WEBVTT - JFK Impersonator Vaughn Meader: Death of a Career 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.360 Hi everyone, it's Moe. We'll be back with an all 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:07.440 new episode of the podcast next Wednesday, but this week 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:10.480 we're reaching into our archives all the way back to 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:15.040 season one to share the very first episode of Mobituaries, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.960 Von Meeter and the Death of a Career. This November 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.920 twenty second marks sixty years since the assassination of President 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.720 John F. Kennedy. Pretty Much anyone who is alive on 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.720 that day remembers where they were when they heard the 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:36.640 devastating news out of Dallas, Texas. But no one experienced 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.560 that day or its aftermath in quite the same way 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:45.400 that von Meeter did. He was the comedian who'd skyrocketed 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:50.559 to fame with his uncanny impersonation of jfk In an 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.800 instant that dark day, his livelihood ended and his life 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:59.520 radically changed. It's an episode we're proud of. We hope 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.360 you appreciate it, and be sure to tune in again 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.640 next week for an all new deep dive into the 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:14.680 people and things who never got to send off they deserved. 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.640 I think we have time for one final question. 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.040 In the late fall of nineteen sixty two, one of 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:26.480 President John F. Kennedy's closest advisors Arthur Schlessinger Junior was 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.280 driving in his car when all of a sudden, he 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.040 heard the following question come over the airwaves. 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:33.360 That's in office. 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.160 What do you think the Chans offer Jewish president? 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:38.720 A familiar voice answered. 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:40.080 Well, I think they're pretty good. 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:41.959 Now, let me say, I don't see why a president 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.120 of the Jewish faith not be President of the United States. 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.760 I know, as a Catholic I could never vote for him. 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:54.280 But other than that, his confusion was cleared up when 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.480 he learned the voice belonged to Kennedy impersonator Vaughon Meeterer, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.400 but was concerned enough that when he returned to the 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:07.400 White House he drafted a memorandum to the President. He 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:10.960 wrote the following, This raises the question of what in 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:13.640 hell a president of the United States ought to do 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.799 about mimicry. I'm guessing many of you have never heard 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.840 of von Meder, but for one brief shining moment, Okay, 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.440 a twelve month period between late nineteen sixty two and 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.240 late nineteen sixty three, he was a really big deal. 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.400 He had this parody album called The First Family, a 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.520 spoof of the Kennedys. In old video clips, he looks 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.640 like a distant Kennedy cousin, young, clean cut with a 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.480 thick head of hair, and his JFK impression he's uncanny. 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.200 Just listen today will be in nuclear de Shamelin, followed 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.400 by the un bond issue and a matter of the 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.480 trade agreement. Now first, there is a most important matter 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.200 to settle, mister gall yours was the chicken, Salad and coffee. 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:57.919 That's a dollar forty. 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.239 Family well in five weeks, this album has broken all 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.120 records in the history of the recording business. 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:05.640 It's sold well. 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.519 Get this, three and a quarter million copies in five weeks. 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.640 It took My Fair Lady album five years to sell 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:13.359 that many copies. I had. 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.240 That was late night King of his day, Jack Parr 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:20.320 marveling at the popularity of this one album. And the 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:24.400 star of the album, Von Meeter, was just about everywhere 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:29.400 until all of a sudden he wasn't. 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:34.160 From Dallas, Texas. The flash apparently official President Kennedy died 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.360 at one pm Central Standard time. 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:50.880 I'm Morocca and this is mobituaries. This mobent jfk impersonator 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:57.720 von Meeter November twenty second, nineteen sixty three. Death of 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:58.320 a career. 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:05.520 Oh are we recording. 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.800 Now, Okay, I've worked across the street from this building, 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.040 and I had no idea. I thought it was maybe 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:16.680 some NSA storage unit. I don't know how people's final 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.080 It's okay. 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:20.680 The CBS News. 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:25.160 Archives, O lock, Hey, it's Joe. 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:29.880 N That's Joe Alessi. He's managed the CBS Archives for 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.840 twenty two years now. He's the go to guy if 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.560 you need anything that was shot by CBS News during 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.640 the twenty first, twentieth century. Even the nineteenth. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.119 First thing we have is eight from eighteen ninety seven, 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.160 and that's William McKinley's inauguration. 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:45.360 You're kidding, Let's go to the back. 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:46.800 And then when I say to the back, we're going 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:47.279 to the vault. 