How Kennedy satirist "died" with JFK

When dawn broke on November 22, 1963, the most popular comic in America arguably was a man name Vaughn Meader. A Kennedy satirist, Meader hitched his star to President Kennedy's fame. But after that fateful day in Dallas, his career would never be the same. Charles Osgood reports.

[@davidhubbell1687]

He was hilarious! Sad that this bright man's career died when JFK was killed.

[@clancykobane9102]

he handled the career death with class and dignity.

[@tomsullivan6032]

Unfortunately his Kennedy gig was cut short after 11-22-63. A shame because he was right on with the JFK stuff.

[@rogerlowe4185]

I remember listening to this as a 8 year old boy. The sadness that engulfed The nation, then the Beatles Snapped us out of depression. America was never the same.

[@liljimlambert7]

Beatles and drugs

[@barbaraalexander3178]

Vaughn Meader was a terrific talent and a comic and cultural sensation in his day. By the start of 1963, he and his First Family cast members had sold more than 4 million record albums, something never before done in the field of comedy and a phenomenal number of record sales at the time by any standard. Vaughn played to sold-out audiences at Carnegie Hall in January 1963. But on November 22, 1963, Vaughn too became a victim of the "magic bullet" and it took years for his career to begin anew.

[@johnmurphy5064]

The First Family album stayed in parents record collection for decades. Although, my parents never listened to it again after President Kennedy assassination.

[@OnePost909]

That's really quite interesting about them never listening to it again.

[@jessebaldwin2661]

I was a teenager when Vaughn Meader's sensational comedy record became a huge hit. We had one and just about everyone I knew had a copy.

[@UrAveragePOS]

That's such a sad way of putting it, "The day I died..."

[@That_Random_Bloke]

It’s a slightly similar story to a British impressionist called Mike Yarwood. He did spot on impressions of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath (the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the 1970s). When Thatcher took over, he was lost and it all went downhill. Although not quite as drastically as it did for poor Mr Meader

[@damianop100]

Vaughn Meader's ultimate comedic irony.

[@hebneh]

Both John Kennedy and his wife Jackie had very distinctive voices, and since both were so popular from 1960 to 1963, it was easy to refer to them in jokes as well as to imitate them vocally.

[@dannyregal]

Yes it would be pointless impersonating someone without a distinctive voice as no one would no who they were impersonating .. Distinctive and famous are the usual

[@NJGuy1973]

On the night of Nov 22, 1963, Lenny Bruce has a show booked. He took the stage, stood silently for a minute or two, then said, "Boy, is Vaughn Meader f*cked!"

[@tomlavelle8518]

I always felt bad for Vaughn. He was very talented, and his impressions were light hearted, and not mean spirited like the so called “comics” of today’s late night shows.

[@kenanacampora]

What a great guy! Such lighthearted comedy to poke gentle fun at a WW2 Veteran from the Solomon Island Campaign.

[@toddfritz8683]

Put all his eggs in the wrong basket.

[@mariefortunato4737]

❤ Have this album! ❤

[@user-tv8mg2vh5f]

I still have the First Family album. Oh, if we only could live those times again.

[@rosswood5480]

art imitating life imitating life

[@liljimlambert7]

Mort Saul and Him Both lost their careers when they killed Kennedy one for looking into the case and the other because he killed the role of parodying JFK so perfectly he couldn’t top it and knew it

[@abhijitsen7749]

What a man.

[@mariefortunato4737]

Loved Vaughn Meader!

[@ivettek3190]

Rip Vaughn Meader

[@julietteyork6293]

I bought this album on eBay. Very moved by his comment.

[@libertyann439]

Too sad

[@octopibingo]

I believe, given a year, people would have loved hearing his JFK impression and would have seen it as a tribute.

[@mercoid]

“Errrrrr Rehhhhhhh……”

[@Kerorofan1990]

Kind of his own fault for not having more impersonations in his repertoire.

[@the4tierbridge]

He did! It's just that he became so associated with the JFK role that no one ever really wanted him for anything else! A shame really.

[@majorsanders4525]

awww

[@beppo2814]

That's the risk you take with your career when you're a one- trick pony. Meanwhile Rich Little's career heyday lasted through 2 decades.

