Friday, November 22, 2013

Rest in Peace, JFK

Despite his missteps, despite his faithful infidelities, no president will be mourned more than John F. Kennedy. His very public assassination scarred American History, and perhaps defines his legacy the most. For a nation to lose its leader during an unstable time is traumatic; his death unified the nation, if only for a short time. Considering the current political, we are unlikely to know such unity again.

It is said that the Kennedy family wanted JFK buried in the family plot in Massachusetts, but that Jackie had the foresight to realize that her husband's death would play so deeply into history, that she had him laid to rest at Arlington and his tomb topped with an eternal flame.

For more on how the eternal flame came to be, read the article here.

And now that the 50 year 'anniversary' mark has come and gone, may JFK find some sense of rest in his New Frontier.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

JFK...His Last Words.....

Considering the confusion, panic, and hysteria that ensued that traumatic day, you have to wonder: What were JFK's last words?

By the time he reached Parkland Hospital, the president was already gone. In fact, it's safe to say that after the hit to the throat, John F. Kennedy said no more.

But after some research, I discovered those last words: With his hand on Jackie's, he looked at her and said, "Don't wear the sunglasses."

The rain had stopped in Dallas, and despite the tragedy ahead, the sun peeked out. Jackie had reached for her sunglasses. But JFK wanted to connect with the people of Dallas: he wanted the convertible without the bubble top; he wanted them to see his face, his eyes, even as the motorcade slipped by....


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Revisiting the JFK - Marilyn Monroe Affair part 2

Most people probably accept the story that JFK and Marilyn met after he became president and she was already solidified as the Hollywood blond bombshell. According to reports, the president and the actress were introduced by Peter Lawford, JFK's brother-in-law (Peter was also an actor and super-pals with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.). The chemistry was obvious, electric. Who knows how long it was from introduction to seduction.

However, that famous weekend JFK spent at Bing Crosby's....where Marilyn showed up. And let's not forget those juicy rumors about the pool side cabana....

Months later, Marilyn sang, "Happy Birthday, Mr. President," wearing that infamous 'skin and beads' gown during a televised event. That night, at Harry Belafonte's NYC apartment, the two were captured together that now-famous photograph--the only one that features them 'together'.

Ah, the fact that JFK shied away from the camera, is very telling....



Ready for more on the JFK - Marilyn affair? Check out O! JACKIE to get your Kennedy fix.

O! Jackie news

She's in the spotlight today. Check it out!

The intimate and revealing O! JACKIE is featured in today's Free Kindle Nation Shorts excerpt http://eepurl.com/I8CPH

The Red Roses

Interesting. When the president and first lady arrived in Dallas on that fateful day, Jackie was given a beautiful bouquet of red roses. Believe it or not, some people cried foul and claimed this was a sure sign of the conspiracy to kill JFK. Why? Yellow roses are the beloved flower of Texas. There's even a song! And Jackie did receive yellow roses earlier in their trip.

Were the roses a sign of the bloodshed to come? Probably not. But 50 years later, 'believers'--both conspiracy theorists and...not--are still mulling and 'proving' who pulled the trigger that day...and marked the history books with tragedy.

Before Dallas, JFK and Jackie had plenty of problems at home, behind closed doors. And bloodshed? Well, it could come to that. Find out whose in O! JACKIE.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Revisiting the JFK - Marilyn Monroe Affair part 1

Just as with the assassination, theories abound when it comes to the sexual entanglement of JFK and Marilyn. Why? Controversial tongue wagging always follows whenever two gorgeous, famous people connect carnally.

Some people claim the pair knew each other and met back in the 40s, long before politics and Hollywood ensnared them. This broken fairy tale version paints the picture that their trysts were more than a tawdry affair, that theirs was a love story of forbidden proportions. Joe Kennedy was credited with keeping them apart--refusing to allow his White House-bound son to marry someone of Marilyn's caliber....JFK let his father have his way, as he always did.

