The Perils of Impersonation
May 9, 2017 8:36 AM Subscribe
In 1962, singer/pianist/comedian Vaughn Meader realized that his Maine/Boston accent sounded a lot like President John F. Kennedy. He quickly worked up a routine and recorded an album called The First Family, which went septuple platinum and won the Grammy for Album of the Year (beating out Tony Bennett, Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd, Ray Charles, and Allan Sherman). Kennedy himself once told a DNC meeting, "Vaughn Meader was busy tonight, so I came myself." (As it happened, on the night TFF was recorded, Kennedy debuted some famous material as well.)
Meader became one of the biggest comics in the U.S. practically overnight, and recorded the less-successful The First Family, Volume 2. Some have said that more people heard Meader's voice as Kennedy at the time than heard Kennedy's actual voice, to the point that latter-day impersonations (e.g., Mayor Quimby on The Simpsons) are more parodies of Meader than of Kennedy. But just as quickly as he became famous as a JFK impersonator, Meader grew tired of his typecasting, and in July 1963, he left his record label to sign with MGM, intent on becoming a more general satirist rather than leaning on his impression.
And then, on November 22nd, 1963, Meader got into a cab in Milwaukee. The cabbie recognized him and said "Did you hear about Kennedy?" Meader thought the cabbie was starting a joke, so he replied "No, how does it go?" He then learned of Kennedy's assassination.
Lenny Bruce started his standup show that night with "Boy, is Vaughn Meader fucked." Bruce was right -- the TFF albums were quickly pulled from record stores, and at least two of Meader's pre-taped television appearances were cancelled (the tape of his episode of The Joey Bishop Show was reportedly destroyed). He released a non-Kennedy comedy album in early 1964 to virtually no sales or airplay; Meader was simply too tied to Kennedy for a mourning nation.
Eventually, he resumed his bluegrass career in the band Abbott Meader and the Honky-Tonk Angels, a popular local act in his native Maine ("Vaughn" was his middle name). Meader died in 2004, and was remembered by Rich Little. The documentary First Impersonator wove Meader's story with that of George W. Bush impersonator Brent Mendenhall, showing how tenuous a career one can have when you happen to look or sound like someone else more famous.
(post inspired by last week's Futility Closet; Meader is the last lateral thinking puzzle, starting at 23:30)
Meader became one of the biggest comics in the U.S. practically overnight, and recorded the less-successful The First Family, Volume 2. Some have said that more people heard Meader's voice as Kennedy at the time than heard Kennedy's actual voice, to the point that latter-day impersonations (e.g., Mayor Quimby on The Simpsons) are more parodies of Meader than of Kennedy. But just as quickly as he became famous as a JFK impersonator, Meader grew tired of his typecasting, and in July 1963, he left his record label to sign with MGM, intent on becoming a more general satirist rather than leaning on his impression.
And then, on November 22nd, 1963, Meader got into a cab in Milwaukee. The cabbie recognized him and said "Did you hear about Kennedy?" Meader thought the cabbie was starting a joke, so he replied "No, how does it go?" He then learned of Kennedy's assassination.
Lenny Bruce started his standup show that night with "Boy, is Vaughn Meader fucked." Bruce was right -- the TFF albums were quickly pulled from record stores, and at least two of Meader's pre-taped television appearances were cancelled (the tape of his episode of The Joey Bishop Show was reportedly destroyed). He released a non-Kennedy comedy album in early 1964 to virtually no sales or airplay; Meader was simply too tied to Kennedy for a mourning nation.
Eventually, he resumed his bluegrass career in the band Abbott Meader and the Honky-Tonk Angels, a popular local act in his native Maine ("Vaughn" was his middle name). Meader died in 2004, and was remembered by Rich Little. The documentary First Impersonator wove Meader's story with that of George W. Bush impersonator Brent Mendenhall, showing how tenuous a career one can have when you happen to look or sound like someone else more famous.
(post inspired by last week's Futility Closet; Meader is the last lateral thinking puzzle, starting at 23:30)
At some point, soon hopefully, we will be able to say, "Boy, is Alec Baldwin fucked."
posted by HuronBob at 9:13 AM on May 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by HuronBob at 9:13 AM on May 9, 2017 [10 favorites]
Ha, you suggested Futility Closet in an AskMe answer, so I went and checked it, and heard this story. Good podcast recommendation; thanks!
posted by kevinbelt at 9:20 AM on May 9, 2017
posted by kevinbelt at 9:20 AM on May 9, 2017
The producers released an Amy Carter parody with Alison Arngrim (Nellie Oleson) which was somewhat meaner : one of the sketches has Amy selling Girl Scout cookies to Nixon, Ford....and Roman Polanski.