[@nixiety]

next level glazing

[@TralfazConstruction]

My parents, then in their late-twenties, knew it; they never played that First Family album ever again. The album itself was relegated to the bottom shelf inside a coffee table then became lost to time. We'd just come through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the untimely death of Marilyn Monroe but the general sense of Camelot was intact. I was seven years-old when my parents and my maternal aunt went to D.C. for President Kennedy's funeral. Thankfully, some silent home movie footage, since preserved in digital form, exists from my parents' trip to pay their respects for our slain president. In the style of Richard Burton as Arthur in Camelot: "Ask every person if he's heard the story And tell it strong and clear if he has not That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory called Camelot."

[@johncasciello4123]

And those anyone remember a guy going by the name of:'SENATOR BOBBY'? HE cut a 45 single called :'WILD THING' which was a take off on the THROGGS hit song WILD THING! He impersonated SENATOR ROBERT KENNEDY singing the song and it got up to #12 or so on the CASH BOX TOP 100 in FEBRUARY 1967* and how about MOHAMMED ALI the boxer champ singing:I AM THE GREATEST on one side of a 45 single vinyl record and STAND BY ME on the other side? Wow talk about collectors items! Since I,M here how about the TOP 10 POP SONGS of FEBRUARY 25,1967: 10 BEAT GOES ON.SONNY/CHER 9 KIND OF A DRAG.BUCKINGHAMS 8 MY CUP RUNNETH OVER.ED AMES 7 PENNY LANE.BEATLES 6 RUBY TUESDAY.STONES 5 59 STREET BRIDGE SONG 4 98.6 KEITH 3 GEORGY GIRL.SEEKERS 2 BABY,I NEED YOUR LOVIN'.JOHNNY RIVERS 1 NASHVILLE CATS.LOVIN, SPOONFUL- TOP SONGS of FEBRUARY 1967 : SNOOPY VS RED BARON.ROYAL GUARDSMEN* THAT,S LIFE.FRANK SINATRA* I,M A BELIEVER.MONKEES* GOOD THING.PAUL REVERE/RAIDERS* WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.NEW VAUDVILLE BAND* SUGAR TOWN.NANCY SINATRA* WORDS OF LOVE.MAMAS/PAPAS* MELLOW YELLOW.DONOVAN* TELL IT TO THE RAIN.4 SEASONS* GIMME SOME LOVIN,.SPENCER DAVIS GROUP* THEN YOU CAN TELL ME GOODBYE.CASINOS* LOVE IS HERE NOW YOUR GONE.SUPREMES* PRETTY BALERINA.LEFT BANKE* I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT.ELECTRIC PRUNES* HAPPY TOGETHER.TURTLES

[@DRIVEIN101]

The Hardly Worthit Players with Bill Minkin as "Senator Bobby"

[@hebneh]

I remember him and his parody song. I used to have some 1960s radio commercials on tape and there was an early Toyota radio ad from 1967 or '68 - before this brand was really big in the USA - and several of them were done by an RFK impersonator, similar to the "Wild Thing" record. Of course, just like his brother, Robert Kennedy's assassination ended any impersonators of him.

[@crixxxxxxxxx]

He needed more versatility than just one good impression to outlive the passing of JFK.

[@the4tierbridge]

He had many voices. And was funny too! It's just that he became so associated with the JFK role that no one ever really wanted him for anything else! Truly a shame really.

[@richardbittikofer988]

Moral of the story? You can not live off the other lives that feed you❗ 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@OnePost909]

Vaughn Meader was not even close to being the most popular comic in America on Nov. 22 1963. While it's true he was selling a heckuva lot of records and making a ton of money, his overall popularity was significantly less than that of Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Alan King, Johnny Carson, Woody Allen, and Bob Newhart, and I would probably want to toss Jonathan Winters and Jerry Lewis into the mix. (Meanwhile the most popular comedy venue for anyone under age 16 was Mad magazine which had millions of readers.) Meader's popularity in 1963 was roughly the same as Allan Sherman's, whose comic album "My Son, the Nut" was number one on the charts for eight weeks that year - i.e., Meader and Sherman sold lots of records but were not in the league of those other folks. Everyone in America over the age of 12 knew Jack Benny in 1963 and most everyone loved him. The same cannot be said of Vaughn Meader.

