January 17, 2019 • 49 mins
For one brief shining moment in the early 1960s, John F. Kennedy impersonator Vaughn Meader was on top of the world. He was the voice of the hit comedy album "The First Family" which broke sales records and even won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Meader's impression also stirred up controversy, forcing White House advisers to grapple with the impact of political mimicry. In this episode Mo Rocca explores the story of this once-famous comic whose career died the same day President Kennedy was assassinated. Warning: this episode contains language that might be deemed offensive for some listeners.Learn more about the Mobituaries book: http://bit.ly/MobituariesBook
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I think we have time for one final question. In
the late fall of nine two, one of President John F.
Kennedy's closest advisers, Arthur Schlessinger, Jr. Was driving in his
car when all of a sudden, he heard the following
question come over the airwaves, pity President. A familiar voice answered, well,
(00:28):
I think they're pretty good. Now, let me say, I
don't see why a person of the Jewish faith God
be President of the United States. I know it's a Catholic.
I could have a vote fire. But his confusion was
cleared up when he learned the voice belonged to kennedy
impersonator Van Meter. But Schlessinger was concerned enough that when
(00:51):
he returned to the White House, he drafted a memorandum
to the President. He wrote the following, This raises the
question of what in hell a president of the United
States ought to do about Mimickry. I'm guessing many of
you have never heard of Von Meter, but for one
brief shining moment. Okay, a twelve month period between late
(01:14):
nineteen sixty two in late nineteen sixty three, he was
a really big deal. He had this parody album called
The First Family, a spoof of the Kennedy's in old
video clips. He looks like a distant Kennedy cousin, Young,
clean cut with a thick head of hair and his
jfk impression. He's uncanny. Just listen today will be in
(01:35):
Nuclear de Ghamman, followed by the U N Bond issue.
In a matter of the trade, agreemwach Now, first there
is a most important matter to settle, Mr de gall
yours was the chicken, Salad and coffee. That's a dollar
forty first Families Well, in five weeks this album has
broken all records in the history of the recording business.
Its soul will get this three and a quarter million
(01:57):
copies in five weeks. It took My Family album five
years to sell that many copies. Had That was Late
Night King of his day, Jack Parr marveling at the
popularity of this one album and the star of the album,
Von Meter was just about everywhere until all of a
sudden he wasn't from Dallas, Texas. The flash apparently official
(02:22):
President Kennedy died at one pm Central Standard Time. I'm
mo Rocca and this is mobituaries this moment. Jfk impersonator
Vaughan meter November death of a career. Are we recording
(02:55):
me out? Okay? I've worked across the street from this building.
I had no idea. I thought it was maybe some
an s a storage, you know that. I don't know
people's finals. Okay. The CBS News Archives, Hey, it's Joe.
(03:16):
That's Joe A. Lessie. He's managed the CBS archives for
twenty two years now. He's the go to guy if
you need anything that was shot by CBS News during
the century. Even the first thing we have is from
and that's William McKinley's inauguration. You're kidding. Let's go to
the back. And then when I say to the back,
(03:36):
we're going to the vault. Are the vault? It sounds
it sounds very mysterious. It smells like fistromy or something. Well,
that's going to lunch. That's so you're correct on that
know what that is? That's film? Sometimes? All right, let's
go this way. What are CBS is sort of greatest hits? Well,
(04:00):
the thing that people ask for most is the assassination
of President Kennedy. That seems to be a story that
fascinates people from the beginning right up until today. People
asked her at least once a week, and for good reason.
That horrible day in November ended the president's life and
changed the life of the nation. That's what Mr Oaks
(04:22):
taught us in high school. There was America before the
assassination and America after and before comedian Vaughan Meter was
a household name, So surely the CBS archives would have
something on the man. My friend Joe did not disappoint.
Three tapes of a von Meter interview sounds promising, because
(04:45):
that's unless as tapes are super short. That's a significant interview.
I think it's a it's a good find, and so
I took a look. But what I saw and heard
wasn't exactly funny. So it looked like, you know, I
(05:05):
could do this forever. There was no end of the
pot of gold, but there was no rainbow either. It
was no idea it was going to be that month.
This is Vaughan Meter in on these tapes. He looks
haggard and shake him sixty two years old, but a
rough sixty two. This was all recorded for a short
(05:28):
lived CBS cable network called Ion People. Meter was being
profiled as part of a where Are They Now? Type series?
Little of this footage made it to air Well. I
was born in Waterville, A night of the flood. Abbott
Vaughan Meter was born in nineteen thirty six in Waterville, Maine,
(05:49):
and by all accounts, had a harrowing childhood. His father
drowned when he was one, and his young mother moved
from Maine to Boston to work as a cocktail waitress.
Meter had to shuttle between Maine and Massachusetts for much
of his youth, spending some of that time in children's homes.
He says he started entertaining people to avoid punishment. When
(06:12):
he got into trouble near the end of high school,
his mother was institutionalized and Meter ran away to the army.
He ultimately was stationed in Germany, where he met the
first of his four wives and played in a band.
After his time in the service, he did a risque
piano act around the New York City area and then
(06:33):
moved on to Greenwich Village, where he owned a politically
themed comedy routine. It was at this point that he
dropped his first name, Abbot. He became Vaughan Meter, and
then one fateful night a voice came out of Meter.
(06:55):
It was the President of the United states John F. Kennedy. Yes,
the gentlemen over there, sir. When when are we going
to sandomd to the mode whenever Mr Goldwater wants to go.
Meter started to reserve the last ten minutes of his
routine for an impression of Kennedy's live television press conferences.
(07:16):
My name is Bob Booker. I've just been in the
entertainment business all my life, and I've been very lucky.
And I also forgot to turn off my phone. No,
that's fine. If it's if it's a gig, pick it up.
I don't even Back in the nineteen sixties, Bob Booker
was a disc jockey who, along with his partner Earl Doud,
wanted to capitalize on the fascination with the new president
(07:38):
as well as the popularity of comedy albums. These were
the days of Stan Freeberg, Shelley Berman, Nicholson May, and
the great Bob Newhart, who had just one Album of
the Year at the Grammys, a first for a comedy album.
That classic bit with new Heart as President Lincoln's press
agent still holds up. I actually heart hard. I'll get it.
(08:03):
Burt sort of a drag. So we were looking for
the next thing to do, like, you know, so we
could have a meal. The next day. We said, you know,
Kennedy make a great album. So what was your concept
for this album. You've got this giant star. He's a
(08:26):
movie star, he's a political star, he's he's a world star.
I got in such a good looking man with this
beautiful wife. Right. We said, if you take this character
and the family and put them in everyday situations, that's funny.
This was the beginning of what would become the First
(08:47):
Family album. The only problem was they had no idea
who could play the head of this First Family, that
is until they turned on the TV the evening of
July three. But he's from the New School and has
served his apprenticeship in the little clubs that feature you know,
the topic of comedians, the kids with the rye offbeat
(09:08):
comments on life today. Does that voice sound familiar? It's
Jim Backus a k A. Mr Magoo a k A.
Thurston Hall of the Third from Gilligan's Island. He was
hosting a summer replacement show called Talent Scouts on CBS
and I know, I know you're going to be delighted
with the TV debut of Mr. Vaughan Meter. Meeter started
(09:32):
off with his take on the news headlines of the day.
There's there's one there might be a little more familiar
to you. Congressman read Write of Alabama was quoted as saying,
literacy test ain't proven nothing. Listen. I have no idea
how funny or fresh his topical stuff actually was. There's
that old quote from playwright George S. Kaufman, satire is
(09:55):
what closes on Saturday Night. But his impression of Kennedy
was and is nothing short of sensational. He's doing my action,
he's doing my gestures, and he's using my lines. Do
not ask what this country can do for you. That's
one of my original lines. When he did Kennedy, it
(10:15):
was perfect, absolutely perfect. Bob Booker and Earl Zoud had
found their man. But there was something else striking about
that performance, a kind of disclaimer he made at the
end of his starmaking routine, something I can't imagine any
comic doing today. Yes, I'd like to make one final
statement at this time, and I would like to make
(10:37):
that final statement as myself, Von Meter And that is
the thing. Thank you for the United States, a country
where it is possible for a young comedian like myself
to come out on television before millions of people and
kid it's leading citizen. Thank you nice. It's very interesting
to me because he was to me non controversial. I
(10:59):
wanted to get the respective of a modern day presidential impersonator.
