Merchandising Kennedy
FENTRESS, CALVIN
ON TELEVISION By Calvin Fentress Merchandising Kennedy It television John Kennedy well during his lifetime and in the days immediately following his death. it is equally true that he served it...
...The creative demands upon the television industry were minimal...
...Aside from this unspeakable score, The Young Man From Boston added nothing new to the Kennedy legend, much less to our knowledge or understanding of the late President...
...John Kennedy in the sky...
...Admirable...
...Let us count the ways: 1) Channel 7, in a heady break from dictatorial sponsor control, decided to ignore the request of the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut Plymouth dealers that there be no commercial messages...
...He was warmed by her splendor In that wonderful year of his pride...
...Rather, Unusual Photographs and Films, Many From Private Collectors, Not Previously Made Public...
...Besides, you know, the sea-Nature Forever, Ashes to Ashes, the Eternal Verities...
...The best that can be said for the production is that visually it was less offensive than audibly...
...Stark, terribly stark trees, against the sky, with the sunlight dancing through the branches...
...At one point in the narration, Joseph Cotten noted that as President, Kennedy "cherished more than ever now the moments of private life.' Perhaps it is no longer important, or perhaps a President foregoes a private life, even in death, but somehow it seems that his friends and family do a disservice to his memory by distributing to the mass media every last photo and film of those few private moments he "cherished...
...Taken as a whole, the pictures of JKF, if not especially original, were palatable...
...The documentary was produced by KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and the network, apparently overwhelmed by the show's artistic virtues and/or commercial potential, distributed it to ABC outlets around the country...
...for instance, I had trouble understanding it at Lyndon Johnson's inauguration (but then I had trouble understanding Lyndon Johnson at Lyndon Johnson's inauguration...
...Now only a cynic would insist that if you have seen 10 photographs of Jack and Joe Jr...
...This handsome album is not for sale anywhere, but your Plymouth dealer has one waiting for you with his compliments...
...Hats off...
...Now a word for the sponsor...
...Hardly...
...Unlike the musical score, it could not be caned memorable...
...John Kennedy, tall as a tree, against the sky...
...For 100 years later, one can purchase a Gettysburg Address earring in Salem, Illinois, or even a Lincoln automobile from a New York, New Jersey or Connecticut Lincoln dealer...
...But not just any old photographs and films...
...You get the picture...
...leaving Kennedy and later his wife to provide the inspiration, the taste and the quality...
...Interspersed with the photos of John Kennedy were endless shots of the sea, with waves and rocks and an army of seagulls-the whole sea bit, if you will...
...it is equally true that he served it well...
...In this regard, one hopes that the special thanks proffered to Mrs...
...together, you have seen the basic Jack and Joe series...
...That he would have been painfully embarassed by the audio portion of The Young Man From Boston seems to me, however, a certainty...
...3) The New York, New Jersey and Connecticut Plymouth dealers are consummate hypocrites...
...Extremely dramatic...
...To achieve a superior level of programming, the medium had only to record happenings...
...Not just the sea, though, Trees, too...
...Frankly, I have always had trouble understanding the Mormon Tabernacle Choir...
...A brief filmed sequence showed the President's son being tossed into the air by a friend of the President, while Kennedy, inhibited from such activity by his back injury, stood forlornly to the side...
...The Plymouth dealer in your neighborhood will be listed in the Yellow Pages...
...Primarily, we were shown a multitude of photographs, film clips and home movies, arranged in more or less chronological order"John F. Kennedy, from childhood to Presidency...
...There was a good deal of additional talk about "the sea he loved.' All of the talk was lackluster and much of it was abysmal...
...Joseph Cotton served as narrator, and was called on to say things like, "John Kennedy wanted to serve at the living keel [the living keel?] of the country at that compass point where the rudder of national life was situated, where one steered the ship of state, head into the wind, and a young man could take some part in the chain of command...
...The American Broadcasting Company's recent 60minute special, The Young Man From Boston, hardly does that...
...Talk about creativity...
...The Kennedys are attractive people to look at, and nightly there are far greater wastes of time on television than to look at them...