I won't get into the reported 'love child' JFK and Marilyn shared. At that one, I draw the line.

Interesting, perhaps, since I show little restraint when it come to the heated topic of JFK and Marilyn in O! JACKIE.....check it out.




Monday, November 18, 2013

JFK's Coconut

This coconut fascinates me. When I think of the how and why it came to be, it's amazing. For those who may not know the story of JFK and the PT109, here's a quick recap....

JFK skippered the PT109 during his Navy days. A Japanese destroyed cut the tiny patrol boat in half, ran right through it like butter. JFK and the surviving crew members had to swim three miles in the waters of the South Pacific to reach a nearby island. Stranded with his men, JFK carved a message into a coconut, which natives delivered to a U.S. naval base some distance away. That coconut was the S.O.S.  / mayday call that helped rescue JFK and fellow mates. It was returned to JFK, who had it made into a paperweight; it adorned his desk the rest of his political days. And now, it rests among the other Kennedy-treasures in the JFK Library and Museum. A true wonder!

 
Want to read more amazing Kennedy stories...a blend of historical fact and fiction...? Check out O! Jackie

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Jackie's Sketch



According to the caption, this was Jackie's depiction of life on the road during the 1956 campaign. Love the wit and humor displayed here. And how many people knew our former first lady was supremely talented??

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Site of Oswald's Murder

No matter which conspiracy theory you hold to regarding JFK's assassination, I think most would tentatively agree on one thing: Oswald's assassination had 'perfect' timing.

Ben Franklin once said "Three can keep a secret if two are dead," a little nugget that often proves true when it comes to murder-for-hire plots. With this in mind, I've gone back and forth on whether or not Oswald acted alone on Nov. 22, 1963.

If there really was a conspiracy to take out JFK, then how could so many keep quiet?

I know, I know...there's proof, there's evidence that something 'stank in the state of Camelot'.

We tend to believe whatever we want, and use the evidence to our advantage in arguments.

Oswald claimed he was a patsy, but he didn't give police a list of names of his accomplices, didn't give details on any conspiracy. He didn't sell out.

We're also talking 1963.

Had he lived, gone to trial, etc., what details, what facts would've emerged? Impossible to say, even now, 50 years later.

But here's an interesting article discussing the fate of the parking garage where Oswald was shot and killed. Amazing that it hasn't been turned into a museum of some sort.

Read the article here.

But if conspiracy theories aren't your thing, or if you're more of a Jackie and Camelot fan, check out my book on how Jackie dealt with JFK behind the scenes and between the sheets....O! JACKIE .

Saturday, November 9, 2013

The Kennedy Game of Clue...?



Loved the title of this article: 11 Players in the Kennedy Assassination.

Check it out here.

The Kennedy Influence

Without a doubt, JFK was one of the most trusted and beloved presidents our nation has ever known. Few leaders since Kennedy have been able to win the fickle hearts of both Democrats and Republicans alike. So what was it that JFK had going for him?

Not to get too political here, but JFK was a visionary for his time. His speeches--his acceptance of the Democratic nomination in the summer of 1960 and his inaugural address, in particular--showcased a forward-thinking 'hopefulness' and patriotism the nation hungered for. Plus, thanks in part to the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK united the U.S. against a common enemy--communism.

Kennedy also left a lasting impression on the civil right movement, and some claim that for a portion of African Americans, JFK was as highly regarded as MLK and Jesus. Impressive company.

Read the article here.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

New Kennedy Film

As we've already pointed out this month, and as you've surely noticed everytime you visit the front page of your browser, Kennedy-news-stuff this month is at an all-time fever pitch.

Something new in the mix? A film starring Rob Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin as the famous Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy.