I decide how big my failures are, and they're the
biggest play Meet Anthony at Tamanick. He impersonates President Donald Trump,
most recently on Comedy Central's The President Show. I wonder
if that caution was sort of to say, listen, I'm
(11:21):
making fun with him, not of him. This is a
telegram that right after von Meter made his television debut,
he wrote a telegram of the White House. He wrote
this to the President. Dear Mr President, I respectfully call
your attention to the Talent Scouts Show, which we taped
last night for viewing on CBS Television Tuesday night, July
(11:44):
three at ten pm. I impersonated you, but I did
it with great affection and respect. Hope it meets with
your approval, respectfully, von Meter. Wow, that is wild. We
actually went through eleven. I think uh turned down. Booker
and Dowd had their concept there, Kennedy and a demo
(12:06):
of the album No One was Biting, though. Booker remembers
one meeting at ABC. In the room that day was
Jim Haggarty, who was the vice president of News and
a former White House Press secretary under Eisenhower, Kennedy's predecessor.
He said, I think the Communists will love it. I
think Russia will love it, and every communist country in
(12:26):
the world will love it. And he slammed the door
behind him going up. He was outraged. So we were
just insulting the president and his family. It was not
a man, but a great sense of humor. Mr. It
doesn't sound like it. But didn't give you any doubt,
did you for a moment, go boy, maybe this is disrespectful.
(12:49):
Maybe we shouldn't do it. This was placed number twelve
that we had been thrown into the street. Okay, I
didn't discourage us at all. We knew we had a record.
I would have bet anything on it. We did bet
everything on it. While ABC passed, the president of the
network suggested they try a smaller label called Cadence, run
(13:11):
by Archie. Blier picked up the phone, called him set
the meeting. The next morning. We went over and they
bought it. In they'd overcome one hurdle getting a record deal,
but as it turned out, recording the album before a
live audience came with its own set of challenges. This
is a special report from CBS News the Cuban crisis.
(13:33):
Talk about an evening. Oh what an evening. That's the
night of President Kennedy's big speech about the Cuban crisis.
And we had the TV sets in the back room
and we watched the speech where everybody believed they are
coined to war. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has
established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites
(13:57):
is now in preparation on that imprisoned. So the show starts,
the audience has no idea that President Kennedy is on
TV addressing the nation about this really terrible crisis. Yes
it was, and how does the show go? Perfect? And
I did have a fear that the cast had heard
(14:18):
this speech also, so we did. We did a quick
little speech right before Hey, it's showtime, We're going out
there and kill Okay, and everybody did. It didn't affect anybody.
After making it through that crisis within a crisis, Bob
Booker handed off the album to a DJ friend at
w i n S Radio in New York and he
(14:45):
was going on the air in ten minutes and I said,
look what I've got and he looked at it and
he played one cut and he said, Jesus Bob, that's asational.
He went on the air for three hours. He played
the album continuously, No More Family for a while. Now,
I promise you now turn off the light. Good Night, Jackie,
(15:06):
good night, jack Night, Bobby night ethel Every light in
the place lit up. I mean it was crazy. The
phone calls from the other stations were coming in, television
bookings for all in three hours, Broken Wide Open, One Jock,
(15:30):
the first Family album took off like a rocket, and
Von Meter was in for the ride of his life.
Van Meter was playing a gig in Detroit and didn't
know what hit him. I couldn't believe it's like it.
(15:51):
Back to New York and I walked down the street
and heard my voice being broadcast and they just couldn't
keep up with it. I mean, it was on fire.
Can you give me a sense of what that felt like?
What did you think? No this, no way, no insanity.
Everyone wanted Van Meter to appear on their show, including
beloved singer Andy Williams, who was hosting a popular new
(16:13):
variety series on NBC. Welcome to our show. Thank you
very much, Andy. It's a pleasure to be here. You know.
I've been looking forward all the week to h working
with Vaughan because I wanted to sit right next to
the guy who was sold well. He's had the most
successful album in the history of the record is the
First Family album. Okay, there's a good reason the First
(16:33):
Family was the best selling album of its time. It's
a total blast. It's not really a satire. It's parody
the kind of fun zany takeoff that I used to
love reading in Mad Magazine when I was a kid,
like when they turned chips into chimps, or the Godfather
into the odd Father. That kind of a thing. It's
not really meant to make you think. It's meant to
(16:54):
make you laugh. Okay, so some references may not play
for today's audiences. Have you drive a hide bug like Monopoly?
With Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirkson. I'll show you
a boardwalk and park place, but a surprising amount of
it really holds up. You'd like to ask the following
(17:16):
question Speak English, Jackie, Sure? The Jackie sounds more like
Marilyn Monroe, which probably didn't make the first lady very happy.
But come on, to be fair, who didn't think the
real Jackie sounded a little like Maryland during that famous
TV tour of the White House. Yes, this room is
(17:37):
everything in it really is from the time of President Monroe.
Of course, the album does its own take on that
tour and left at the day Medicine Peanot Room. While
most of the jokes are pretty gentle, there are a
few digs, as the Richard Nixon dumb waiter. One of
the biggest laughs comes here when the President divvyes up
(17:59):
Caroline and John John's bath tool, nine of the pet Boat,
two of the Yogi Bearra beach balls, the ball of
Hilly Putty belonged to Caroline, nine of the pet Boat,
one of the Yogi bear A beach balls, and the
two Howdy Duty plastic bouncing clowns. Baby John. The rubbishwan
(18:20):
is mine. I'm imagining people everywhere, like at home, around
the water cooler, at work, repeating that rubber swan line,
and apparently they did. I thought it was pretty funny.
Anthony and Tamanek, who impersonates President Trump knows the album well,
his grandfather played it for him when he was growing up.
(18:41):
But I also wanted his take on how Meter looked
as Kennedy. Is it a good impression? Yeah, it is
a good impression. It's a good impression because the good
impression doesn't require any makeup or a kuchma. The idea
should be that the presence of the person is what
you feel like. There's a will that presents Kennedy in
(19:04):
that moment. There is not, and I say this with
a great pride, there is not one ugly joke in
the entire thing. There's not even a really nasty political
joke anywhere in the album. Yes, it's all very safe
from today's vantage point. Turns out, and this was a
surprise to me. The producers in cast were pushing the
(19:26):
limits of comedy. I had the first I must level
with you, I had some misgivings about this idea for
reasons of my own. That's Late Night host Jack Parr
again he was Johnny Carson before Johnny Carson issuing a
disclaimer before inviting von Meter on stage. Part then goes
(19:48):
on to quote feigned anthropologist Margaret Mead, She too had
weighed in on the First Family album, because well why not,
She told Life magazine, quote, this making fun of people
in authority is very healthy. It is the difference between
democracy and tyranny. End quote. The album continued selling like crazy.
(20:10):
What was the White House thinking? Remember presidential advisor Arthur Schlessinger,
who was so concerned about that voice on the radio
that he wrote a memo about the dangers of impersonating
the president. He wrote, the radio listener twirls his dial,
comes in in the middle of things, and rarely listens
(20:31):
with full attention. Anyway, Chlessenger concluded on an ominous note,
remember orson Welles and the Martian invasion. Again, this comedy
seems completely benign today. The boy it raised an alarm
in the president's inner circle. Well, it got dangerous because
(20:53):
the people around Kennedy, around any president, are so protective.
The minute they heard someone doing Kennedy on the air
so accurately, because Vaughn was really good with it, they
went screaming. They even went to the FCC to try
and stop the album. Clearly, and thankfully, those attempts weren't successful.
(21:14):
But I was fascinated to learn that Schlessinger took the
time to go back to the days of FDR to
seek out some kind of precedent with regard to presidential impersonations.
It turns out Franklin Roosevelt's press secretary, Stephen Early, had
directly asked media outlets not to give airtime to Roosevelt impersonators.
It's been a long time since the President and his
(21:35):
family have been subjected to such a heavy barrage of
cheasing and fun poking and satire. And they've been books
on backstairs at the White House, and cartoon books with
clever sayings, and uh photo albums with balloons, and the
and the rest, and now a smash hit for record.
(21:57):
Can you tell us whether you read and listen to
these things and whether they produce annoyment or enjoyment. Annoyment
now they do. Yes, I have read them and listened
to them. Actually I listened to Mr Meted record, but
I thought it sounded more like Teddy than it did me.
But that's not von Meter, as JFK. That is the
(22:19):
actual President of the United States talking about von Meter
in one of his life press conferences. According to many accounts,
the President did enjoy the album and even gave out
copies for Christmas. Do you know why he loved it?
Made a human being out of him, took him down
off the pedestal. He was one of us. He just
(22:40):
looked a lot better than all of us. Von Meter
went on to win a Grammy for Best Comedy Performance
and the First Family one Album of the Year. The
First Family beat out the likes of Tony Bennett and
Ray Charles. Von Meter was living the dream, right. It
(23:02):
just took over. The voice you're hearing now is the
older Meter from that interview that I got from the archives.
