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John F. Kennedy

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
John F. Kennedy

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Auction Date:2018 Jan 10 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Important partly-printed DS as president, one page, 22.75 x 18.75, November 14, 1961. President Kennedy appoints renowned lyricist Alan Jay Lerner as "a Member of the Advisory Committee on the Arts (National Cultural Center)." Boldly signed at the conclusion by President Kennedy and countersigned by Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The embossed white paper seal affixed to the lower left remains fully intact. Archivally mounted, matted, and framed to an overall size of 33 x 29. In very good condition, with areas of light staining and toning, and creasing and rippling from being permanently affixed to a same-size mount; both signatures remain quite bold. Accompanied by full letters of authenticity from PSA/DNA and JSA.

Kennedy and Lerner were classmates in prep school at Choate—where they worked together on the yearbook staff—and at Harvard, where they graduated as members of the class of 1940. By this appointment, Kennedy named his old friend to the advisory committee for the planned National Cultural Center on the Potomac, which had been approved by Congress during the Eisenhower administration but was not yet built. Less than two months after JFK's assassination, Congress would designate this National Cultural Center as the 'John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts'—commonly called the 'Kennedy Center' today. Lerner had famously collaborated with Frederick Loewe on the 1960 musical Camelot, which was reportedly JFK's favorite musical and has since come to symbolize the Kennedy era. In the aftermath of tragedy, Jacqueline Kennedy famously quoted Lerner's lyrics from 'Camelot (Reprise)' in a December 1963 interview with Life magazine: 'Don't let it be forgot / That once there was a spot / For one brief shining moment that was known / As Camelot.'

At the time this interview was published, Camelot was being performed in Chicago. Lerner recalled what happened when 'Camelot (Reprise)' was sung: 'Louis Hayward was playing King Arthur. When he came to those lines, there was a sudden wail from the audience. It was not a muffled sob; it was a loud, almost primitive cry of pain. The play stopped, and for almost five minutes everyone in the theatre—on the stage, in the wings, in the pit, and in the audience—wept without restraint. Then the play continued.' This one-of-a-kind appointment captures the idealism, romance, and tragic conclusion enveloping the Kennedy years and defining its legacy.