker 10: He played the album continuously.

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Speaker 2: No more Family for a while. Now, I promise, now

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Speaker 2: turn off the light.

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Speaker 4: Good Night, Jackie, good night, jack Night, Bobby night, ethel.

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Speaker 10: Every light in the place lit up. I mean it

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Speaker 10: was crazy. The phone calls from the other stations were

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Speaker 10: coming in, television bookings for all in three hours, broke

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Speaker 10: it wide open, wond Jockey.

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Speaker 1: The First Family album took off like a rocket, and

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Speaker 1: Von Meeter was in for the right of his life.

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Speaker 1: Von Meeter was playing a gig in Detroit and didn't

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Speaker 1: know what hit him.

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Speaker 3: I couldn't leave until I get back to New York.

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Speaker 3: And I walked down the street and heard my voice

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Speaker 3: being broadcast and I just couldn't keep up.

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Speaker 10: With it, man, I mean, it was on fire.

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Speaker 1: Can give me a sense of what that felt like?

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Speaker 1: What did you think?

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Speaker 10: No, there's no way insanity.

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Speaker 1: Everyone wanted von Meeterer to appear on their show, including

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Speaker 1: beloved singer Andy Williams, who was hosting a popular new

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Speaker 1: variety series on NBC.

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Speaker 6: Welcome to our show.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Andy.

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Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to be here. You know, I've been looking.

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Speaker 11: Forward all week to working with Vron because I wanted

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Speaker 11: to sit right next to the guy who.

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Speaker 4: Was sold well.

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Speaker 11: He's had the most successful album in the history of

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Speaker 11: the recordiness, the First Family Album.

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Speaker 8: Okay, there's a good reason The First Family was the

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Speaker 8: best selling album of its time.

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Speaker 1: It's a total blast. It's not really a sad tire.

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Speaker 1: It's parody the kind of fun zany takeoff that I

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Speaker 1: used to love reading in Mad Magazine when I was

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Speaker 1: a kid, Like when they turned chips into chimps, or

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Speaker 1: the Godfather into the Odd Father. That kind of a thing.

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Speaker 1: It's not really meant to make you think, it's meant

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Speaker 1: to make you laugh. Okay, so some references may not

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Speaker 1: play for today's audiences.

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Speaker 2: Eva, you drive a hard bargain.

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Speaker 1: Like monopoly with Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirkson.

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Speaker 2: I'll show you a boardwalk and park place, but.

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Speaker 1: A surprising amount of it really holds up.

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Speaker 10: I'd like to ask the following question, faultois philipp.

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Speaker 2: Now speak English? Jackie?

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Speaker 8: Sure, the Jackie sounds more like Marilyn Monroe, which probably

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Speaker 8: didn't make the first lady very happy. But come on,

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Speaker 8: to be fair, who didn't think the real Jackie sounded

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Speaker 8: a little like Marilyn during that famous TV tour of

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Speaker 8: the White House.

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Speaker 5: Yes, this room is everything in it really is from

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Speaker 5: the time of President Monroe.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the album does its own take on that.

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Speaker 13: Tour and left at the Dai Madison Pinakorom.

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Speaker 1: While most of the jokes are pretty gentle, there are

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Speaker 1: a few digs.

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Speaker 14: Ask the Richard Nixon dam way.

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Speaker 8: One of the biggest laughs comes here when the President

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Speaker 8: divvies up Caroline and John John's bath.

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Speaker 4: Tool nine of the pet Boach, two of the Yogi

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Speaker 4: Bear of beach Balls, the Yah Ball of Hilly Putty

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Speaker 4: belonged to Caroline, nine of the pet Boach, one.

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Speaker 2: Of the Yogi Ya bearra.

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Speaker 4: Beach Balls, and the two Howdy Duty plastic bouncing clowns,

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Speaker 4: Ah Baby Johns.

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Speaker 2: The rubbishwan is mine.

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Speaker 1: I'm imagining people everywhere look at home, around the water cooler,

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Speaker 1: at work, repeating that rubber Swan line, and apparently they did.

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Speaker 10: I thought it was pretty funny.

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Speaker 1: Anthony A. Tamanik, who impersonates President Trump, knows the album well.

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Speaker 1: His grandfather played it for him when he was growing up.

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Speaker 1: But I also wanted his take on how Meeter looked

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Speaker 1: as Kennedy. Is it a good impression?

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Speaker 10: Yeah, it is a good impression.

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Speaker 12: It's a good impression, becau because a good impression doesn't

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Speaker 12: require any makeup or accoutrement. The idea should be that

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Speaker 12: the presence of the person is what you feel like.