You know, I go on Sullivan. I'd asked him if
I could play a thing I song. I wanted it,
to desperately play some music, saying some songs. No no chance,
no chance, no chance. So I just sell in line,
you know, and and did it. And I had to
(23:27):
get sued to do a volume too, because I didn't
want to do a volume too. They sued me for
a million dollars. In early nineteen sixty three, while Meter
was on a concert tour the album, Bob Booker and
Earl Dowd began developing fresh material for a second volume
of the First Family album, at which time Vaughan said
(23:48):
I don't want to do Kennedy anymore. You heard that right, Meter,
who almost overnight went from barely scraping buying clubs just
storing in the country's most popular album, was sick of
the Kennedy act. But I wasn't very content with any
of it, and maybe it was the Kennedy thing that
I couldn't get out of. But album producer Bob Booker
(24:10):
was having none of it. I said, we have a
deal to do it. He said, I don't care about it.
I don't want to have to do Kennedy the rest
of my life. He said, I want to do my act.
And this is the time I had to say, Van,
you don't have an act. You never had an act.
If you give this up, you're not gonna be working anywhere.
(24:31):
Was that hard for you to say no? Because it
was the truth. And I wanted the album and just
do what we have contractually, and then go do anything
you want in your life. If I never see you again,
that's fine, and just do what you promised you would do.
How did he take it when you told him you
don't have an act? How did he know he was
(24:53):
offended by that? He said no? So I can go
do my act? Said, there was no act. There was
no act in the talent skill right, it was Kennedy
that was it. Volume two was released in the spring
of nineteen sixty three and sold fairly well, but nowhere
near the original album. One of the sketches, which today
(25:13):
seems pretty haunting, imagines the Kennedy's enjoying retirement in n
I certainly enjoyed being president, Bobby enjoyed being president, Jetty
enjoyed being president, and then I enjoyed being president again.
Once I was in, I couldn't find the way out,
(25:36):
And yeah, I'm sorry he found the way out. On
the morning of November nine, sixty three, the Associated Press
published a story by veteran Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas which
started as follows, It's always a bit surprising to find
(26:00):
the new starring show business trying to run away from
the thing that made him famous. Today's example is Van Meter.
Thomas thing goes on to write, he also was searching
for ways to destroy his image as a JFK imitator.
Meter didn't have to search much longer. Here is a
(26:31):
bulletin from CBS News in Dallas, Texas. Three shots were
fired at President Canaday's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first
reports say that President Canada, that's the older Von meter Well.
I just got booked at the Democratic clubn in Wisconsin,
(26:54):
and I flew into Wisconsin from New York. And when
I got in the cab, the cab driver said, you here.
Kennedy got shot in Dallas. And I said, no, how
does it go? Because I thought it was another Kennedy
joke because people, you know, everywhere I went, people and say, Joe,
do you hear about jack and did this? And Jackie
out of the punchline, you know, so I thought it
(27:15):
was just another being set up. Somebody recognized me. He
was setting me up for another Kennedy joke, you know.
I said, how's it go? And then I heard on
the taxi cab radio that that's what happened. So I
went to the hotel, got drunk, and got the next
plane out and went back to New York. And I
guess they stayed drunk. Bob Booker was having lunch in
(27:38):
Greenwich Village when he heard the news. The phone rang
and it was my secretary and she said, Kennedy has
been shot. And I just threw some money on the
table and left. It was devastating, absolutely devasating. I called
Archie Blaier the minute I got back, and I said,
get the albums wherever they are, because they're out with
(28:00):
constributors all over the country. I said, get your hands
on all of them. We're gonna chop him up. I
want no part of cashing in on this man's death.
And just like that, Van Meter's meteoric rise to fame
was over. Did you ever see Vaughan again? Oh? I
talked to him a couple of times. I don't think
(28:21):
I ever did see him again. Well, it was over.
It's over over. You know, John's gun So I don't
want to hear me playing him if it isn't me,
I don't want to, you know, I don't want to
(28:42):
be him. Listen, I am. I think his issue and
this armchair now it's us, was that he did not
have a good division between the character and himself Trump impersonator,
(29:05):
Anthony and Tamanick. But he basically doesn't know where he
ends or Kennedy ends and he begins. And he might
have just been a person who just didn't think about
his psyche before he got into it. Well, it broke
my heart really uh at the time, but I thought
to myself, well, now I can go on to something else.
But I couldn't. I was. I mean that they didn't
(29:29):
want it, and nobody else know that he wanted nothing
else from me. That's what they wanted, and they couldn't
let go of that. I'll never forget. New York City
is cold as it is. I'm walking down Second Avenue
and a steel riveter, a rivet with a hard hat,
sees me and stops his rivet and walks over and
squeezes my hand assist. Oh, so sorry, man, And like,
(29:52):
you know, I was getting that, you know, it's like
almost pity. And I think I had to go to
a great extent. I know I did. I stayed drunk,
and then after that I stayed drugged to get away
from pity feeling sorry for me, you know, And so
I get to feeling sorry for myself. I don't know.
(30:13):
So imagine if like the one thing that you were
getting your momentum on just got pulled from you, and
then everyone's like, oh, that's so bad, almost as if
also it's like everyone was like your career is over,
and maybe almost like he wants to shout I'm not dead,
and also I thought this, but maybe I'm wrong. But
they would also be like, I don't want this. I
don't show your pity and love for him, don't don't
(30:35):
put it to me. Meter would go on to say
that he seemed to be a living reminder of a tragedy.
It's worth remembering that in November of nine, he was
just twenty seven. I mean, that's usually the start of
a career. One week after the assassination, comedian Lenny Bruce
was back on stage in New York. Bob Booker saw
(30:57):
him and says he remembers a moment that its since
become legendary. And he grabbed that microphone and he said,
boyd did Vaughan Meter get screwed? Not exactly that word, Okay,
and you're you're free to say it if you want
to say no, he said, boy did Vaughan Meter get fucked?
Now the critics took him apart for this. I have
(31:21):
never heard a laugh that big in a house in
my life, because Lenny had the ability to say your
most inner thought in public that you would never dare say.
Everybody in the theater had thought that I had gotten
calls from people saying poor Vaughan. I said, poor Vaughan.
(31:43):
How about poor jack Kennedy? For Christ's sake, right, I
think about poor Vaughan. One of the best presidents we
ever had, in my opinion, was dead assassinated. Is that
a story? It's not about Van Meter? Gut No. Von
Meter hadn't, but he was collateral damage. Another line attributed
(32:04):
to Lenny Bruce was that they should put two graves
in Arlington, one for Kennedy and one for Meter. After
the president's death, Meter wrote a condolence letter to Jackie Kennedy.
Although we never met, He wrote, I felt as though
I had known him all my life. I was given
by fate the ability to impersonate his voice and to
(32:25):
copy his gestures. I sincerely hope that a part of
what I did found its way to him and gave
him and his family a few pleasant moments. Yes, beautiful letter, handwritten,
It's sent two different books. Actually did he get a response?
She hated him. That's Van Meter's widow, Sheila. She holds
(32:46):
a copy of the letter. Mrs Kennedy did hate the
album when it first came out. She referred to meet
her as a rat in a memo, and here's her
conversation with Arthur Schlessinger a few months after the assassination.
What did you think of all these kits about him,
so like the First Family and so on? Do you
(33:06):
ever listen to them? I think he listened. I'm not
sure he listened to all of that record. I listened
to one side and then I threw it away because
they didn't want my children to see it, And well
he wasn't, but I guess he sort of took it,
you know. I thought it was so un fair, those things,
(33:26):
She went on to say. I mean, I thought it
was so mean. I didn't care if they make fun
of me or anything, but when they make fun of
little children. In the year after the assassination, Meter didn't
disappear completely. He popped up on television a few times
in four but never again as a JFK. That same year,
(33:47):
he put out his own album called Have Some Nuts,
later another one called if the Shoe Fits So pick
up your phone right now and contribute, contribute the name
of a communist and put us over the top. While
they received some nice reviews, they just didn't sell. He
traveled the country for the next decade, But, as Sheila
(34:07):
Meter recalls, the man she called by his birth name,
Abbott never found that second act. He insisted on writing
his own stuff, and it didn't He needed a writer,
you know. That's he would never have succeeded in something
like the First Family if there hadn't been an Earl
(34:27):
Doubt and a Bob Booker to write it. He was
a delivery man. Abbot delivered, Abbot spoke. Abbot had a
voice that felt like warm oil was being rubbed into
your skin. It was beautiful. I mean, that sounds great.
I mean there's no shame in being, as you so
(34:47):
well put it, a delivery man. That's what he was.
So why was it he okay with that? I don't know,
I don't know. He turned to a variety of substances.