More info here.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The Kennedy Mini-Series

Whether you loved or hated the actors portraying the Kennedys in the made-for-tv mini-series, The Kennedys, admit it, you just had to check it out. Guilty! Not that I had any issues with the cast. Katie Holmes has been compared to Jackie for ages, and while Katie does carry a certain class about her, she's no Jackie. She didn't capture Jackie's presence and mystique. But who does? (Tom Wilkinson as Joe--brilliant!) For me, the big disappointment wasn't in the actors or performances but in the depiction of JFK. Could just be me, but the character came across as wimpy, indecisive. I also think JFK's 'need' for other women was downplayed. And his fling with Marilyn? Almost ignored. Ah, well. I don't mind a decent rerun.

But if you like your Kennedys 'spicier' and more realistic, check out O! JACKIE.



JFK's Women

From an article by Robert Macpherson


Washington (AFP) - There was glamorous Jackie, of course. And mother Rose, who nurtured his White House ambitions. And all the others: a movie star, a teenaged intern, a mistress with Mafia ties and more.
 
Without a doubt, John F. Kennedy -- whose assassination 50 years ago this month still looms large in the American consciousness -- had a complicated relationship with women, many women.
Either he embraced them as pillars of strength on his journey to the US presidency, or he toyed with them to satisfy a unfathomable libido, in a "Mad Men" era when alpha males called the shots.

"It depended on the woman," said Larry Sabato, author of the just-published bestseller "The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy."

"He could be gracious and respectful of those with power and influence," Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told AFP.

"But JFK had a nearly insatiable sexual appetite -- and in our terms today, he treated young and beautiful women as sexual objects."

Central to the Kennedy narrative was Jackie, the former Jacqueline Bouvier, born into affluence in July 1929, who personified style, elegance and sophistication for millions around the world.
The couple married in 1953 when she was a 24-year-old journalist and he was a 36-year-old rookie US senator. She encouraged him to write the Pulitzer-winning "Profiles in Courage" while recovering from back surgery, and she campaigned alongside him in his hard-fought presidential race against Richard Nixon.

In the White House, she championed the arts and culture, and presided over lavish state functions, while tending to the couple's young children Caroline and his son, John Jr, also known as John-John.
In the hours after Kennedy was killed, Jackie -- who was sitting next to him in the open-top presidential limousine in Dallas -- famously refused to change out of the pink Chanel suit spattered with his blood.

"I want them to see what they have done to Jack," she said.

She died in 1994 at the age of 64, with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston remembering her as a selfless woman of duty.

"With a deep sense of devotion to her family and country, she dedicated herself to raising her children and to making the world a better place through art, literature, and a respect for history and public service," reads her profile on its website.

But, while the Kennedys projected a public image of the quintessential modern American family, the president privately surrounded himself with paramours aplenty.

Best-known was Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood sex goddess who got tongues wagging with her sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday" at a 1962 Democratic Party fundraising soirée.

The presidential birthday boy made no effort to conceal his delight.

Jackie knew of the liaison, [ as well as the other women].  Including Judith Campbell Exner, whose claim of a steamy two-year affair with Kennedy -- coinciding with a relationship with a Chicago underworld kingpin -- is deemed credible by historians.

Or Mimi Beardsley, a 19-year-old White House intern when Kennedy wooed her into an affair that lasted 18 months. She was a virgin, she said, when they first made love on Jackie's bed; later the two would race rubber duckies in the presidential bath tub.

No-one knows how many prostitutes Kennedy hired, but there were enough for his bodyguards to worry that he might fall victim to espionage or blackmail, at a time when the United States and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war.

"He had a tendency to surround himself with ladies sometimes who were a little worrisome," said one Secret Service agent, Anthony Sherman, in an ABC television documentary in 1997.

"This was reckless to the extreme," Sabato told AFP.
"JFK risked his presidency and family over and over... Almost certainly, foreign intelligence agencies had some knowledge of this pattern of behavior."
 
 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Why the Kennedy Obsession Endures

Britain may have their royal family, but here in America, we had the Kennedys.