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Speaker 12: There's a will that presents Kennedy in that moment.

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Speaker 10: There is not, and I say this with a great pride.

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Speaker 10: There is not one ugly joke in the entire thing.

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Speaker 10: There's not even a really nasty political joke anywhere in

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Speaker 10: the album.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it's all very safe from today's vantage point. Turns out,

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Speaker 1: and this was a surprise to me. The producers in

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Speaker 1: cast were pushing the limits of comedy.

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Speaker 5: I had the first I must level with you, I

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Speaker 5: had some misgivings about this idea for reasons of my own.

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Speaker 1: That's late Night host Jack Parr again he was Johnny

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Speaker 1: Carson before Johnny Carson, issuing a disclaimer before inviting von

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Speaker 1: Meeter on stage. Parr then goes on to quote famed

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Speaker 1: Anthwer apologist Margaret Meade. She too had weighed in on

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Speaker 1: the First Family album because well why not, she told

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Speaker 1: Life Magazine quote, this making fun of people in authority

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Speaker 1: is very healthy. It is the difference between democracy and tyranny.

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Speaker 1: End quote. The album continued selling like crazy. But what

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Speaker 1: was the White House thinking? Remember presidential advisor Arthur Schlessinger,

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Speaker 1: who was so concerned about that voice on the radio

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Speaker 1: that he wrote a memo about the dangers of impersonating

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Speaker 1: the president. He wrote, the radio listener twirls his dial,

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Speaker 1: comes in in the middle of things, and rarely listens

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Speaker 1: with full attention. Anyway, Schlessinger concluded on an ominous note,

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Speaker 1: remember Orson Wells and the Martian invasion. Again, this comedy

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Speaker 1: seems completely benign today. But boy, it raised an alarm

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Speaker 1: in the president's inner circle.

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Speaker 10: Well, it got dangerous because the people around Kennedy, around

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Speaker 10: any president, are so protective the minute they heard someone

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Speaker 10: doing Kennedy on the air so accurately, Because Vaughan was

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Speaker 10: really good with it. They went screaming. They even went

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Speaker 10: to the FCC to try and stop the album.

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Speaker 1: Clearly and thankfully, those attempts weren't successful. But I was

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Speaker 1: fascinated to learn that Schlessinger took the time to go

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Speaker 1: back to the days of FDR to seek out some

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Speaker 1: kind of precedent with regard to presidential impersonations. It turns

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Speaker 1: out Franklin Roosevelt's press secretary, Stephen Early, had directly asked

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Speaker 1: media outlets not to give airtime to Roosevelt impersonators.

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Speaker 15: It's been a long time since a president and his

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Speaker 15: family have been subjected. It was such a heavy barrage

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Speaker 15: of teasing and fun poking and satire. And there have

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Speaker 15: been books on backstairs at the White House, and cartoon

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Speaker 15: books with clever sayings, and photo albums with balloons and

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Speaker 15: the rest.

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Speaker 2: And now I smash hit for record.

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Speaker 15: Can you tell us whether you read and listen to

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Speaker 15: these things and whether they produce annoyment or enjoyment.

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Speaker 1: Annoyment, No, they yes, I have read them and listened

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Speaker 1: to them.

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Speaker 7: Actually I listened to mister Meta record, but I thought

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Speaker 7: it sounded more like Teddy than it did me.

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Speaker 1: But that's not von Meter as JFK. That is the

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Speaker 1: actual President of the United States talking about von Meter

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Speaker 1: in one of his live press conferences. According to many accounts,

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Speaker 1: the President did enjoy the album and even gave out

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Speaker 1: copies for Christmas.

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Speaker 10: Do you know why he loved it? Made a human

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Speaker 10: being out of him, took him down off the pedestal.

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Speaker 10: He was one of us. He just looked a lot

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Speaker 10: better than all of us.

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Speaker 1: Von Meter went on to win a Grammy for Best

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Speaker 1: Comedy Performance and First Family one Album of the Year.

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Speaker 1: The First Family beat out the likes of Tony Bennett

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Speaker 1: and Ray Charles. Von Meeter was living the dream, right.

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Speaker 3: It just took over.

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Speaker 1: The voice you're hearing now is the older Meter from

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Speaker 1: that nineteen ninety eight interview that I got from the archives.

