The Making of "Jack Kennedy Fans," 1960
UW Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park St., Madison, Wisconsin
The Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture
The Making of “Jack Kennedy Fans,” 1960
Kathryn Cramer Brownell, assistant professor of history, Purdue University
Thursday, November 12, 4 p.m., 4191 Helen C. White Hall (inside the SLIS Library), 600 N. Park Street
Free
With his handsome looks and television savvy, John F. Kennedy is overwhelmingly remembered as the first “celebrity president.” And yet, Kennedy’s celebrity status came from more than his successful performances on television. The Massachusetts senator capitalized on a “showbiz” style rooted in California politics and the Hollywood studio system. The son of a former studio executive, Kennedy deployed a political version of the “Hollywood Dream Machine” to transform voters into “Jack Kennedy fans.” On the primary trail, his campaign team used advertisements and announcements in the print media to stir interest in the senator’s personality and generate enthusiasm for his upcoming television appearances. Just as Hollywood publicists saturated magazines and newspapers with information about a new star to promote forthcoming feature films, so too did Kennedy’s campaign plant stories and press announcements about the senator to turn out voters. To assert his political credibility, Kennedy capitalized on these connections between visual and print culture, and his successful presidential bid convinced subsequent presidential contenders—from Nixon to Reagan to Obama—to do the same, ultimately making the Hollywood star system to become an integral component of modern American political life.
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