Camelot

The Kennedy Mystique: Creating Camelot examines the skill with which John F. Kennedy used the media to create and sustain an image of glamour. Under Kennedy, not only was there an official White House photographer (Cecil Stoughton), but Kennedy had his own personal photographer (Jacques Lowe) who captured most of the intimate photos that have defined Kennedy in retrospect. In interviews, Stoughton and journalists of the time like Ben Bradlee discuss how Kennedy deflected attention away from his health and womanizing, focusing the public on a young, vital president and his warm, loving family. As television began to take hold of the country, becoming its dominant medium, Kennedy's photogenic looks became a powerful political tool. The Kennedy Mystique: Creating Camelot doesn't push its analysis too deeply, but it does describe the beginning of an era in which image has become as important to politics as substance. --Bret Fetzer