Was the cocaine, There was the LSD. There was a psilocybin,
There was the the rum and coke. Was the marijuana,
(35:10):
and they all had their effects, every one of them.
You know, he was a different person with each one.
Why do you think he'd used so many substances escape,
running away, getting getting into going toward a new life,
a new reality for him. I think one of the
(35:35):
characters inspired by these substances was a blue bunny. Yes,
that's correct, a blue bunny. Meter also had a messianic complex,
which led in two to a production of a Jesus
comedy album called Wait for It, The Second Coming. I
tell parallels. Would you care to hear something? What are
(35:56):
you on? Make me laugh? I'm afraid that they are
very humor. I'll be to judge that. Run it down?
So he's playing Jesus? Is it funny? Kind? Did it
so well? He pursued his passion for honky talk music
and even appeared in a few movies in the nineteen seventies,
(36:16):
including the commercial flop Linda Lovelace for President. Eventually, he
moved back to his home state of Maine. And you know,
I should apologize. I'm on television. I really should apologize
to every woman that ever known me, because I really
didn't know how to treat women. Something we haven't talked
much about is Meter's personal life. As mentioned earlier, he
(36:40):
was married four times. Sheila was number four. They met
in the early nineteen eighties in Maine. Sheila was running
away from her own addictions when she came across a
flyer advertising von Meter playing piano at a nearby in
Did you know who that was? I did, but you know,
it didn't really register. He was only a voice, you know,
(37:03):
a voice, that's all he was from that comedy album
from the First Family, And I really didn't register him
as a living, being, visible, touchable person. They would be
together for twenty years. She describes a controlling relationship with
highs and lows, and a man deeply conflicted by the
(37:26):
thing that had once made him so famous. Was he
haunted by the whole experience awful awful, awful awful, But
he also didn't let anybody know it. At the same
time he was letting everyone know it. He was a dichotomy.
He I've never known anyone who could be so many
(37:49):
things at the same time. And as far as how
he looked back on the First Family experience, was there
a dichotomy there? Was? He haunted by it. But then
also I wanted people to know he was Meter or
well he did that. That's he wanted to be known
as von Meter. But on the other hand, he didn't
want anything to do with von Meter. He was abbot
(38:09):
and he wrote his music, and he entertained people, and
he played the piano and that's what he wanted. They
say every man must say rejection. They say every man
let's fall. But I swear I see my reflection somewhere
(38:40):
high upon the wall. Coming up. Von Meter as Kennedy
one final time. In February, von Meter was wintering with
(39:13):
friends in Florida. He seemed happy, playing piano at a
local bar. He hadn't been a star for years, and
then out of the blue, he got a call from
CBS producers wanted to profile Meter for a new cable
show hosted by paulas on Coming Up on PS. He
(39:34):
sounded like JFK. He looked like JFK. It made him
world famous. Now, while you've been listening to von meter speak,
it's important to note that back in there was a
producer sitting across from him asking him the questions. I
was struck immediately by his appearance. You know, full headed,
(39:55):
gray hair and a big beard. This is Kevin Huffman.
He was a young CBS producer at the time. What
do you think his self image was when you were
sitting there. Oh, he was one of the least confident people.
You know, it's all this bravado like. On the one hand,
he's aggressive, and if you look at you know, the tape,
sometimes he looks at me. And I watched it just now,
(40:17):
and I could see the aggression on his side, like,
you know, what are you going to ask me next? Um?
You know, I've got my story to tell and I'm
not quite confident here. But I also noticed that when
he does go into bits, his eyes darted around a
little bit, like he's looking for an audience, very much
like the camera crew, you know, behind me, or a
(40:41):
part of the audience, you know. When he finally kind
of shed the act, that's when I felt like I
was starting to get to the real guy. She'll revealed
to me the reason for her husband's weariness, his defensiveness.
What do you remember from when CBS came down to
you an interview of him in Florida. His disappointment meter
(41:06):
had boasted to Sheila and his friends that TV anchor
Paula is On would be coming down to do the interview.
When he opened the door to find Kevin, I think
that broke his heart. Broke his heart, it did, It
embarrassed him, and he didn't tolerate embarrassment. What happened at
the end of the interview, This was sad Um. You
(41:28):
know we I think towards the end of the interviews
when I asked him to do the voice, and which
I felt was kind of a big moment for him,
like him doing the voice to me was like a
really cathartic and possibly damaging things. I don't know, it
messed him up. I want to play this moment in
(41:50):
its entirety because more than anywhere else you can hear
what a struggle it was just being von Meter me
doing my jobs. I didn't ask you if you would
do the voice for you wouldn't be doing your job.
I'd have to think of a clever line. Why do
(42:11):
the voice? You know, save up that voice? All these years,
and we did not have a punch line, not have
the line to use the voice for no. Look at
the brain. The brain doesn't react to do it, just
shuts off the switch. Am my on and off? Switch
went on? Somebody used to do the voice. My switch
went off. I can't, No, I can't. Two years ago
(42:44):
and conquered Massachusetts. A shot was fired that was heard
around the world. Thirty something years ago, in Dallas, Texas,
another shot was fired that was heard around the world.
The first bullet fired from the conquered bridge signaled the
birth of the American Spirit. The second bullet fired from
(43:08):
the Texas Book Depository attempted to win that spirit, and
we have seen in the last thirty something he is
how nearly successful that second bullet was. Mhm. But in
the final analysis, there is no bullet, There is no bomb.
(43:29):
There is no power on the face of this earth
that can destroy the American Spirit. Maybe he'd say something
like that. I don't know. It's not funny what he's
(43:50):
saying here. It's a little bit dark, but it's also thoughtful,
kind of deep, even I don't know, optimistic. A totally
different jfk impersonation once again, Anthony and Tamanik. It was
interesting because in a weird way, I watched it and
aligned with it. I was like, oh, it's you. You.
(44:12):
You are doing the same thing. You're using this vessel
to make a greater point, right, so we you know.
We wrapped up the interview and he got up immediately
and I followed him. But he went right into the
kitchen and grabbed a court of vodka, cracked opened the
(44:34):
lid and just started jugging. He said, look, I needed this,
you know, I couldn't um, I got through your whole interview.
I did everything, but this is you know, I have
to do this. I wasn't judging him. I can't help
(44:54):
but wonder if Van Meter would have been better off
if he'd never discovered he could imitate Kenna. But what
do I know? Maybe after a very tough childhood he
was simply faded to have a rough go of it
in life. If you could get into a time machine
and you could go back to the moment that he's
(45:15):
approached by Bob Booker and Earl Dowd to do the
first Family album, what would you tell him as a
time traveler from the future, Do it, dear, and I'll
be right here. I'll be in the background. No one
will see me, no one will hear me, but I'll
be here for you, I would say, do it sure?
Why not? That Van Meter interview from was the last
(45:45):
the public would hear from him. He died six years
later on October four, just one day after my father died.
Pop always talked about the time before Kennedy was shot
is a more innocent time. He heard the news on
the car radio and pulled the light blue VW bug
(46:06):
he was driving the first car my parents ever owned
over to the side of the road and wept. It
was a different time, one where the presidency was held
in such regard that von Meter would end his routine
with the assurance that it was all in good fun.
We're never going back to that time, and I'm not
(46:26):
saying we should try, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't
pay our respects, not just a van Meter, but also
to that time before that horrible day. So I want
to end this mobituary with some sound from near the
end of the First Family album Sweet, Disarmingly Innocent and
(46:50):
yes funny, Oh no, everybody taking it together with Biguinness.
Yeah next time. On Mobituaries TV sitcom deaths and Disappearances,
(47:34):
they did not have room in the writing for the
older brother, because the fans became the older brother. I
certainly hope you enjoyed your first mobile Be sure to
rate and review our podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries
on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow me on
Twitter at Morocca. For more great content, including video of
(47:57):
the older vond Meter, please visit mobituaries dot com. You
can subscribe to Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. This
episode of Mobituaries was produced by Megan Marcus. Our team
of producers also includes Gideon Evans, Kate mccauliffe, Megan Dietree,
(48:18):
and me Morocca. It was edited by Kate mccaulliffe and
engineered by David Herman. Indispensable support from Genius Tensky, Kira Wardlow,
Zach Gilcrest, Richard Warrer, the team at CBS News Radio,
the JFK Presidential Library, and Joe Allessie at the CBS
News Archives. Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart and,
(48:43):
as always, undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John carp
without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're
(49:07):
enjoying Mobituaries the podcast, may I invite you to check
out Mobituaries the book. It's chock full of stories not
in the podcast. Celebrities who put their butts on the line,
sports teams that threw in the towel for good, forgotten fashions,
defunct diagnoses, presidential candidacies that cratered whole countries that went
(49:29):
to put and dragons, Yes, dragons, you see. People used
to believe the dragons will real until just get the book.