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Speaker 3: You know, I go on Sullivan. I'd asked him if

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Speaker 3: I could play a sing a song. I wanted to

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Speaker 3: desperately play some music, sing some songs. No no chance,

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Speaker 3: no chance, no chance. So I just sell in line,

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Speaker 3: you know, and did it. And I had to get

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Speaker 3: sued to do a volume two because I didn't want

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Speaker 3: to do a volume two. They sued me for a

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Speaker 3: million dollars.

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Speaker 1: In early nineteen sixty three, while Meter was on a

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Speaker 1: concert tour of the album, Bob Booker and Earl Dowd

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Speaker 1: began developing fresh material for a second volume of the

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Speaker 1: first Family album.

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Speaker 10: At twitch time, Vaughan said, I don't want to do

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Speaker 10: Kennedy anymore.

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Speaker 1: You heard that, right? Meeter, who almost overnight went from

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00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: barely scraping buying clubs just storing in the country's most

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Speaker 1: popular album, was sick of the Kennedy act.

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Speaker 3: But I wasn't very content with any of it, and

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Speaker 3: maybe it was the Kennedy thing that I couldn't get

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Speaker 3: out of.

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Speaker 1: But album producer Bob Booker was having none of it.

443
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 10: I said, we have a deal to do it. He said,

444
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 10: I don't care about that. I don't want to have

445
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,680
Speaker 10: to do Kennedy the rest of my life, he said,

446
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,399
Speaker 10: I want to do my act. And this is the

447
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:35,200
Speaker 10: time I had to save on. You don't have an act,

448
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,240
Speaker 10: you never had an act. If you give this up,

449
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:41,160
Speaker 10: you not gonna be working anywhere.

450
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:43,480
Speaker 1: Was that hard for you to say no?

451
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,919
Speaker 10: Because it was the truth, and I wanted the album

452
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,560
Speaker 10: and just do what we have contractually and then go

453
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:53,400
Speaker 10: do anything you want in your life. If I never

454
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,639
Speaker 10: see you again, that's fine, and just do what you

455
00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 10: promised you would do.

456
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:01,119
Speaker 1: How did he take it when you told him you

457
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 1: don't have an act?

458
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,120
Speaker 10: How did he? Oh? No, he was offended by that.

459
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:06,440
Speaker 10: He said, no, so I can go do my act.

460
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 10: Said there was no act. There was no act in

461
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:12,360
Speaker 10: Talent Scouts right, it was Kennedy, that was it.

462
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,199
Speaker 1: Volume two was released in the spring of nineteen sixty

463
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:20,920
Speaker 1: three and sold fairly well, but nowhere near the original album.

464
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,960
Speaker 1: One of the sketches, which today seems pretty haunting, imagines

465
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 1: the Kennedy's enjoying retirement in nineteen ninety six.

466
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 4: I shertinly enjoyed being president. Bobby enjoyed being president. Jeddy

467
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 4: enjoyed being president. Then I enjoyed being president again.

468
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 3: Once I was in, I couldn't find the way out.

469
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:56,200
Speaker 3: And yeah, I'm sorry, he found the way.

470
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 1: On the morning of November twenty second, nineteen sixty three,

471
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:04,280
Speaker 1: the Associated Press published a story by veteran Hollywood columnist

472
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:08,920
Speaker 1: Bob Thomas, which started as follows, It's always a bit

473
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:12,160
Speaker 1: surprising to find a new star in show business trying

474
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:14,400
Speaker 1: to run away from the thing that made him famous.

475
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,879
Speaker 1: Today's example is von Meter. Thomas then goes on to

476
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 1: write he also is searching for ways to destroy his

477
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: image as a jfk imitator. Meter didn't have to search

478
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:29,199
Speaker 1: much longer.

479
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 6: Here is a bulletin from CBS News in Dallas, Texas.

480
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 6: Three shots were fired at President Kennaday's motorcade in downtown Dallas.

481
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 6: The first reports say that President Kennedy.

482
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:58,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the older Von Meter.

483
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,200
Speaker 3: Well, I just got booked at the Democratic Club and

484
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 3: in Wisconsin. And I flew into Wisconsin from New York.

485
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,240
Speaker 3: And when I got in the cab, the cab driver said,

486
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 3: you hear Kennedy got shot in Dallas? And I said, no,

487
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 3: how does it go? Because I thought it was another

488
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:21,400
Speaker 3: Kennedy joke because people, you know, everywhere I went, people say, oh,

489
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,280
Speaker 3: do you hear about jack who did this? And Jackie

490
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,159
Speaker 3: out of the punchline, you know, So I thought it

491
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 3: was just another being set up. Somebody recognized me, was

492
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:30,880
Speaker 3: setting me up for another Kennedy joke, you know. I said,

493
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:34,600
Speaker 3: how's ago? And then I heard on the taxi cab

494
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:39,240
Speaker 3: radio that that's what happened. So I went to the hotel,

495
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 3: got drunk, got the next plane out and went back

496
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 3: to New York, and I guess they stayed drunk.