Her mother Norma MacMillan did the voices of the kids on the FF album; she also did Casper, Davey, Gumby and others.
posted by brujita at 9:28 AM on May 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Her mother Norma MacMillan did the voices of the kids on the FF album; she also did Casper, Davey, Gumby and others.
posted by brujita at 9:28 AM on May 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Vaughn's career and life are discussed in The Comedians, which is a great read on the history of American comedy.
posted by munchingzombie at 10:07 AM on May 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by munchingzombie at 10:07 AM on May 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
You have to wonder what he must have been thinking in early 1968, when Bobby Kennedy's campaign started to gain some traction: "At long last, could there be a light at the end of this cold, dark tunnel for ol' Vaughn Meader?"
Alas...
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:24 AM on May 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Alas...
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:24 AM on May 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
I've spent a lot of time in thrift stores looking through records, and it was not until I read this post that I realized that this album - which as others have noted must have sold ten billion copies because it's in every thrift store in North America - was not actually official Kennedy White House merch.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:44 AM on May 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:44 AM on May 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Somebody must have had a warehouse full of these records, because I can remember a TV commercial from the late 1970s hawking this album as a nostalgia item.
posted by briank at 11:22 AM on May 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by briank at 11:22 AM on May 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
The album was in heavy rotation at my parents' house back in the day; I still say "Vote for the Kennedy of your choice, but vote!" Haven't seen a copy in many years, but then I haven't been anywhere used records are sold in many years. Poor Vaughn Meader! Thanks for the memories.
posted by languagehat at 11:50 AM on May 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by languagehat at 11:50 AM on May 9, 2017 [3 favorites]
Both volumes were released on cd 5 years ago by rockbeat.
posted by brujita at 12:11 PM on May 9, 2017
posted by brujita at 12:11 PM on May 9, 2017
I've always wanted to mix up The First Family records with M.O.P.'s First Family 4 Life. "1996" meets "Downtown Swinga '98." (You see, ever since I was a youth / I promised to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth / I never been accused of perjury / I will clap gats at 'em cats if they try to murder me) "Ride With Us" meets "Motorcade." (First Family, royalty, holla!) "An Evening With JFK" meets "I Luv." (I got the balls to come through your walls, like Booom! / Have an orgasm every time I clear the fucking room)
Too soon?
posted by octobersurprise at 12:24 PM on May 9, 2017
Too soon?
posted by octobersurprise at 12:24 PM on May 9, 2017
Meader was simply too tied to Kennedy for a mourning nation.
I confess I don't know that much about Meader's career, but I have read that he did a flawless Nixon as well. A decade later, everyone would be turning their hands to it and it would be a staple of every hack comedian. So it goes.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:38 PM on May 9, 2017
I confess I don't know that much about Meader's career, but I have read that he did a flawless Nixon as well. A decade later, everyone would be turning their hands to it and it would be a staple of every hack comedian. So it goes.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:38 PM on May 9, 2017
Languagehat, it's the same for me. My parents didn't get rid of this album when Kennedy was shot, and I listened to it for years (I was eight in November of 1963). I can still recall a lot of it. Not just "Vote the Kennedy of your choice, but vote!", but Kruschev wanting the eastern portion of Konrad Adenauer's Western sandwich, Johnson asking "Ah'd lahk to say sumthin if Ah may" ("Must you, Lyndon?") and Jackie Kennedy refusing to give Jack the magazine section of the paper because "I'm doing the puzzle, darling."
The best part of this was that Meader obviously loved the Kennedys. He made fun of foibles, the Kennedy legend and Cold War politics and didn't need to attack stupidity and evil as satirists so often have to today. Yes, we were still a bit naive in the early 60s, but those were the days when even the GOP was still a party to be respected, if not admired.
posted by lhauser at 12:43 PM on May 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
The best part of this was that Meader obviously loved the Kennedys. He made fun of foibles, the Kennedy legend and Cold War politics and didn't need to attack stupidity and evil as satirists so often have to today. Yes, we were still a bit naive in the early 60s, but those were the days when even the GOP was still a party to be respected, if not admired.
posted by lhauser at 12:43 PM on May 9, 2017 [2 favorites]
Who were the steel dukes and money lords In the bedtime story bit?
posted by brujita at 8:48 PM on May 9, 2017
posted by brujita at 8:48 PM on May 9, 2017
You have to wonder what he must have been thinking in early 1968, when Bobby Kennedy's campaign started to gain some traction: "At long last, could there be a light at the end of this cold, dark tunnel for ol' Vaughn Meader?"
Alas...
Alackaday:
"Wild Thing-uh" take #72 (1967) by "Senator Bobby" with "'Teddy" on the ocarina.
posted by Herodios at 6:46 AM on May 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
Alas...
Alackaday:
"Wild Thing-uh" take #72 (1967) by "Senator Bobby" with "'Teddy" on the ocarina.
posted by Herodios at 6:46 AM on May 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
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posted by octobersurprise at 9:04 AM on May 9, 2017 [7 favorites]