You can order Mobituaries the book from any online bookseller,
or stop by your local bookstore and look for me
when I come to your city. Tour information and lots
more at mobituaries dot com
I think we have time for one final question. In
the late fall of nine two, one of President John F.
Kennedy's closest advisers, Arthur Schlessinger, Jr. Was driving in his
car when all of a sudden, he heard the following
question come over the airwaves, pity President. A familiar voice answered, well,
(00:28):
I think they're pretty good. Now, let me say, I
don't see why a person of the Jewish faith God
be President of the United States. I know it's a Catholic.
I could have a vote fire. But his confusion was
cleared up when he learned the voice belonged to kennedy
impersonator Van Meter. But Schlessinger was concerned enough that when
(00:51):
he returned to the White House, he drafted a memorandum
to the President. He wrote the following, This raises the
question of what in hell a president of the United
States ought to do about Mimickry. I'm guessing many of
you have never heard of Von Meter, but for one
brief shining moment. Okay, a twelve month period between late
(01:14):
nineteen sixty two in late nineteen sixty three, he was
a really big deal. He had this parody album called
The First Family, a spoof of the Kennedy's in old
video clips. He looks like a distant Kennedy cousin, Young,
clean cut with a thick head of hair and his
jfk impression. He's uncanny. Just listen today will be in
(01:35):
Nuclear de Ghamman, followed by the U N Bond issue.
In a matter of the trade, agreemwach Now, first there
is a most important matter to settle, Mr de gall
yours was the chicken, Salad and coffee. That's a dollar
forty first Families Well, in five weeks this album has
broken all records in the history of the recording business.
Its soul will get this three and a quarter million
(01:57):
copies in five weeks. It took My Family album five
years to sell that many copies. Had That was Late
Night King of his day, Jack Parr marveling at the
popularity of this one album and the star of the album,
Von Meter was just about everywhere until all of a
sudden he wasn't from Dallas, Texas. The flash apparently official
(02:22):
President Kennedy died at one pm Central Standard Time. I'm
mo Rocca and this is mobituaries this moment. Jfk impersonator
Vaughan meter November death of a career. Are we recording
(02:55):
me out? Okay? I've worked across the street from this building.
I had no idea. I thought it was maybe some
an s a storage, you know that. I don't know
people's finals. Okay. The CBS News Archives, Hey, it's Joe.
(03:16):
That's Joe A. Lessie. He's managed the CBS archives for
twenty two years now. He's the go to guy if
you need anything that was shot by CBS News during
the century. Even the first thing we have is from
and that's William McKinley's inauguration. You're kidding. Let's go to
the back. And then when I say to the back,
(03:36):
we're going to the vault. Are the vault? It sounds
it sounds very mysterious. It smells like fistromy or something. Well,
that's going to lunch. That's so you're correct on that
know what that is? That's film? Sometimes? All right, let's
go this way. What are CBS is sort of greatest hits? Well,
(04:00):
the thing that people ask for most is the assassination
of President Kennedy. That seems to be a story that
fascinates people from the beginning right up until today. People
asked her at least once a week, and for good reason.
That horrible day in November ended the president's life and
changed the life of the nation. That's what Mr Oaks
(04:22):
taught us in high school. There was America before the
assassination and America after and before comedian Vaughan Meter was
a household name, So surely the CBS archives would have
something on the man. My friend Joe did not disappoint.
Three tapes of a von Meter interview sounds promising, because
(04:45):
that's unless as tapes are super short. That's a significant interview.
I think it's a it's a good find, and so
I took a look. But what I saw and heard
wasn't exactly funny. So it looked like, you know, I
(05:05):
could do this forever. There was no end of the
pot of gold, but there was no rainbow either. It
was no idea it was going to be that month.
This is Vaughan Meter in on these tapes. He looks
haggard and shake him sixty two years old, but a
rough sixty two. This was all recorded for a short
(05:28):
lived CBS cable network called Ion People. Meter was being
profiled as part of a where Are They Now? Type series?
Little of this footage made it to air Well. I
was born in Waterville, A night of the flood. Abbott
Vaughan Meter was born in nineteen thirty six in Waterville, Maine,
(05:49):
and by all accounts, had a harrowing childhood. His father
drowned when he was one, and his young mother moved
from Maine to Boston to work as a cocktail waitress.
Meter had to shuttle between Maine and Massachusetts for much
of his youth, spending some of that time in children's homes.
He says he started entertaining people to avoid punishment. When
(06:12):
he got into trouble near the end of high school,
his mother was institutionalized and Meter ran away to the army.
He ultimately was stationed in Germany, where he met the
first of his four wives and played in a band.
After his time in the service, he did a risque
piano act around the New York City area and then
(06:33):
moved on to Greenwich Village, where he owned a politically
themed comedy routine. It was at this point that he
dropped his first name, Abbot. He became Vaughan Meter, and
then one fateful night a voice came out of Meter.
(06:55):
It was the President of the United states John F. Kennedy. Yes,
the gentlemen over there, sir. When when are we going
to sandomd to the mode whenever Mr Goldwater wants to go.
Meter started to reserve the last ten minutes of his
routine for an impression of Kennedy's live television press conferences.
(07:16):
My name is Bob Booker. I've just been in the
entertainment business all my life, and I've been very lucky.
And I also forgot to turn off my phone. No,
that's fine. If it's if it's a gig, pick it up.
I don't even Back in the nineteen sixties, Bob Booker
was a disc jockey who, along with his partner Earl Doud,
wanted to capitalize on the fascination with the new president
(07:38):
as well as the popularity of comedy albums. These were
the days of Stan Freeberg, Shelley Berman, Nicholson May, and
the great Bob Newhart, who had just one Album of
the Year at the Grammys, a first for a comedy album.
That classic bit with new Heart as President Lincoln's press
agent still holds up. I actually heart hard. I'll get it.
(08:03):
Burt sort of a drag. So we were looking for
the next thing to do, like, you know, so we
could have a meal. The next day. We said, you know,
Kennedy make a great album. So what was your concept
for this album. You've got this giant star. He's a
(08:26):
movie star, he's a political star, he's he's a world star.
I got in such a good looking man with this
beautiful wife. Right. We said, if you take this character
and the family and put them in everyday situations, that's funny.
This was the beginning of what would become the First
(08:47):
Family album. The only problem was they had no idea
who could play the head of this First Family, that
is until they turned on the TV the evening of
July three. But he's from the New School and has
served his apprenticeship in the little clubs that feature you know,
the topic of comedians, the kids with the rye offbeat
(09:08):
comments on life today. Does that voice sound familiar? It's
Jim Backus a k A. Mr Magoo a k A.
Thurston Hall of the Third from Gilligan's Island. He was
hosting a summer replacement show called Talent Scouts on CBS
and I know, I know you're going to be delighted
with the TV debut of Mr. Vaughan Meter. Meeter started
(09:32):
off with his take on the news headlines of the day.
There's there's one there might be a little more familiar
to you. Congressman read Write of Alabama was quoted as saying,
literacy test ain't proven nothing. Listen. I have no idea
how funny or fresh his topical stuff actually was. There's
that old quote from playwright George S. Kaufman, satire is
(09:55):
what closes on Saturday Night. But his impression of Kennedy
was and is nothing short of sensational. He's doing my action,
he's doing my gestures, and he's using my lines. Do
not ask what this country can do for you. That's
one of my original lines. When he did Kennedy, it
(10:15):
was perfect, absolutely perfect. Bob Booker and Earl Zoud had
found their man. But there was something else striking about
that performance, a kind of disclaimer he made at the
end of his starmaking routine, something I can't imagine any
comic doing today. Yes, I'd like to make one final
statement at this time, and I would like to make
(10:37):
that final statement as myself, Von Meter And that is
the thing. Thank you for the United States, a country
where it is possible for a young comedian like myself
to come out on television before millions of people and
kid it's leading citizen. Thank you nice. It's very interesting
to me because he was to me non controversial. I
(10:59):
wanted to get the respective of a modern day presidential impersonator.
I decide how big my failures are, and they're the
biggest play Meet Anthony at Tamanick. He impersonates President Donald Trump,
most recently on Comedy Central's The President Show. I wonder
if that caution was sort of to say, listen, I'm
(11:21):
making fun with him, not of him. This is a
telegram that right after von Meter made his television debut,
he wrote a telegram of the White House. He wrote
this to the President. Dear Mr President, I respectfully call
your attention to the Talent Scouts Show, which we taped
last night for viewing on CBS Television Tuesday night, July
(11:44):
three at ten pm. I impersonated you, but I did
it with great affection and respect. Hope it meets with
your approval, respectfully, von Meter. Wow, that is wild. We
actually went through eleven. I think uh turned down. Booker
and Dowd had their concept there, Kennedy and a demo
(12:06):
of the album No One was Biting, though. Booker remembers
one meeting at ABC. In the room that day was
Jim Haggarty, who was the vice president of News and
a former White House Press secretary under Eisenhower, Kennedy's predecessor.
