Jackie Kennedy: Fashion, Flair and Hair

The assassination of President Kennedy, 50 years ago on November 22, was the end of America's cultural innocence to a great extent. The Kennedy Camelot years, 1960-1963, also oversaw an era of big hair and small skirts and a kind of glamour of its own that emerged from the popular culture.

First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy set the standard in haute couture. "Fashion, in the early 1960s [for many Americans], was seen as a preoccupation of the wealthy." Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology explained. Pre-Jackie,"[m]ost Americans had a sort of knee-jerk reaction: fashion was elitist, decadent. What she did was give a totally positive spin to fashion."

After JFK's death, public interest remained very high regarding the fashionable ex-First Lady.  During her post-White House years, she helped to make big, round sunglasses chic. In July 2013, Brie Dyas in Huffington Post reported (during what would have been Jackie's 84th birthday), "her name became a code word for a complete lifestyle. Having great manners? Very Jackie Kennedy. Using candelabras at the dinner table? That's very Jackie Kennedy, too.... When Jackie became First Lady, the public became enthralled with her simple approach to clothing and beauty. She shepherded women out of the tight waists, crinolines and overly styled hairdos of the 1950s and into sleek shifts, pillbox hats and a more natural approach to makeup that played up the eyes.

"Today, any store that makes its fortune in simple dressing -- we're looking at you, J.Crew -- should salute her."

Jackie wore a "flip" hairdo. Good girls in the Sixties wore flips. Lesley Gore wore a flip. Mary Tyler Moore wore a flip. Bad girls wore beehives, like The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las.

Mrs Kennedy was certainly a refreshing departure from the dowdy Mamie Eisenhower, and she set a standard for glamour that was embraced by First Ladies Nancy Reagan and Michelle Obama. Of course, most iconic is Jacqueline Kennedy's pink suit with pillbox hat that she wore to Dallas in November 1963. After the assassination, according to William Manchester’s The Death of a President, she was asked to “clean up her appearance,” but refused.

"No," the First Lady said, "Let them see what they have done."

Valerie Harper, "I, Rhoda" and I

"Words simply can not express how the overwhelming out pouring of love and good wishes has touched my heart," actress Valerie Harper wrote her fans on Facebook, March 9th. "To every single one of you who reached out to me expressing your concern through twitter, facebook, my website, via phone, text, email, cards, letters ... I want to thank YOU for your beautiful support! DESPITE this devastating diagnosis, I'm feeling well, living normally and am forging a positive path forward!" And we are all wishing this beloved performer the best!

Ironically, it was only days before Ms Harper's diagnosis with a terminal illness became public that I had finished reading her recent autobiography, I, Rhoda. It was a breezy, enjoyable book highlighting the actress' warm, positive outlook and fond recollections. Ms Harper started as a dancer, got her big break in the Broadway chorus of the musical, Li'l Abner, and only later became interested in acting after marrying Dick Schaal and training with Second City. (She has since divorced Schaal. Harper married Tony Cacciotti in 1987.) She writes of her work in the play, Storybook Theater, in which she performed simultaneously while in the first season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. (I was fortunate enough to have caught this show, during its Broadway run, the following summer.)

There are many gossipy little anecdotes along the way about working with Jackie Gleason; Shelley Winters versus Celeste Holme; Lucille Ball in the Broadway musical Wildcat; director Michael Bennett. But even these are told with a sweet sense of humor and affection, and without vindictiveness. 

Ms Harper writes of her political convictions, particularly her long commitment to feminism and civil rights. And of snagging the role of  Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, for which Ms Harper was a three-time Emmy Award winner, as well as a Best Actress Emmy winner for its popular spinoff sitcom, Rhoda. Valerie graciously praises her co-stars on both series, especially Ms Tyler Moore. She also cites  The Mary Tyler Moore Show's groundbreaking significance when she writes: "A show that focused on a woman's career, not her family or love life was a new concept." 

Valerie Harper's work on NBC's Valerie's Family was far less of a happy experience. In fact, she was ultimately fired from the show, an event that was traumatic for its star. She understandably described it as "painful and humiliating."

I last saw Valerie Harper back on Broadway in the tragicomedy, Looped, portraying Tallulah Bankhead at a time when that legend knew she had terminal cancer, ironically. Ms Harper was triumphant in the role. This past January, she was to revive her portrayal when the play went on the road. I planned to go to Connecticut to see it. She cancelled. "Due to illness," was all she said on Facebook at that time.

Here's Ms Harper's video message to fans on YouTube:



Dialogue Valerie Harper quotes from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, between Rhoda and Phyllis (Cloris Leachman):

Phyllis tells Rhoda, condescendingly, that she's ok with Rhoda marrying her brother, Ben.
Rhoda:  Phyllis, I'm not going to marry Ben.
Phyllis: Why not? My brother is successful. He's handsome. He's intelligent.
Rhoda (matter-of-factly): He's gay.
Phyllis: Oh, Rhoda, I'm so relieved!