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:47.960 Are the vault? 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:48.320 Vault? 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:49.320 It's the vault. 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:51.000 It sounds it sounds very mysterious. 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:56.119 It smells like pastrami or something. Well, I've realis lunch. 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:57.919 So you're correct on that. 0:04:58.520 --> 0:04:59.440 No, what that is? 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:05.080 That's sometimes all right, Let's go this way. 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.719 What are CBS's sort of greatest hits. 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:13.719 Well, the thing that people ask for most is the 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.080 assassination of President Kennedy. That seems to be a story 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.120 that fascinates people from the beginning right up until today, 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.160 people ask for at least once a week. 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.560 And for good reason. That horrible day in November nineteen 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.400 sixty three ended the president's life and changed the life 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.160 of the nation. That's what mister Oakes taught us in 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:38.080 high school. There was America before the assassination and America 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:43.160 after and before comedian Vaughan Meter was a household name, 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.920 So surely the CBS archives would have something on the man. 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.360 My friend Joe did not disappoint. 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.200 Three tapes of a von Meter interview sounds promising, because 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.000 that's unless those tapes are super short. 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:59.480 That's a significant interview. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.039 Yeah, I think it's a good find. 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:11.040 And so I took a look. But what I saw 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.400 and heard wasn't exactly funny. 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.279 So it looked like, you know, I could do this forever. 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.880 There was no end to the thought of gold, but 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.520 there was no rainbow either. It was had no idea 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:26.680 it was gonna be that months. 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.599 This is von Meter in nineteen ninety eight. On these 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.320 tapes he looks haggard and shake him sixty two years old, 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.760 but a rough sixty two. This was all recorded for 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:42.320 a short lived CBS cable network called Ion people. Meter 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.880 was being profiled as part of a where Are They Now? 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.479 Type series. Little of this footage made it to air. 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:50.560 Well. 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.200 I was born in Waterville the Night of the flood. 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:59.360 Abbot von Meeter was born in nineteen thirty six in Waterville, Maine, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.440 and by all accounts, had a harrowing childhood. His father 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.760 drowned when he was one, and his young mother moved 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.440 from Maine to Boston to work as a cocktail waitress. 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.600 Meeter had to shuttle between Maine and Massachusetts for much 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.480 of his youth, spending some of that time in children's homes. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.280 He says he started entertaining people to avoid punishment. When 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.600 he got into trouble near the end of high school, 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:30.800 his mother was institutionalized and Meter ran away to the army. 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.240 He ultimately was stationed in Germany, where he met the 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.920 first of his four wives and played in a band. 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.640 After his time in the service, he did a risque 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.760 piano act around the New York City area and then 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.320 moved on to Greenwich Village, where he owned a politically 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:54.320 themed comedy routine. It was at this point that he 0:07:54.440 --> 0:08:00.160 dropped his first name, Abbott. He became Vaughan Meeter and 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.600 then one fateful night, a voice came out of Meter. 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.960 It was the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.560 Yes, the gentleman over there, sir, When are we going 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:14.800 to send a man to the moon? 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:16.920 Whenever, mister Goldwater wants to go right with. 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.600 Meter started to reserve the last ten minutes of his 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:26.000 routine for an impression of Kennedy's live television press conferences. 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.080 My name is Bob Booker. I've just been in the 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.520 entertainment business all my life, and I've been very lucky. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:34.920 And I also forgot to turn off my phone. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:35.480 Now, that's fine. 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.200 If it's a gig, pick it up. 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:38.440 I don't even know this Bruce. 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:41.560 Back in the nineteen sixties, Bob Booker was a disc 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:45.000 jockey who, along with his partner Earl Dowd, wanted to 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.400 capitalize on the fascination with the new president as well 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.920 as the popularity of comedy albums. These were the days 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.920 of Stan Freeberg, Shelley Berman, Nichols and May, and the 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.160 great Bob Newhart, who had just won Album of the 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.560 Year at the Gram's, a first for a comedy album. 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.959 That classic bit with Newheart as President Lincoln's press agent 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:07.320 still holds up. 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:14.440 I sweetheart, how's jEdit Bert. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:16.600 Sort of a drag? 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.960 So we were looking for the next thing to do, like, 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.080 you know, so we could have a meal the next day. 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.960 We said, you know, Kennedy make a great album. 