He said, I think the Communists will love it. I
think Russia will love it, and every communist country in
(12:26):
the world will love it. And he slammed the door
behind him going up. He was outraged. So we were
just insulting the president and his family. It was not
a man, but a great sense of humor. Mr. It
doesn't sound like it. But didn't give you any doubt,
did you for a moment, go boy, maybe this is disrespectful.
(12:49):
Maybe we shouldn't do it. This was placed number twelve
that we had been thrown into the street. Okay, I
didn't discourage us at all. We knew we had a record.
I would have bet anything on it. We did bet
everything on it. While ABC passed, the president of the
network suggested they try a smaller label called Cadence, run
(13:11):
by Archie. Blier picked up the phone, called him set
the meeting. The next morning. We went over and they
bought it. In they'd overcome one hurdle getting a record deal,
but as it turned out, recording the album before a
live audience came with its own set of challenges. This
is a special report from CBS News the Cuban crisis.
(13:33):
Talk about an evening. Oh what an evening. That's the
night of President Kennedy's big speech about the Cuban crisis.
And we had the TV sets in the back room
and we watched the speech where everybody believed they are
coined to war. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has
established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites
(13:57):
is now in preparation on that imprisoned. So the show starts,
the audience has no idea that President Kennedy is on
TV addressing the nation about this really terrible crisis. Yes
it was, and how does the show go? Perfect? And
I did have a fear that the cast had heard
(14:18):
this speech also, so we did. We did a quick
little speech right before Hey, it's showtime, We're going out
there and kill Okay, and everybody did. It didn't affect anybody.
After making it through that crisis within a crisis, Bob
Booker handed off the album to a DJ friend at
w i n S Radio in New York and he
(14:45):
was going on the air in ten minutes and I said,
look what I've got and he looked at it and
he played one cut and he said, Jesus Bob, that's asational.
He went on the air for three hours. He played
the album continuously, No More Family for a while. Now,
I promise you now turn off the light. Good Night, Jackie,
(15:06):
good night, jack Night, Bobby night ethel Every light in
the place lit up. I mean it was crazy. The
phone calls from the other stations were coming in, television
bookings for all in three hours, Broken Wide Open, One Jock,
(15:30):
the first Family album took off like a rocket, and
Von Meter was in for the ride of his life.
Van Meter was playing a gig in Detroit and didn't
know what hit him. I couldn't believe it's like it.
(15:51):
Back to New York and I walked down the street
and heard my voice being broadcast and they just couldn't
keep up with it. I mean, it was on fire.
Can you give me a sense of what that felt like?
What did you think? No this, no way, no insanity.
Everyone wanted Van Meter to appear on their show, including
beloved singer Andy Williams, who was hosting a popular new
(16:13):
variety series on NBC. Welcome to our show. Thank you
very much, Andy. It's a pleasure to be here. You know.
I've been looking forward all the week to h working
with Vaughan because I wanted to sit right next to
the guy who was sold well. He's had the most
successful album in the history of the record is the
First Family album. Okay, there's a good reason the First
(16:33):
Family was the best selling album of its time. It's
a total blast. It's not really a satire. It's parody
the kind of fun zany takeoff that I used to
love reading in Mad Magazine when I was a kid,
like when they turned chips into chimps, or the Godfather
into the odd Father. That kind of a thing. It's
not really meant to make you think. It's meant to
(16:54):
make you laugh. Okay, so some references may not play
for today's audiences. Have you drive a hide bug like Monopoly?
With Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirkson. I'll show you
a boardwalk and park place, but a surprising amount of
it really holds up. You'd like to ask the following
(17:16):
question Speak English, Jackie, Sure? The Jackie sounds more like
Marilyn Monroe, which probably didn't make the first lady very happy.
But come on, to be fair, who didn't think the
real Jackie sounded a little like Maryland during that famous
TV tour of the White House. Yes, this room is
(17:37):
everything in it really is from the time of President Monroe.
Of course, the album does its own take on that
tour and left at the day Medicine Peanot Room. While
most of the jokes are pretty gentle, there are a
few digs, as the Richard Nixon dumb waiter. One of
the biggest laughs comes here when the President divvyes up
(17:59):
Caroline and John John's bath tool, nine of the pet Boat,
two of the Yogi Bearra beach balls, the ball of
Hilly Putty belonged to Caroline, nine of the pet Boat,
one of the Yogi bear A beach balls, and the
two Howdy Duty plastic bouncing clowns. Baby John. The rubbishwan
(18:20):
is mine. I'm imagining people everywhere, like at home, around
the water cooler, at work, repeating that rubber swan line,
and apparently they did. I thought it was pretty funny.
Anthony and Tamanek, who impersonates President Trump knows the album well,
his grandfather played it for him when he was growing up.
(18:41):
But I also wanted his take on how Meter looked
as Kennedy. Is it a good impression? Yeah, it is
a good impression. It's a good impression because the good
impression doesn't require any makeup or a kuchma. The idea
should be that the presence of the person is what
you feel like. There's a will that presents Kennedy in
(19:04):
that moment. There is not, and I say this with
a great pride, there is not one ugly joke in
the entire thing. There's not even a really nasty political
joke anywhere in the album. Yes, it's all very safe
from today's vantage point. Turns out, and this was a
surprise to me. The producers in cast were pushing the
(19:26):
limits of comedy. I had the first I must level
with you, I had some misgivings about this idea for
reasons of my own. That's Late Night host Jack Parr
again he was Johnny Carson before Johnny Carson issuing a
disclaimer before inviting von Meter on stage. Part then goes
(19:48):
on to quote feigned anthropologist Margaret Mead, She too had
weighed in on the First Family album, because well why not,
She told Life magazine, quote, this making fun of people
in authority is very healthy. It is the difference between
democracy and tyranny. End quote. The album continued selling like crazy.
(20:10):
What was the White House thinking? Remember presidential advisor Arthur Schlessinger,
who was so concerned about that voice on the radio
that he wrote a memo about the dangers of impersonating
the president. He wrote, the radio listener twirls his dial,
comes in in the middle of things, and rarely listens
(20:31):
with full attention. Anyway, Chlessenger concluded on an ominous note,
remember orson Welles and the Martian invasion. Again, this comedy
seems completely benign today. The boy it raised an alarm
in the president's inner circle. Well, it got dangerous because
(20:53):
the people around Kennedy, around any president, are so protective.
The minute they heard someone doing Kennedy on the air
so accurately, because Vaughn was really good with it, they
went screaming. They even went to the FCC to try
and stop the album. Clearly, and thankfully, those attempts weren't successful.
(21:14):
But I was fascinated to learn that Schlessinger took the
time to go back to the days of FDR to
seek out some kind of precedent with regard to presidential impersonations.
It turns out Franklin Roosevelt's press secretary, Stephen Early, had
directly asked media outlets not to give airtime to Roosevelt impersonators.
It's been a long time since the President and his
(21:35):
family have been subjected to such a heavy barrage of
cheasing and fun poking and satire. And they've been books
on backstairs at the White House, and cartoon books with
clever sayings, and uh photo albums with balloons, and the
and the rest, and now a smash hit for record.
(21:57):
Can you tell us whether you read and listen to
these things and whether they produce annoyment or enjoyment. Annoyment
now they do. Yes, I have read them and listened
to them. Actually I listened to Mr Meted record, but
I thought it sounded more like Teddy than it did me.
But that's not von Meter, as JFK. That is the
(22:19):
actual President of the United States talking about von Meter
in one of his life press conferences. According to many accounts,
the President did enjoy the album and even gave out
copies for Christmas. Do you know why he loved it?
Made a human being out of him, took him down
off the pedestal. He was one of us. He just
(22:40):
looked a lot better than all of us. Von Meter
went on to win a Grammy for Best Comedy Performance
and the First Family one Album of the Year. The
First Family beat out the likes of Tony Bennett and
Ray Charles. Von Meter was living the dream, right. It
(23:02):
just took over. The voice you're hearing now is the
older Meter from that interview that I got from the archives.