497
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 1: Bob Booker was having lunch in Greenwich Village when he

498
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:50,480
Speaker 1: heard the news.

499
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 10: The phone rang and it was my secretary and she said,

500
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 10: Kennedy's been shot. And I just threw some money on

501
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 10: the table and left. It was devastating, absolutely devasating. If

502
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 10: I called Archie Bleyer the minute I got back, and

503
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 10: I said, get the albums wherever they are, because they're

504
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:11,880
Speaker 10: out with distributors all over the gun. I said, get

505
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 10: your hands on all of them. We're going to chop

506
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 10: them up. I want no part of cashing in on

507
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 10: this man's death.

508
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: And just like that, Vaughn meeters meteoric rise to fame

509
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: was over. Did you ever see Vaughan again?

510
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 10: Well, I talked to him a couple of times. I

511
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 10: don't think I ever did see him again.

512
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:43,400
Speaker 3: Well, it was over. It's over over. You know, John's gune.

513
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:49,400
Speaker 3: So I don't want to hear me playing him if

514
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 3: it isn't me, I don't want to, you know, I

515
00:29:52,120 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 3: don't want to be him. Let's say I am.

516
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 12: I think his issue on this armchair analysis was that

517
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 12: he did not have a good division between the character

518
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 12: and himself.

519
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: Trump impersonator Anthony and Tammanik. But he basically doesn't know

520
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 1: where he ends where Kennedy ends. And he begins, yeah.

521
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 12: He might have just been a person who just didn't

522
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 12: think about his psyche before he got into it.

523
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 3: Well, it broke my heart really at the time. But

524
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 3: I thought to myself, well, now I can go on

525
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 3: to something else. But I couldn't. It was I mean

526
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,680
Speaker 3: that they didn't want nobody else. Nobody wanted nothing else

527
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 3: from me. That's what they wanted, and they couldn't let

528
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 3: go of that. I'll never forget New York City, as

529
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 3: cold as it is. I'm walking down Second Avenue and

530
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 3: a steel riveta, a riveta with a hard hat, sees

531
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 3: me and stops his rivet and walks over and squeezes

532
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,239
Speaker 3: my hand. It's says, oh so sorry, man, And like,

533
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 3: you know, I was getting that, you know, like almost pity.

534
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 3: And I think I had to go to a great extent.

535
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 3: I know I did. I stayed drunk, and after that

536
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 3: I stayed drugged to get away from pity feeling sorry

537
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:21,160
Speaker 3: for me, you know, so then I get to feeling

538
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:22,000
Speaker 3: sorry for myself.

539
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 12: I don't know, so imagine if like the one thing

540
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 12: that you were getting your momentum on just got pulled

541
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 12: from you, and then everyone's like, oh, that's so bad,

542
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 12: almost as if also it's like everyone was like, your

543
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 12: career is over.

544
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,800
Speaker 8: And maybe almost like he wants to shout, I'm not dead, right, yeah.

545
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,480
Speaker 12: And also I thought this, maybe I'm wrong. But they

546
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:42,960
Speaker 12: would also be like, I don't want this. I don't

547
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 12: show your pity and love for him, don't don't put

548
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 12: it to me.

549
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: Meeter would go on to say that he seemed to

550
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 1: be a living reminder of a tragedy. It's worth remembering

551
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 1: that in November of nineteen sixty three, he was just

552
00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 1: twenty seven. I mean, that's usually the start of a career.

553
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 1: One week after the assassination, comedian Lenny Bruce was back

554
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 1: on stage in New York. Bob Booker saw him and

555
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 1: says he remembers a moment that has since become legendary.

556
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:15,520
Speaker 10: And he grabbed that microphone and he said, boyd did

557
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:21,960
Speaker 10: Vaughan Meter get screwed? Not exactly that word, Okay.

558
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: And you're free to say it if you want to say.

559
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:27,120
Speaker 10: Oh, he said, boy did Vaughan Meter get fucked now.

