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.

[davidhubbell]

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

[clancykobane]

he handled the career death with class and dignity.

[tomsullivan]

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

[barbaraalexander]

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.

[johnmurphy]

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

[rogerlowe]

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.

[kenanacampora]

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

[jessebaldwin]

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..."

[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.

[NJGuy]

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!"

[tomlavelle]

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.

[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.

[damianop]

Vaughn Meader's ultimate comedic irony.

[davidcurran-zg]

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

[octopibingo]

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

[julietteyork]

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

[liljimlambert]

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

[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."

[Kerorofan]

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