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, 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 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 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 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 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 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
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. 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, 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, 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 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 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 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 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,
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 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 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. 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. 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 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. 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 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 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
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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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. 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
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 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 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, 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, 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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. 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 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
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 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. 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
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 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. 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 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. 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 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
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 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 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
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 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. 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 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 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,
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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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
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, 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 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, 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. 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 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 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 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. 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 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
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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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
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, 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 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 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, 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
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, 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 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 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 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
high upon the wall. Coming up. Von Meter as Kennedy one final time. In February, von Meter was wintering with 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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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. 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 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. 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
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 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 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
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 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 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 yes funny, Oh no, everybody taking it together with Biguinness. Yeah next time. On Mobituaries TV sitcom deaths and Disappearances, 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 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, 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, as always, undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John carp without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're 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 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
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