560
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 10: The critics took him apart for this. I have never

561
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 10: heard a laugh that big in a house in my life,

562
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 10: because Lenny had the ability to say your most inner

563
00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 10: thought in public that you would never dare say. Everybody

564
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 10: in that theater had thought that. I had gotten calls

565
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 10: from people saying, poor Vaughn. I said, poor Vaughn. How

566
00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 10: about poor jack Kennedy? For Christ's sake, right, I think

567
00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 10: about poor Vaughn. One of the best presidents we ever had,

568
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 10: in my opinion, was dead, assassinated? Is that a sort

569
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 10: It's not about von Meeter guy?

570
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:12,719
Speaker 1: No, Von Meder hadn't died, but he was collateral damage.

571
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: Another line attributed to Lenny Bruce was that they should

572
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: put two graves in Arlington, one for Kennedy and one

573
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 1: for Meter. After the president's death, Meeter wrote a condolence

574
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 1: letter to Jackie Kennedy. Although we never met, He wrote,

575
00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:30,240
Speaker 1: I felt as though I had known him all my life.

576
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,680
Speaker 1: I was given by fate the ability to impersonate his

577
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:37,800
Speaker 1: voice and to copy his gestures. I sincerely hope that

578
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:39,800
Speaker 1: a part of what I did found its way to

579
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 1: him and gave him and his family a few pleasant moments.

580
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 14: Yes, beautiful letter, handwritten. It's in two different books.

581
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 1: Actually did he get a response?

582
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:51,880
Speaker 14: She hated it.

583
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: That's von Meeter's widow, Sheila. She holds a copy of

584
00:33:56,480 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 1: the letter. Missus Kennedy did hate the album when it

585
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 1: first came out. She referred to meet her as a

586
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,120
Speaker 1: rat in a memo. And here's her conversation with Arthur

587
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 1: Schlessinger a few months after the assassination.

588
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:12,640
Speaker 8: What did you think of all these skits about himself,

589
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:14,839
Speaker 8: like the First Family and so on?

590
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:18,359
Speaker 2: Do you ever listen to them?

591
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 10: I think he listened.

592
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he listened to all of that record.

593
00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 8: I listened to one side and then I threw it

594
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:26,279
Speaker 8: away because I didn't want my children to see it.

595
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: And well he wasn't.

596
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 3: I guess he sort of took it.

597
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 14: You know.

598
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 10: I thought it was so unfair of those things.

599
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 1: She went on to say, I mean, I thought it

600
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:39,879
Speaker 1: was so mean.

601
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 14: I didn't care if they make fun of me or anything,

602
00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 14: but when they make fun of little children.

603
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 1: In the year after the assassination, Meter didn't disappear completely.

604
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 1: He popped up on television a few times in nineteen

605
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 1: sixty four, but never again as JFK. That same year,

606
00:34:57,400 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: he put out his own album called have Some Nut

607
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:04,400
Speaker 1: Unts later another one called if the Shoe Fits So

608
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:04,879
Speaker 1: pick up.

609
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 4: Your phone right now and contribute, contribute the name of

610
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:08,919
Speaker 4: a Communist and put us over the top.

611
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:14,240
Speaker 1: While they received some nice reviews, they just didn't sell.

612
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 1: He traveled the country for the next decade, but, as

613
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:21,240
Speaker 1: Sheila Meder recalls, the man she called by his birth name, Abbot,

614
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 1: never found that second act.

615
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 14: He insisted on writing his own stuff, and it didn't

616
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 14: He needed a writer, you know. That's he would never

617
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:36,439
Speaker 14: have succeeded in something like the First Family if there

618
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 14: hadn't been an Earl Dowd and a Bob Booker to

619
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:44,400
Speaker 14: write it. He was a delivery man. Abbot delivered, Abbot spoke.

620
00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 14: Abbot had a voice that felt like warm oil was

621
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:50,720
Speaker 14: being rubbed into your skin.

622
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 2: It was beautiful.

623
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:56,760
Speaker 1: I mean, that sounds great. I mean there's no shame

624
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:59,280
Speaker 1: in being, as you say, well, put it a delivery man.

625
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:01,160
Speaker 14: That's what he wants, right, that's what.

626
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 1: But so why wasn't he okay with that?

627
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:05,920
Speaker 14: I don't know, I don't know.

628
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,560
Speaker 1: He turned to a variety of substances.

629
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:13,640
Speaker 14: Was the cocaine There was the LSD, the was a psilocybin,

630
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 14: there was the the rom and coke. That was the marijuana.

631
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 14: And they all had their effects, every one of them.

632
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:25,800
Speaker 14: You know, he was a different person with each one.

633
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:29,800
Speaker 1: Why do you think he've used so many substances.

634
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:38,360
Speaker 14: Escape, running away, getting getting into, going toward a new life,

635
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 14: a new reality for him.

