Oh yes. It was like that all right, once upon a time before anyone had heard the name, Zohran Mamdani, and threats to turn NYC into a wasteland.
Over at Katz’s Deli I’m sitting with Vaughn Meader, when I spot something out the window.
I say, “Look. That guy looks like Marlon Brando.”
“That IS Brando,” Meader explains. “This is New York, Jack.”
I was new. I was new to this environment, this town, this country, to this people and their slang. Just got off the boat.
Meantime I was on assignment for the Philadelphia Inquirer to do a feature on Vaughn Meader, the hottest act in America.
His impersonations of President John F. Kennedy were done to perfection. He regaled America and he was regularly featured on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Off-stage he was not funny. Things were going too well, he was getting rich, and this spooked him.
“Do you hear the talk?” he asked me. Yes, I had. JFK was his only act, and if anything happened to the President, poof goes Vaughn Meader, and the country.
This was more than chatter. The country was divided in half between those who loved JFK and those who hated JFK. Was he tough enough against the Soviets? Castro and Cuba?
Was he doing enough on Civil Rights? Why was he sending “advisors” to Vietnam?
These were hot topics on the Dick Cavett Show, where Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer nearly came to blows over their differing opinions.
Vaughn Meader had to spin all that into comedy. His material had to stay fresh. Lenny Bruce accused him of being a sell-out.
Liz Taylor and Richard Burton caught his act at the Au Go Go in the Village. So did Paul Newman.
This is New York, Jack.
My job was to find out what made Vaughn Meader click. Usually it was scotch on the rocks, and the horses. I took most of my notes while he was making bets.
These ended up in my novel about the 1960s, “The Days of the Bitter End.”
Like most of New York, he was always in a hurry, but always took time to sign autographs. He felt himself unworthy of so much fame and adulation.
At this time, he was bigger than Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, who were performing at the Paramount.
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Jerry advised Meader.
Bob Dylan arrived in Greenwich Village with the message that the times were a-changing..
The Counterculture was on.
Arthur Krock, the leading columnist at The New York Times, wrote that if an attempt were made on the President’s life, blame the CIA.
Since he was the President’s double, Vaughn Meader would also need extra protection. He had become more than a comedian.
People actually expected him to come up with real answers, as if he were the real deal. People still remembered the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missiles Crisis.
But his Peace Corps was a success, as was his promise to reach the moon. His New Frontier was intended to Make America Great Again.
Under JFK’s leadership, America was riding high.
Sinatra was at his usual hangout, Jilly’s. “Get yourself another routine,” he advised Meader. “Keep it in your pocket in case this one gets stale. Nothing lasts forever, kid.”
Now available, a collection of Jack Engelhard’s op-eds, “Writings.”
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the anti-BDS thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
From the esteemed John w. Cassell: “Jack Engelhard is a writer without peer, and the. conscience of us all.”