On Monday night, Oct. 22, 1962, a little-known 26-year-old musician-turned-stand-up comedian stepped onto a stage before a live audience in a New York recording studio. When he exited, he had made entertainment history. And the impact of what he did that night 58 years ago remains with us today.
Vaughn Meader was born in Maine and raised in Boston. After serving a hitch in the Army, he bounced around Big Apple nightclubs playing the piano and singing. He gradually threw in humorous bits, including impressions of famous singers. When Massachusetts’s John F. Kennedy ran for, and was narrowly elected, president in 1960, Meader began impersonating him. His New England roots helped him imitate Kennedy’s Harvard accent. He combed his hair to match Kennedy’s style and captured the new president’s trademark finger-jabbing gesture and facial expressions.