You know, I go on Sullivan. I'd asked him if
I could play a thing I song. I wanted it,
to desperately play some music, saying some songs. No no chance,
no chance, no chance. So I just sell in line,
you know, and and did it. And I had to
(23:27):
get sued to do a volume too, because I didn't
want to do a volume too. They sued me for
a million dollars. In early nineteen sixty three, while Meter
was on a concert tour the album, Bob Booker and
Earl Dowd began developing fresh material for a second volume
of the First Family album, at which time Vaughan said
(23:48):
I don't want to do Kennedy anymore. You heard that right, Meter,
who almost overnight went from barely scraping buying clubs just
storing in the country's most popular album, was sick of
the Kennedy act. But I wasn't very content with any
of it, and maybe it was the Kennedy thing that
I couldn't get out of. But album producer Bob Booker
(24:10):
was having none of it. I said, we have a
deal to do it. He said, I don't care about it.
I don't want to have to do Kennedy the rest
of my life. He said, I want to do my act.
And this is the time I had to say, Van,
you don't have an act. You never had an act.
If you give this up, you're not gonna be working anywhere.
(24:31):
Was that hard for you to say no? Because it
was the truth. And I wanted the album and just
do what we have contractually, and then go do anything
you want in your life. If I never see you again,
that's fine, and just do what you promised you would do.
How did he take it when you told him you
don't have an act? How did he know he was
(24:53):
offended by that? He said no? So I can go
do my act? Said, there was no act. There was
no act in the talent skill right, it was Kennedy
that was it. Volume two was released in the spring
of nineteen sixty three and sold fairly well, but nowhere
near the original album. One of the sketches, which today
(25:13):
seems pretty haunting, imagines the Kennedy's enjoying retirement in n
I certainly enjoyed being president, Bobby enjoyed being president, Jetty
enjoyed being president, and then I enjoyed being president again.
Once I was in, I couldn't find the way out,
(25:36):
And yeah, I'm sorry he found the way out. On
the morning of November nine, sixty three, the Associated Press
published a story by veteran Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas which
started as follows, It's always a bit surprising to find
(26:00):
the new starring show business trying to run away from
the thing that made him famous. Today's example is Van Meter.
Thomas thing goes on to write, he also was searching
for ways to destroy his image as a JFK imitator.
Meter didn't have to search much longer. Here is a
(26:31):
bulletin from CBS News in Dallas, Texas. Three shots were
fired at President Canaday's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first
reports say that President Canada, that's the older Von meter Well.
I just got booked at the Democratic clubn in Wisconsin,
(26:54):
and I flew into Wisconsin from New York. And when
I got in the cab, the cab driver said, you here.
Kennedy got shot in Dallas. And I said, no, how
does it go? Because I thought it was another Kennedy
joke because people, you know, everywhere I went, people and say, Joe,
do you hear about jack and did this? And Jackie
out of the punchline, you know, so I thought it
(27:15):
was just another being set up. Somebody recognized me. He
was setting me up for another Kennedy joke, you know.
I said, how's it go? And then I heard on
the taxi cab radio that that's what happened. So I
went to the hotel, got drunk, and got the next
plane out and went back to New York. And I
guess they stayed drunk. Bob Booker was having lunch in
(27:38):
Greenwich Village when he heard the news. The phone rang
and it was my secretary and she said, Kennedy has
been shot. And I just threw some money on the
table and left. It was devastating, absolutely devasating. I called
Archie Blaier the minute I got back, and I said,
get the albums wherever they are, because they're out with
(28:00):
constributors all over the country. I said, get your hands
on all of them. We're gonna chop him up. I
want no part of cashing in on this man's death.
And just like that, Van Meter's meteoric rise to fame
was over. Did you ever see Vaughan again? Oh? I
talked to him a couple of times. I don't think
(28:21):
I ever did see him again. Well, it was over.
It's over over. You know, John's gun So I don't
want to hear me playing him if it isn't me,
I don't want to, you know, I don't want to
(28:42):
be him. Listen, I am. I think his issue and
this armchair now it's us, was that he did not
have a good division between the character and himself Trump impersonator,
(29:05):
Anthony and Tamanick. But he basically doesn't know where he
ends or Kennedy ends and he begins. And he might
have just been a person who just didn't think about
his psyche before he got into it. Well, it broke
my heart really uh at the time, but I thought
to myself, well, now I can go on to something else.
But I couldn't. I was. I mean that they didn't
(29:29):
want it, and nobody else know that he wanted nothing
else from me. That's what they wanted, and they couldn't
let go of that. I'll never forget. New York City
is cold as it is. I'm walking down Second Avenue
and a steel riveter, a rivet with a hard hat,
sees me and stops his rivet and walks over and
squeezes my hand assist. Oh, so sorry, man, And like,
(29:52):
you know, I was getting that, you know, it's like
almost pity. And I think I had to go to
a great extent. I know I did. I stayed drunk,
and then after that I stayed drugged to get away
from pity feeling sorry for me, you know, And so
I get to feeling sorry for myself. I don't know.
(30:13):
So imagine if like the one thing that you were
getting your momentum on just got pulled from you, and
then everyone's like, oh, that's so bad, almost as if
also it's like everyone was like your career is over,
and maybe almost like he wants to shout I'm not dead,
and also I thought this, but maybe I'm wrong. But
they would also be like, I don't want this. I
don't show your pity and love for him, don't don't
(30:35):
put it to me. Meter would go on to say
that he seemed to be a living reminder of a tragedy.
It's worth remembering that in November of nine, he was
just twenty seven. I mean, that's usually the start of
a career. One week after the assassination, comedian Lenny Bruce
was back on stage in New York. Bob Booker saw
(30:57):
him and says he remembers a moment that its since
become legendary. And he grabbed that microphone and he said,
boyd did Vaughan Meter get screwed? Not exactly that word, Okay,
and you're you're free to say it if you want
to say no, he said, boy did Vaughan Meter get fucked?
Now the critics took him apart for this. I have
(31:21):
never heard a laugh that big in a house in
my life, because Lenny had the ability to say your
most inner thought in public that you would never dare say.
Everybody in the theater had thought that I had gotten
calls from people saying poor Vaughan. I said, poor Vaughan.
(31:43):
How about poor jack Kennedy? For Christ's sake, right, I
think about poor Vaughan. One of the best presidents we
ever had, in my opinion, was dead assassinated. Is that
a story? It's not about Van Meter? Gut No. Von
Meter hadn't, but he was collateral damage. Another line attributed
(32:04):
to Lenny Bruce was that they should put two graves
in Arlington, one for Kennedy and one for Meter. After
the president's death, Meter wrote a condolence letter to Jackie Kennedy.
Although we never met, He wrote, I felt as though
I had known him all my life. I was given
by fate the ability to impersonate his voice and to
(32:25):
copy his gestures. I sincerely hope that a part of
what I did found its way to him and gave
him and his family a few pleasant moments. Yes, beautiful letter, handwritten,
It's sent two different books. Actually did he get a response?
She hated him. That's Van Meter's widow, Sheila. She holds
(32:46):
a copy of the letter. Mrs Kennedy did hate the
album when it first came out. She referred to meet
her as a rat in a memo, and here's her
conversation with Arthur Schlessinger a few months after the assassination.
What did you think of all these kits about him,
so like the First Family and so on? Do you
(33:06):
ever listen to them? I think he listened. I'm not
sure he listened to all of that record. I listened
to one side and then I threw it away because
they didn't want my children to see it, And well
he wasn't, but I guess he sort of took it,
you know. I thought it was so un fair, those things,
(33:26):
She went on to say. I mean, I thought it
was so mean. I didn't care if they make fun
of me or anything, but when they make fun of
little children. In the year after the assassination, Meter didn't
disappear completely. He popped up on television a few times
in four but never again as a JFK. That same year,
(33:47):
he put out his own album called Have Some Nuts,
later another one called if the Shoe Fits So pick
up your phone right now and contribute, contribute the name
of a communist and put us over the top. While
they received some nice reviews, they just didn't sell. He
traveled the country for the next decade, But, as Sheila
(34:07):
Meter recalls, the man she called by his birth name,
Abbott never found that second act. He insisted on writing
his own stuff, and it didn't He needed a writer,
you know. That's he would never have succeeded in something
like the First Family if there hadn't been an Earl
(34:27):
Doubt and a Bob Booker to write it. He was
a delivery man. Abbot delivered, Abbot spoke. Abbot had a
voice that felt like warm oil was being rubbed into
your skin. It was beautiful. I mean, that sounds great.
I mean there's no shame in being, as you so
(34:47):
well put it, a delivery man. That's what he was.
So why was it he okay with that? I don't know,
I don't know. He turned to a variety of substances.
Was the cocaine, There was the LSD. There was a psilocybin,
There was the the rum and coke. Was the marijuana,
(35:10):
and they all had their effects, every one of them.
You know, he was a different person with each one.