636
00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:42,040
Speaker 10: I think.

637
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: One of the characters inspired by these substances was a

638
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 1: blue bunny. Yes, that's correct, a blue bunny. Meeter also

639
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:56,799
Speaker 1: had a messianic complex, which led in nineteen seventy two

640
00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:00,879
Speaker 1: to a production of a Jesus comedy album called Wait

641
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: for It, the Second Coming.

642
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:04,400
Speaker 3: I tell parables?

643
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 2: Would you care to hear something? What I you're on?

644
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:06,959
Speaker 10: Make me laugh?

645
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 2: I'm afraid they are.

646
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:10,000
Speaker 3: I'm very humorous.

647
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:11,520
Speaker 2: I'll be to judge and I'd run it down.

648
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:17,520
Speaker 1: So he's playing Jesus, Yeah, is it funny? Kind of

649
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:18,799
Speaker 1: did it so well?

650
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 4: No?

651
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: He pursued his passion for honky tonk music and even

652
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,760
Speaker 1: appeared in a few movies in the nineteen seventies, including

653
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 1: the commercial flop Linda Lovelace for President. Eventually, he moved

654
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: back to his home state of Maine.

655
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:36,759
Speaker 3: And you know, I should apologize. I'm on television. I

656
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 3: really should apologize to every woman that ever knew me,

657
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 3: because I really didn't know how to treat women.

658
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:48,760
Speaker 1: Something we haven't talked much about is Meter's personal life.

659
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: As mentioned earlier, he was married four times. Sheila was

660
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 1: number four. They met in the early nineteen eighties in Maine.

661
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: Sheila was running away from her own addictions when she

662
00:38:00,760 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 1: came across a flyer advertising Von Meeter playing piano at

663
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 1: a nearby inn. Did you know who that was?

664
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,080
Speaker 14: I did, but you know, it didn't really register. He

665
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 14: was only a voice, you know, a voice, that's all.

666
00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:16,280
Speaker 1: He was from that comedy outbum.

667
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:21,400
Speaker 14: Yeah, from the First Family, And I really didn't register

668
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:25,920
Speaker 14: him as a living, being, visible, touchable person.

669
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 1: They would be together for twenty years. Sheila describes a

670
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 1: controlling relationship with highs and lows, and a man deeply

671
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,320
Speaker 1: conflicted by the thing that had once made him so famous.

672
00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:41,440
Speaker 1: Was he haunted by the whole experience?

673
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 14: Awful awful, awful awful, But he also didn't let anybody

674
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:50,840
Speaker 14: know it. At the same time he was letting everyone

675
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 14: know it. He was a dichotomy. I've never known anyone

676
00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:00,879
Speaker 14: who could be so many things to say time.

677
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:03,080
Speaker 8: And as far as how he looked back on the

678
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:06,400
Speaker 8: first family experience, was there a dichotomy? There was he

679
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,040
Speaker 8: haunted by it, but then also wanted people to know

680
00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:11,800
Speaker 8: he was vond Meter, or well he did that.

681
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:15,080
Speaker 14: That's he wanted to be known as von Meter. But

682
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 14: on the other hand, he didn't want anything to do

683
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:21,080
Speaker 14: with von Meter. He was abbot and he wrote his music,

684
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 14: and he entertained people, and he played the piano, and

685
00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 14: that's what he wanted.

686
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:34,960
Speaker 4: They say every man must face rejection, they say.

687
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 2: Every man must fall. But I swear I've seen my reflection.

688
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 4: Somewhere upon the wall.

689
00:39:55,239 --> 00:40:20,400
Speaker 1: Coming up von Meter as Kennedy one final time. In

690
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 1: February nineteen ninety eight, von Meter was wintering with friends

691
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:27,799
Speaker 1: in Florida. He seemed happy playing piano at a local bar.

692
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 1: He hadn't been a star for years, and then out

693
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: of the blue, he got a call from CBS producers

694
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:38,880
Speaker 1: wanted to profile Meter for a new cable show hosted

695
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:46,160
Speaker 1: by Paula Zah coming up on PS. He sounded like JFK,

696
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:51,080
Speaker 1: he looked like JFK. It made him world famous. Now,

697
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 1: while you've been listening to von Meter speak It's important

698
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,160
Speaker 1: to note that back in ninety eight, there was a

699
00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:59,400
Speaker 1: producer sitting across from him asking him the questions.

700
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 8: I was struck immediately by his you know appearance. He

701
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 8: you know, had full head of gray hair and a

702
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:07,720
Speaker 8: big beard.