Rich, good looking, and ambitious, they represented hope during a difficult time in our nation's history. But the Kennedys were not without their flaws...Joe became infamous for his bootlegging and dealings with the mafia; JFK, well, he rarely met a woman he didn't like...and often get to know carnally; Rose, the domineering matriarch, was noted for being cold and unaffectionate with her nine children...on it goes.

Tragedy also clung to the Kennedys.

Joe Jr. and Kathleen both died in plane crashes; their daughter Rosemary struggled with mental deficiencies, unless Joe agreed to a procedure that paralyzed her in a vegetative state.

And we know how later history played out...Jack and Bobby both victim to an assassin's bullet; Teddy and Chappaquiddick....

Still, fascination trumps all when it comes to the Kennedy family. Perhaps they really are Arthurian legend, come to life...so to speak.

O! JACKIE takes a close, personal look at Jackie Kennedy, and the struggles that made her 'famous'....

Visit the Oswalds

Opening Wednesday is a new museum in honor of the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination: the house where Oswald's family stayed.

After years of changing ownership and many updates, the home is now ready for the public to stroll through and indulge their obsession for all things Kennedy and that fateful November day.

Read the article here.

But if you're one who's more interested in revisiting 'Camelot' and its scandals, you might want to read here....Enjoy your copy of O! JACKIE today.

Monday, November 4, 2013

JFK, Jackie, and Their Hats

FILE - In this Dec. 19, 1961 file photo, President John F. Kennedy leaves the White House in Washington to Andrews Air Force Base for flight to Palm Beach, Fla. en route to the bedsite of his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who is hospitalized after suffering as stroke. Kennedy's civil rights legacy has undergone substantial reassessment since his 1963 assassination. Half a century later, "We're still trying to figure it out," says one longtime civil rights activist. (AP Photo/WJS)

JFK looks uncharacteristically somber in this photo, and though I'm not sure why, I can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with that hat! Although hats were fashionable during JFK's time, he hated them. Unlike the average male his age, JFK wasn't balding, so he was proud--perhaps arrogant about--showing off his famous Kennedy-weave. Check out footage from the inauguration. JFK's wearing a suit with tails...and carrying a hat. Even though it Washington was covered with snow and temperatures were in the 20s, JFK passed on donning the hat, especially during his inaugural address.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

The Assassination, 'Truth', and Making $$

Interesting article about how people have made money from the assassination with books and movies. When it comes to that tragic day in Dallas, there's an unending take on conspiracy theories, and we each adhere to what 'satisfies' our individual natures. Books and movies related to the topic have been successful for several reasons: the government's 'secrecy' and handling of info; the strange / unusual deaths of witnesses; and Oswald's assassination in the PD parking garage.

Read the article here.

For me, another mystery was always Jackie Kennedy herself. Poise and elegance defined her, but so did her need for privacy. And let's face it, many are stunned at how she tolerated JFK's wandering ways so gracefully.

Interested in getting to know Jackie 'personally'? Then enjoy O! JACKIE. You won't find any conspiracy theories here...at least not related to JFK's assassination...

Friday, November 1, 2013

The Fairy Tale...Shattered

Most of us love a good story with a happy ending, and our celebrity-obsessed culture can't get enough of the drama of the rich and famous. The Kennedys, during that brief window in the 60s, were perfect. A gorgeous couple with adorable young children. He, the most powerful man in the world; she, the most beloved first lady. Nothing could outshine them, and America believed its future, its 'new frontier' was promising and solid. Of course, the trip to Dallas changed everything. Through the years, reports of JFK's infidelities surfaced, destroying the Camelot image for good. Even so, it's doubtful our country will ever again feel so hopeful, so passionate about the first couple. Had it rained that afternoon, the story could've been changed: JFK could've lived...but one wonders, how much of her husband's 'weakness' Jackie could've endured?

Scandals or not, some of us can't get enough of the Kennedys. If you're feeling nostalgic or curious about what they were like behind closed doors, then check out O! JACKIE.

And may you rest in peace, Mr. President...