Why do you think he'd used so many substances escape,
running away, getting getting into going toward a new life,
a new reality for him. I think one of the
(35:35):
characters inspired by these substances was a blue bunny. Yes,
that's correct, a blue bunny. Meter also had a messianic complex,
which led in two to a production of a Jesus
comedy album called Wait for It, The Second Coming. I
tell parallels. Would you care to hear something? What are
(35:56):
you on? Make me laugh? I'm afraid that they are
very humor. I'll be to judge that. Run it down?
So he's playing Jesus? Is it funny? Kind? Did it
so well? He pursued his passion for honky talk music
and even appeared in a few movies in the nineteen seventies,
(36:16):
including the commercial flop Linda Lovelace for President. Eventually, he
moved back to his home state of Maine. And you know,
I should apologize. I'm on television. I really should apologize
to every woman that ever known me, because I really
didn't know how to treat women. Something we haven't talked
much about is Meter's personal life. As mentioned earlier, he
(36:40):
was married four times. Sheila was number four. They met
in the early nineteen eighties in Maine. Sheila was running
away from her own addictions when she came across a
flyer advertising von Meter playing piano at a nearby in
Did you know who that was? I did, but you know,
it didn't really register. He was only a voice, you know,
(37:03):
a voice, that's all he was from that comedy album
from the First Family, And I really didn't register him
as a living, being, visible, touchable person. They would be
together for twenty years. She describes a controlling relationship with
highs and lows, and a man deeply conflicted by the
(37:26):
thing that had once made him so famous. Was he
haunted by the whole experience awful awful, awful awful, But
he also didn't let anybody know it. At the same
time he was letting everyone know it. He was a dichotomy.
He I've never known anyone who could be so many
(37:49):
things at the same time. And as far as how
he looked back on the First Family experience, was there
a dichotomy there? Was? He haunted by it. But then
also I wanted people to know he was Meter or
well he did that. That's he wanted to be known
as von Meter. But on the other hand, he didn't
want anything to do with von Meter. He was abbot
(38:09):
and he wrote his music, and he entertained people, and
he played the piano and that's what he wanted. They
say every man must say rejection. They say every man
let's fall. But I swear I see my reflection somewhere
(38:40):
high upon the wall. Coming up. Von Meter as Kennedy
one final time. In February, von Meter was wintering with
(39:13):
friends in Florida. He seemed happy, playing piano at a
local bar. He hadn't been a star for years, and
then out of the blue, he got a call from
CBS producers wanted to profile Meter for a new cable
show hosted by paulas on Coming Up on PS. He
(39:34):
sounded like JFK. He looked like JFK. It made him
world famous. Now, while you've been listening to von meter speak,
it's important to note that back in there was a
producer sitting across from him asking him the questions. I
was struck immediately by his appearance. You know, full headed,
(39:55):
gray hair and a big beard. This is Kevin Huffman.
He was a young CBS producer at the time. What
do you think his self image was when you were
sitting there. Oh, he was one of the least confident people.
You know, it's all this bravado like. On the one hand,
he's aggressive, and if you look at you know, the tape,
sometimes he looks at me. And I watched it just now,
(40:17):
and I could see the aggression on his side, like,
you know, what are you going to ask me next? Um?
You know, I've got my story to tell and I'm
not quite confident here. But I also noticed that when
he does go into bits, his eyes darted around a
little bit, like he's looking for an audience, very much
like the camera crew, you know, behind me, or a
(40:41):
part of the audience, you know. When he finally kind
of shed the act, that's when I felt like I
was starting to get to the real guy. She'll revealed
to me the reason for her husband's weariness, his defensiveness.
What do you remember from when CBS came down to
you an interview of him in Florida. His disappointment meter
(41:06):
had boasted to Sheila and his friends that TV anchor
Paula is On would be coming down to do the interview.
When he opened the door to find Kevin, I think
that broke his heart. Broke his heart, it did, It
embarrassed him, and he didn't tolerate embarrassment. What happened at
the end of the interview, This was sad Um. You
(41:28):
know we I think towards the end of the interviews
when I asked him to do the voice, and which
I felt was kind of a big moment for him,
like him doing the voice to me was like a
really cathartic and possibly damaging things. I don't know, it
messed him up. I want to play this moment in
(41:50):
its entirety because more than anywhere else you can hear
what a struggle it was just being von Meter me
doing my jobs. I didn't ask you if you would
do the voice for you wouldn't be doing your job.
I'd have to think of a clever line. Why do
(42:11):
the voice? You know, save up that voice? All these years,
and we did not have a punch line, not have
the line to use the voice for no. Look at
the brain. The brain doesn't react to do it, just
shuts off the switch. Am my on and off? Switch
went on? Somebody used to do the voice. My switch
went off. I can't, No, I can't. Two years ago
(42:44):
and conquered Massachusetts. A shot was fired that was heard
around the world. Thirty something years ago, in Dallas, Texas,
another shot was fired that was heard around the world.
The first bullet fired from the conquered bridge signaled the
birth of the American Spirit. The second bullet fired from
(43:08):
the Texas Book Depository attempted to win that spirit, and
we have seen in the last thirty something he is
how nearly successful that second bullet was. Mhm. But in
the final analysis, there is no bullet, There is no bomb.
(43:29):
There is no power on the face of this earth
that can destroy the American Spirit. Maybe he'd say something
like that. I don't know. It's not funny what he's
(43:50):
saying here. It's a little bit dark, but it's also thoughtful,
kind of deep, even I don't know, optimistic. A totally
different jfk impersonation once again, Anthony and Tamanik. It was
interesting because in a weird way, I watched it and
aligned with it. I was like, oh, it's you. You.
(44:12):
You are doing the same thing. You're using this vessel
to make a greater point, right, so we you know.
We wrapped up the interview and he got up immediately
and I followed him. But he went right into the
kitchen and grabbed a court of vodka, cracked opened the
(44:34):
lid and just started jugging. He said, look, I needed this,
you know, I couldn't um, I got through your whole interview.
I did everything, but this is you know, I have
to do this. I wasn't judging him. I can't help
(44:54):
but wonder if Van Meter would have been better off
if he'd never discovered he could imitate Kenna. But what
do I know? Maybe after a very tough childhood he
was simply faded to have a rough go of it
in life. If you could get into a time machine
and you could go back to the moment that he's
(45:15):
approached by Bob Booker and Earl Dowd to do the
first Family album, what would you tell him as a
time traveler from the future, Do it, dear, and I'll
be right here. I'll be in the background. No one
will see me, no one will hear me, but I'll
be here for you, I would say, do it sure?
Why not? That Van Meter interview from was the last
(45:45):
the public would hear from him. He died six years
later on October four, just one day after my father died.
Pop always talked about the time before Kennedy was shot
is a more innocent time. He heard the news on
the car radio and pulled the light blue VW bug
(46:06):
he was driving the first car my parents ever owned
over to the side of the road and wept. It
was a different time, one where the presidency was held
in such regard that von Meter would end his routine
with the assurance that it was all in good fun.
We're never going back to that time, and I'm not
(46:26):
saying we should try, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't
pay our respects, not just a van Meter, but also
to that time before that horrible day. So I want
to end this mobituary with some sound from near the
end of the First Family album Sweet, Disarmingly Innocent and
(46:50):
yes funny, Oh no, everybody taking it together with Biguinness.
Yeah next time. On Mobituaries TV sitcom deaths and Disappearances,
(47:34):
they did not have room in the writing for the
older brother, because the fans became the older brother. I
certainly hope you enjoyed your first mobile Be sure to
rate and review our podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries
on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow me on
Twitter at Morocca. For more great content, including video of
(47:57):
the older vond Meter, please visit mobituaries dot com. You
can subscribe to Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. This
episode of Mobituaries was produced by Megan Marcus. Our team
of producers also includes Gideon Evans, Kate mccauliffe, Megan Dietree,
(48:18):
and me Morocca. It was edited by Kate mccaulliffe and
engineered by David Herman. Indispensable support from Genius Tensky, Kira Wardlow,
Zach Gilcrest, Richard Warrer, the team at CBS News Radio,
the JFK Presidential Library, and Joe Allessie at the CBS
News Archives. Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart and,
(48:43):
as always, undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John carp
without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're
(49:07):
enjoying Mobituaries the podcast, may I invite you to check
out Mobituaries the book. It's chock full of stories not
in the podcast. Celebrities who put their butts on the line,
sports teams that threw in the towel for good, forgotten fashions,
defunct diagnoses, presidential candidacies that cratered whole countries that went
(49:29):
to put and dragons, Yes, dragons, you see. People used
to believe the dragons will real until just get the book.
You can order Mobituaries the book from any online bookseller,
or stop by your local bookstore and look for me
when I come to your city. Tour information and lots
more at mobituaries dot com
Host
Mo Rocca
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