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.160 So what was your concept for this album. 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:37.440 You've got this giant star. He's a movie star, he's 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:41.240 a political star, he's he's a world star. I got 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.280 in such a good looking man with this beautiful wife. Right. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.400 We said, if you take this character and the family 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:54.240 and put them in everyday situations, that's funny. 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.400 This was the beginning of what would become the First 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.199 Family album. The only problem was they had no idea 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.360 who could play the head of this First Family, That 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.480 is until they turned on the TV the evening of 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:09.720 July third, nineteen sixty two. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.600 No, but he's from the New school and has served 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.680 his apprenticeship in the little clubs that feature you know, 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.520 the topic of comedians, the kids with the rye offbeat 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:19.880 comments on life today. 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:25.160 Does that voice sound familiar? It's Jim Bacchus aka mister 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:29.600 Magoo aka Thurston Howl, the third from Gilligan's Island. He 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:34.320 was hosting a summer replacement show called talent Scouts on CBS. 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.240 And I know, I know you're going to be delighted 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.440 with the TV debut of mister Vaughan Meeter. 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:44.319 Meeters started off with his take on the news headlines 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:44.840 of the day. 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.560 There's one that might be a little more familiar to you. 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.120 Congressman read Write of Alabama was quoted as saying, literacy 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:53.520 test ain't proven nothing. 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.320 Listen, I have no idea how funny or fresh is 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.880 topicals stuff actually was. There's that old quote from playwright 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.640 George S. Kaufman, satire is what closes on Saturday Night. 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:11.720 But his impression of Kennedy was and is nothing short 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:12.720 of sensational. 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:16.520 He's doing my act, he's doing my gestures, and he's 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:18.920 using my lines. Do not ask what this country can 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:19.320 do for you. 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:21.480 That's one of my original lines. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:28.000 When he did Kennedy, it was perfect, absolutely perfect. 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.280 Bob Booker and Earl Dowd had found their man. But 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.680 there was something else striking about that performance, A kind 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.800 of disclaimer he made at the end of his starmaking routine, 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:42.000 something I can't imagine any comic doing today. 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:44.720 Yes, I'd like to make one final statement at this time, 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.240 and I would like to make that final statement as 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.679 myself von Meta, and that is the thing. Thank you 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.080 for the United States, a country where it is possible 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.360 for a young comedian like myself to come out on 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:01.160 television before millions of people and kid leading citizen, thank 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:01.880 you good night. 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.760 It was very interesting to me because he was to 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:08.360 me non controversial. 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.400 I wanted to get the perspective of a modern day 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:12.840 presidential impersonator. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.359 I decide how big my failures are, and they're. 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:23.240 The biggest way Meet Anthony Tammanik. He impersonates President Donald Trump, 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.680 most recently on Comedy Central's The President Show. 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:31.199 I wonder if that caution was sort of to say, listen, 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.240 I'm making fun with him, not of him. 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:38.640 This is a telegram that right after von Meter made 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.920 his television debut, he wrote a telegram of the White House. 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.079 He wrote this to you President. Yeah, dear mister President, 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.079 I respectfully call your attention to the Talent Scouts Show, 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.200 which we taped last night for viewing on CBS Television 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.840 Tuesday night, July third, at ten pm. I impersonated you, 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.720 but I did it with great affection and respect. Hope 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:05.320 it with your approval, respectfully. Von Meter. Wow, that is wild. 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.440 We actually went through eleven I think turned down. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.600 Booker and Dowd had their concept, their Kennedy, and a 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:19.400 demo of the album. No One was biting, though. Booker 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.400 remembers one meeting at ABC. In the room that day 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.520 was Jim Haggerty, who was the vice president of News 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:30.400 and a former White House Press secretary under Eisenhower, Kennedy's predecessor. 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.440 He said, I think the Communists will love it. I 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.680 think Russia will love it, and every communist country in 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.400 the world will love it. And he slammed the door 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:45.160 behind him and going out. He was outraged, right, So 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:49.160 we were just insulting the president and his family. He 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:51.400 was not a man with a great sense of humor. 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.160 Mister, it doesn't sound like it. But did it give 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.760 you any doubt? Did you for a moment, go, boy, 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.600 maybe this is disrespectful. Maybe we should didn't do it. 