703
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:11,280
Speaker 1: This is Kevin Hoffman. He was a young CBS producer

704
00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:11,799
Speaker 1: at the time.

705
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 8: Wait, what do you think his self image was when

706
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:15,399
Speaker 8: you were sitting there?

707
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 10: Oh, he was one of the least confident people.

708
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 8: You know, it's all this bravado like, on the one hand,

709
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 8: he's aggressive, and if you look at you know, the tape,

710
00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,799
Speaker 8: sometimes he looks at me. And I watched it just now,

711
00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:31,120
Speaker 8: and I could see the aggression on his side, like,

712
00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:33,800
Speaker 8: you know, what are you going to ask me next?

713
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:38,160
Speaker 8: You know, I've got my story to tell and I'm

714
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,879
Speaker 8: not quite confident here. But I also noticed that when

715
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 8: he does go into bits, his eyes darted around a

716
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:47,239
Speaker 8: little bit, like he's looking for an audience, very much

717
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:51,560
Speaker 8: like the camera crew you know behind me were part

718
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 8: of the audience. You know. When he finally kind of

719
00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 8: shed the act, that's when I felt like I was

720
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:00,360
Speaker 8: starting to get to the real guy.

721
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,360
Speaker 1: Sheila revealed to me the reason for her husband's weariness,

722
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:07,439
Speaker 1: his defensiveness. What do you remember from nineteen ninety eight

723
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:10,839
Speaker 1: when CBS came down to do an interview of him

724
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:18,080
Speaker 1: in Florida his disappointment. Meeter had boasted to Sheila and

725
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:21,120
Speaker 1: his friends that TV anchor Paula's On would be coming

726
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: down to do the interview. When he opened the door

727
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:25,279
Speaker 1: to find Kevin.

728
00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:29,320
Speaker 14: I think that broke his heart. Broke his heart, it did,

729
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:32,960
Speaker 14: It embarrassed him, and he didn't tolerate embarrassment.

730
00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:37,040
Speaker 8: What happened at the end of the interview, this was said,

731
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 8: you know we I think toward the end of the

732
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 8: interview is when I asked him to do the voice,

733
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 8: and which I felt was kind of a big moment

734
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:51,239
Speaker 8: for him, Like him doing the voice to me was

735
00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 8: like a really cathartic and possibly damaging thing. I don't know,

736
00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 8: it messed him up.

737
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:01,880
Speaker 1: I want to play this moment in its entirety because

738
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,880
Speaker 1: more than anywhere else you can hear what a struggle

739
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 1: it was just being von Meter.

740
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:11,560
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be doing my job as I didn't ask

741
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:13,840
Speaker 3: you if you would do the voice for us, you

742
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:20,239
Speaker 3: wouldn't be doing your job. I'd have to think of

743
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:23,319
Speaker 3: a clever line well, I do the voice, you know,

744
00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:26,319
Speaker 3: save up that voice. All these years we did not

745
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:29,440
Speaker 3: have a punchline, not have the line to use the

746
00:43:29,520 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 3: voice for no, look at the brain. The brain doesn't

747
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:37,880
Speaker 3: react to to It just shuts off with the switch.

748
00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:40,680
Speaker 3: My on and off switch went on. I used to

749
00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 3: do the voice. My switch went off. I can't.

750
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 10: I'm not kidding.

751
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:57,239
Speaker 3: Two hundred years ago and conquered Massachusetts. Hey, I shot

752
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:03,919
Speaker 3: was fired that was heard around the world. Thirty something

753
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 3: years ago in Dallas, Texas, another shot was fired that

754
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:11,560
Speaker 3: was heard around the world. The first bullet fired from

755
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:15,320
Speaker 3: the conquer bridge signaled the birth of the American Spirit.

756
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:21,440
Speaker 3: The second bullet fired from the Texas book Depository attempted to.

757
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:22,400
Speaker 2: Win that spirit.

758
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:25,840
Speaker 3: And we have seen in the last thirty something years

759
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:34,279
Speaker 3: how nearly successful that second bullet was. But in the

760
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 3: final analysis, there is no bullet, there is no bomb.

761
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:41,720
Speaker 3: There is no power on the face of this earth

762
00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:48,680
Speaker 3: that can destroy the American Spirit. Maybe he'd say something

763
00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:49,000
Speaker 3: like that.

764
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 10: I don't know.

765
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,880
Speaker 1: What he's saying here. It's a little bit dark, but

766
00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:08,759
Speaker 1: it's also thoughtful, kind of deep, even I don't know, optimistic,

767
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:15,760
Speaker 1: A totally different JFK. Impersonation once again, Anthony Tammanik.

