Yesterday was National Television Day. Today is the 60th anniversary of the JFK’s assassination. In many ways, JFK was the first TV president. Right from the start, the televised Nixon-Kennedy debate was a landmark television event. How do we know this? The majority of the people who heard the debate on the radio held that Nixon won hands down. However, TV viewers of the debate overwhelmingly chose the young man from Massachusetts over the former Vice President and veteran politician. Is there some psychological or culturally significant indicator for this? Well, yes and no. Here’s what made the difference, makeup. Yes, it was makeup that maxed out Kennedy’s appeal, the power of this Max Factor was demonstrated when Richard Nixon, a man of the 1940s and 50s, knew that only women wore makeup. Therefore, he politely demurred the powder puff of the makeup person.
Kennedy who had had a constant stable of Hollywood starlets in his orbit and his famous actor, brother-in-law, Peter Lawford, knew all about cosmetology and its power in movies…and now, TV. Here’s the science behind this Max Factor. TV camera tubes of the day were a scientific extension of an X-ray tube, although more benign, early Iconoscope and vidicon television camera tubes x-ray a scant part of a millimeter deep under the skin. Even a clean-shaven face to the naked eye will appear as a 5’oclock shadow under this x-ray effect of the early tubes. Revealing the hair follicles just under any clean-shaven skin. Kennedy opted for the basic makeup (called Block, for a very good reason) while Nixon went full commando with a naked and exposed face. On TV Kennedy looked well-groomed and sharp, while just as clean-shaven Nixon appeared like a bum who didn’t shave. More people watched television than radio and the rest is history.
Kennedy went on to be a very effective practitioner of television. He made many Oval Office Addresses on national crises and social issues that literally brought the here-to-fore, behind-closed-doors machinations of the government. Further increasing his muscular political tone. Even Jaqueline Kennedy masterfully took America on a White House tour and by doing so, immortalized and protected her décor choices and adornment of the mansion ensuring First Ladies in the future would think twice before they changed anything “Jackie” because that’s the way America saw the White House.
Finally, Kennedy’s Assassination and Funeral was named by TV Guide as, America’s Three Day Vigil. So glued to our sets were we that we all witnessed the murder of his assassin, Oswald in the basement of the Dallas jail.
A dozen years later, a much more gruesome milestone was achieved by Kennedy on television, as the film of his gruesome and bloody murder was broadcast to an unsuspecting public on March 6th, 1976, by Geraldo Rivera on his late-night show, Good Night America.
Kennedy was truly the first TV president and, in many ways, JFK and TV changed the world for good and bad.
Read about my latest novel, ASK NOT!, a JFK murder mystery thriller here.