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.240 This was place number twelve that we'd been thrown in 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.920 the street. Okay, didn't discourage us at all. 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.320 We knew we had a hit record. I would have 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.480 bet anything on it. We did bet everything on it. 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.400 While ABC passed, the president of the network suggested they 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:22.760 try a smaller label called Cadence, run by Archie Blyier. 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.440 Picked up the phone, called him set the meeting. The 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:28.560 next morning. We went over and they bought it instantly. 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.360 They'd overcome one hurdle getting a record deal, but as 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.480 it turned out, recording the album before a live audience 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:37.920 came with its own set of challenges. 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.720 This is a special report from CBS News the Cuban Crisis. 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:46.520 Talk about an evening. Oh what an evening. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.520 That's the night of President Kennedy's big speech about. 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.240 The Cuban crisis. And we had the TV sets in 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.920 the back room and we watched the speech where everybody 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:57.200 believed going to. 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.000 War within the past. 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:04.320 We unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:09.320 of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:10.240 imprisoned island. 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:11.880 So the show starts. 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.120 The audience has no idea that President Kennedy is on 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.520 TV addressing the nation about this. 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.840 Really terrible crisis. Yes it was, And how does the 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:22.240 show go? 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:27.120 Perfect? And I did have a fear that the cast 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.320 had heard this speech also, so we did. We did 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:35.320 a quick little speech right before Hey, it's showtime. We're 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:40.000 going out there and kill okay, and everybody did it. 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:41.600 Didn't affect anybody. 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.160 After making it through that crisis within a crisis, Bob 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.840 Booker handed off the album to a DJ friend at 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.240 WIS Radio in New York, and. 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.680 He was going on the air in ten minutes, and 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.600 I said, look what I've got and he looked at 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.800 it and he played one cut and he said, Jesus, Pob, 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.600 that's a satial. He went on the air for three hours. 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.240 He played the album continuously. 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:12.960 No more Family for a while. Now, I promise, now 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:14.160 turn off the light. 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.720 Good Night, Jackie, good night, jack Night, Bobby night, ethel. 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.520 Every light in the place lit up. I mean it 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.200 was crazy. The phone calls from the other stations were 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:37.200 coming in, television bookings for all in three hours, broke 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.000 it wide open, wond Jockey. 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:44.400 The First Family album took off like a rocket, and 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:51.440 Von Meeter was in for the right of his life. 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.680 Von Meeter was playing a gig in Detroit and didn't 0:16:58.680 --> 0:16:59.720 know what hit him. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:01.720 I couldn't leave until I get back to New York. 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.320 And I walked down the street and heard my voice 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.240 being broadcast and I just couldn't keep up. 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:08.760 With it, man, I mean, it was on fire. 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:10.840 Can give me a sense of what that felt like? 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:11.640 What did you think? 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.320 No, there's no way insanity. 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.600 Everyone wanted von Meeterer to appear on their show, including 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.080 beloved singer Andy Williams, who was hosting a popular new 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:24.680 variety series on NBC. 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:26.200 Welcome to our show. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:27.320 Thank you very much, Andy. 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:29.320 It's a pleasure to be here. You know, I've been looking. 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.640 Forward all week to working with Vron because I wanted 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:33.880 to sit right next to the guy who. 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:35.160 Was sold well. 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:37.320 He's had the most successful album in the history of 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.240 the recordiness, the First Family Album. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:44.119 Okay, there's a good reason The First Family was the 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:45.960 best selling album of its time. 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.520 It's a total blast. It's not really a sad tire. 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.760 It's parody the kind of fun zany takeoff that I 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.000 used to love reading in Mad Magazine when I was 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:58.760 a kid, Like when they turned chips into chimps, or 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.560 the Godfather into the Odd Father. That kind of a thing. 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.240 It's not really meant to make you think, it's meant 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:08.000 to make you laugh. Okay, so some references may not 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:09.720 play for today's audiences. 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.000 Eva, you drive a hard bargain. 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.200 Like monopoly with Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirkson. 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:22.000 I'll show you a boardwalk and park place, but. 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.399 A surprising amount of it really holds up. 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:29.320 I'd like to ask the following question, faultois philipp. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.200 Now speak English? Jackie? 