768
00:45:16,600 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 12: It was interesting because in a weird way, I watched

769
00:45:18,520 --> 00:45:22,080
Speaker 12: it and aligned with it. I was like, oh, it's you.

770
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 12: You are doing the same thing. You're using this vessel

771
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:29,560
Speaker 12: to make a greater point.

772
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 2: Right, So we you know.

773
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:36,440
Speaker 8: We wrapped up the interview and he got up immediately

774
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:39,319
Speaker 8: and I followed him. But he went right into the

775
00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:44,319
Speaker 8: kitchen and grabbed a cord of vodka, cracked opened the

776
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 8: lid and just started chugging. He said, look, I needed this.

777
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 8: You know I couldn't. I got through your whole interview.

778
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:56,960
Speaker 8: I did everything, but this is you know, I have

779
00:45:57,040 --> 00:46:03,800
Speaker 8: to do this. I wasn't judging him.

780
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:06,719
Speaker 1: I can't help but wonder if Van Meter would have

781
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: been better off if he'd never discovered he could imitate Kennedy.

782
00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:13,479
Speaker 1: But what do I know, maybe after a very tough

783
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 1: childhood he was simply faded to have a rough go

784
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:20,759
Speaker 1: of it in life. If you could get into a

785
00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 1: time machine and you could go back to the moment

786
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: that he's approached by Bob Booker and Earl Dowd to

787
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:29,719
Speaker 1: do the first Family album, what would you tell him

788
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 1: as a time traveler from the future, do.

789
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:34,799
Speaker 14: It, dear, and I'll be right here. I'll be in

790
00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:37,560
Speaker 14: the background. No one will see me, no one will

791
00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 14: hear me, But I'll be here for you. I would say,

792
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:42,360
Speaker 14: do it sure?

793
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 1: Why not? That Vaughan Meter interview from nineteen ninety eight

794
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:57,799
Speaker 1: was the last the public would hear from him. He

795
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:01,640
Speaker 1: died six years later on a twenty ninth, two thousand

796
00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 1: and four, just one day after my father died. Pop

797
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:09,880
Speaker 1: always talked about the time before Kennedy was shot as

798
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:13,120
Speaker 1: a more innocent time. He heard the news on the

799
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,360
Speaker 1: car radio and pulled the late blue VW Bug he

800
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 1: was driving, the first car my parents ever owned, over

801
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:23,600
Speaker 1: to the side of the road and wept. It was

802
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 1: a different time, one where the presidency was held in

803
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: such regard that von Meter would end his routine with

804
00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 1: the assurance that it was all in good fun. We're

805
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 1: never going back to that time, and I'm not saying

806
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:40,479
Speaker 1: we should try, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't pay

807
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 1: our respects, not just to von Meter, but also to

808
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:50,360
Speaker 1: that time before that horrible day. So I want to

809
00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 1: end this mobituary with some sound from near the end

810
00:47:54,000 --> 00:48:02,719
Speaker 1: of the first Family album, Sweet Disarmingly Innocent and Yes Funny.

811
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:16,840
Speaker 13: No Everybody taking it together with Viga Shop.

812
00:48:36,239 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 1: Be sure to rate and review our podcast. You can

813
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:42,359
Speaker 1: also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can

814
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:46,280
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at Morocca. For more great content,

815
00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:50,520
Speaker 1: including video of the older vond meter, please visit mobituaries

816
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:53,960
Speaker 1: dot com. You can subscribe to Mobituaries wherever you get

817
00:48:54,000 --> 00:49:02,960
Speaker 1: your podcasts. This episode Mobituaries was produced by Megan Marcus.

818
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:07,400
Speaker 1: Our team of producers also includes Gideon Evans, Kate mccauliffe,

819
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:11,399
Speaker 1: Meghan Detree, and me Moroka. It was edited by Kate

820
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:17,280
Speaker 1: mccaulliffe and engineered by David Herman. Indispensable support from Genius Denesky,

821
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:22,080
Speaker 1: Kira Wardlow, Zach Gilcrest, Richard Warrer, the team at CBS

822
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:26,920
Speaker 1: News Radio, the JFK Presidential Library, and Joe Alessi at

823
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:30,520
Speaker 1: the CBS News Archives. Our theme music is written by

824
00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:35,880
Speaker 1: Daniel Hart and, as always, undying thanks to Rand Morrison

825
00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:39,919
Speaker 1: and John carp without whom Obituaries couldn't live