...No matter...
...2) This is not a commercial message at all (in which case it could open an entirely new field of similar non-commercial messages), but is instead a public service...
...But those weren't the only pictures shown on The Young Man From Boston...
...But now, unless television wishes to rerun the press conferences (not a half bad idea), it must provide some taste and creativity of its own if it hopes to recall John Kennedy in a meaningful way...
...Jack Kennedy loved the sea, don't you see...
...How are we to interpret this message...
...Perhaps, in some distant time, America will stop bartering the memory of John Kennedy and start honoring it...
...The "original music" was performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Gordon MacRae and the Kingston Trio...
...EDUCATION: These are the bells that called to classes, Somebody fails and someone passes, Time for a lad to learn, Time for a young man to dream and learn...
...The plight of mankind...
...I can think of no greater disservice to the lyricist (Paul Francis Webster) than to record a sampling of his treatment of Kennedy's life...
...This is a pity, for it means that the lyrics sung by the Kingston Trio will also be preserved...
...Can they help it if Plymouth showrooms are the most convenient spots to institute this memory-honing process...
...Because of the nature of this program," we were informed at its start, the sponsoring New York, New Jersey and Connecticut Plymouth dealers had "requested that there be no commercial messages...
...Besides, one or two pictures were unusual...
...Rather, it demeaned the man, in the sense that every time he is used as a creature of Tin Pan Alley or the two-bit anthologists (More Kennedy Wit, 175 Little Known Facts About JFK) or the Broadway souvenir shops ("A Special Delivery Letter From Heaven"), his memory is demeaned...
...The sky across which this profile in courage presumably was written naturally was depicted on the screen, full of foreboding clouds, pierced by enthralling sunlight...
...In any case, the choir's lyrics that I had trouble understanding on The Young Man From Boston had to do with "the Kennedy years, a comet that blazes, blazes across the skies " No doubt, ABC will press a record of the Original Soundtrack, so that the words to this cosmic hymn will not be lost to future generations...
...He's listed in the Yellow Pages...
...And somewhere, in some secret place, let us hope that there is a last, single, unpublished photograph of John Kennedy enjoying a private moment-a photograph that will never appear over the ABC Television Network, a home movie that will be kept at home...
...He followed far A distant star And wrote across the sky A profile in courage In words that cannot die...
...But midway through the production, it was interrupted by the following announcement: "So that you can keep your memories of John F. Kennedy sharp and vivid throughout the years, the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut Plymouth dealers have published a special commemorative photo album...
...Kennedy at the end of the program were due to courteous tolerance on her part rather than to enthusiastic approbation of the finished product...
...CHILDHOOD: This was the child, his world of beaches, This is the length his small world reaches, Acres of sand and days of sport, Who wouldn't love Hyannis Port...
...Perhaps these things are possible, but only perhaps...
...PROGENY: Shaggy dogs just for John-John, Caroline had a pony of course...
...the Plymouth dealers are genuinely concerned that we keep our memories of John F. Kennedy sharp and vivid throughout the years...
...And certainly, it added nothing to his stature...
...Ominous...
...Is it not cause for wonder and concern that we continue to celebrate the memory of John Kennedy, whom we prized for his taste, with a barrage of the most tasteless trash imaginable...
...Still, even the most avid Kennedy student would have experienced a degree of difficulty in distinguishing the usual Kennedy pictures from the Unusual Photographs Not Previously Made Public...
...Gordon MacRae's contribution to the proceedings was the following verse, sung with the same inspirational fervor which he lends to "You'll Never Walk Alone" in his nightclub act: This was a man Just like the rest of us...
...In many ways He was the best of us...
...COURTSHIP: She was dark, she was slender, And she walked through the world starry-eyed...
...If Joseph Cotten had delivered lines like that in The Third Man, he would not be in demand as a narrator for TV specials today...
...It was called Macoroni, What a very odd name for a horse...
...I am not prepared to say that President Kennedy would have been offended by the pictures of himself, his family and the sea...
...To get your copy, simply stop by his showroom and ask for one...
Vol. 48 • October 1965 • No. 21