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:36.280 Sure, the Jackie sounds more like Marilyn Monroe, which probably 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.639 didn't make the first lady very happy. But come on, 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.600 to be fair, who didn't think the real Jackie sounded 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.480 a little like Marilyn during that famous TV tour of 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:45.119 the White House. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.880 Yes, this room is everything in it really is from 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:50.520 the time of President Monroe. 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.840 Of course, the album does its own take on that. 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.680 Tour and left at the Dai Madison Pinakorom. 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.560 While most of the jokes are pretty gentle, there are 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:01.760 a few digs. 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:03.640 Ask the Richard Nixon dam way. 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.480 One of the biggest laughs comes here when the President 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.240 divvies up Caroline and John John's bath. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.520 Tool nine of the pet Boach, two of the Yogi 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.359 Bear of beach Balls, the Yah Ball of Hilly Putty 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:22.000 belonged to Caroline, nine of the pet Boach, one. 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.200 Of the Yogi Ya bearra. 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.680 Beach Balls, and the two Howdy Duty plastic bouncing clowns, 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:28.920 Ah Baby Johns. 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.720 The rubbishwan is mine. 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:37.240 I'm imagining people everywhere look at home, around the water cooler, 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.240 at work, repeating that rubber Swan line, and apparently they did. 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:43.000 I thought it was pretty funny. 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.840 Anthony A. Tamanik, who impersonates President Trump, knows the album well. 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.800 His grandfather played it for him when he was growing up. 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.840 But I also wanted his take on how Meeter looked 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.119 as Kennedy. Is it a good impression? 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:58.400 Yeah, it is a good impression. 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.280 It's a good impression, becau because a good impression doesn't 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:08.639 require any makeup or accoutrement. The idea should be that 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.719 the presence of the person is what you feel like. 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.159 There's a will that presents Kennedy in that moment. 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:18.800 There is not, and I say this with a great pride. 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.680 There is not one ugly joke in the entire thing. 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.439 There's not even a really nasty political joke anywhere in 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:28.040 the album. 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:32.800 Yes, it's all very safe from today's vantage point. Turns out, 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.399 and this was a surprise to me. The producers in 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:37.720 cast were pushing the limits of comedy. 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:40.200 I had the first I must level with you, I 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:47.360 had some misgivings about this idea for reasons of my own. 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.000 That's late Night host Jack Parr again he was Johnny 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:55.640 Carson before Johnny Carson, issuing a disclaimer before inviting von 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:59.640 Meeter on stage. Parr then goes on to quote famed 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:04.040 Anthwer apologist Margaret Meade. She too had weighed in on 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.320 the First Family album because well why not, she told 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.960 Life Magazine quote, this making fun of people in authority 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:15.080 is very healthy. It is the difference between democracy and tyranny. 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:20.600 End quote. The album continued selling like crazy. But what 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:27.760 was the White House thinking? Remember presidential advisor Arthur Schlessinger, 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.760 who was so concerned about that voice on the radio 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.560 that he wrote a memo about the dangers of impersonating 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:38.800 the president. He wrote, the radio listener twirls his dial, 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:41.720 comes in in the middle of things, and rarely listens 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:47.040 with full attention. Anyway, Schlessinger concluded on an ominous note, 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:54.440 remember Orson Wells and the Martian invasion. Again, this comedy 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:58.080 seems completely benign today. But boy, it raised an alarm 0:21:58.119 --> 0:21:59.440 in the president's inner circle. 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:05.080 Well, it got dangerous because the people around Kennedy, around 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:10.800 any president, are so protective the minute they heard someone 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:14.480 doing Kennedy on the air so accurately, Because Vaughan was 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:17.879 really good with it. They went screaming. They even went 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.359 to the FCC to try and stop the album. 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.480 Clearly and thankfully, those attempts weren't successful. But I was 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:27.639 fascinated to learn that Schlessinger took the time to go 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.320 back to the days of FDR to seek out some 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:34.520 kind of precedent with regard to presidential impersonations. It turns 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:39.000 out Franklin Roosevelt's press secretary, Stephen Early, had directly asked 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:43.160 media outlets not to give airtime to Roosevelt impersonators. 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:45.679 It's been a long time since a president and his 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.760 family have been subjected. It was such a heavy barrage 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:52.840 of teasing and fun poking and satire. And there have 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:56.359 been books on backstairs at the White House, and cartoon 0:22:56.440 --> 0:23:03.040 books with clever sayings, and photo albums with balloons and 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:03.440 the rest. 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:06.520 And now I smash hit for record. 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:09.840 Can you tell us whether you read and listen to 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:13.000