[@hibob418]

I think you miss his point. For one brief year, Vaughn Meader was everywhere - radio, college campuses, nightclubs, network TV, with running appearances on the Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar and Andy Williams shows. He made 5 grand (in 1962 dollars) being booked on New Years Eve. That's Sinatra money and more than the average annual salary for the time. He was truly a household word, and opened the door for multimedia presidential political satire in this country. Before then it just wasn't done outside of newspaper cartoons. Everybody knew who he was. But having an instantaneous fall off the career cliff is why hardly anyone knows who he is now. And by the way, Carson didn't even start on the Tonight Show until October of '62.

[@dannyregal]

Of corse That's why it was over for him after jfk What you trying to say That's the whole point of the vid that he only had his moment because of jfk and then ended his moment that day

[@OnePost909]

@@dannyregal The text that's supplied with the video quotes Charles Osgood of CBS saying "the most popular comic in America, arguably." He was not even close. It's not arguable. It's a major inaccuracy on the part of the usually reliable Osgood. That, obviously, is what I'm "trying to say," and what I in fact say.

[@LetsTalkAboutSportsLIve]

Rest in pace i mean he did a great JFK. But take it as a lesson. I began doing sales in my youth cold calling accidental death and dismemberment insurance to people trying to eat dinner. I then went on and up to a multi award winning sales person at a fortune 500 company. What it taught me was one trick ponies dont live long. Meaning regardless of what measure of success your operating at it can end the next day new program And that if you cant reinvent yourself on a dime? Then much in the manner of Vaugn you die when the program dies. Its a teaching lesson.

[@JesseWright68]

Died, not "died". CBS should know better.

[@blobydude420productions4]

Is anybody going to tell him

[@RodrigodeSalvoBraz]

Uh? The satirist did not literally die, so the quotes are appropriate.

[@community1949]

See how JFK defused Vaugn Meader - he just laughed it off. Can you see Trump doing this? No, I can't either.

[@dunky1984]

Nancy Desch - back then you could laugh about yourself. A big difference from today.

[@community1949]

Yeah I agree - JFK had confidence and Trump does not!!!

[@epaddon]

From Thomas Reeves biography of JFK, "A Question of Character." "The President assigned his special assistant [Arthur Schlesinger] the task of seeing what could be done to prevent Kennedy imitators like comedian Vaughn Meader from being broadcast on the radio." In short, the private JFK did not match the public JFK, which was true about every other facet of him (the phony "Camelot" image and the marriage that was a total fraud). With Trump, what you get is total honesty of what he is. And I'd note that there was no ideological agenda in what Meader did in contrast to the garbage that emanates from the likes of SNL.

[@hibob418]

@@epaddon "With Trump, what you get is total honesty of what he is..." Wow, really? Then why did he try to bury affairs with adult film actresses by buying them off, or acting like he didn't really know Jeffrey Epstein, (especially after being accused of raping a 13 year-old girl at one of Epstein's parties) What do think Michael Cohen did for a living? He shut people up - threatening Penn never to release Trump's transcripts or grades. You call that 'total honesty'? By the way, ask Melania about their fraudulent marriage sometime...

[@epaddon]

@@hibob418 When it comes to Jeffrey Epstein, I suggest you take a long look at the Slickmeister who is the one that's been directly implicated in participating in his shenanigans (Clinton was a passenger on the "Lolita Express"). But of course the rear-end smooching propagandists who call themselves "journalists" don't report on that (they instead felt it was necessary to tout Michael Avenatti as a presidential candidate) because it's a true story rather than a Fake one. (See Bill and Hilary also for what the definition of a joke marriage is. And before that there was Al and Tipper, Teddy and Joan and of course Jack and Jackie)

[@dr.angelofrank9514]

von meter

[@joaquinpraveenvishnu8509]

I'm from Malaysia and born in 1985. I found out for first time the name John F. Kennedy when i was 12. I remember watching a documentary about the assassination aired in Malaysian tv I believe on Nov 23, 1997. It was the day I died