First Lady Dress-Up Book, The.
A Scarce Survival of this Aborted Production:
Caroline Kennedy in 1963
[Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier]. The Caroline Kennedy First Lady Dress-up Book. Poems by Alene Dalton. Poems by Charlotte Jetter. New York: Rolton House Publishers, Inc., 1963.
8vo.; 24 pages; full-color illustrations throughout; illustrated endpapers; red paper-covered boards, photographically illustrated; veneer cracked and chipped at spine, else fine.
First edition; fewer than 1000 “test copies” were printed, but not many are known to have survived. Heart-wrenchingly scheduled for release on November 22, 1963, its production was brought to a halt by Kennedy’s assassination that day, and was never revisited. This copy was retained by the printer. It is perhaps the most poignant relic marking the end of the American Camelot.
Caroline Kennedy easily charmed the media and public during the White House years, as her youthful innocence, adorable looks, and candid talk allowed her to secure overwhelming admiration by the public. Caroline was showcased in this book—with a black and white head shot of her on the cover—in which she imagined what it would be like to be each of 17 first ladies (or, at least, what it would be like to dress in their period clothing). The endpapers bear formal portraits of presidents past and present—including JFK—in black and white. The interior of the volume provides colorful winsome illustrations of Caroline, in imitation of her headshot, in various costumes. Each picture is headed by a First Lady’s name and life span, and is captioned by a paragraph in which Caroline describes the dresses of each era. The final caption merits quoting in full:
Today I hardly had to make-believe at all. Instead of being the President’s little girl, I just had to imagine I was my mommie…and there I was…President Kennedy’s First Lady. When my mommie got ready for the inaugural ball, she wore a beautiful white dress. It had a chiffon top and you could see hundreds of beads embroidered on her slip, shining through. She wore diamond earrings and diamonds in her hair. She looked more wonderful than a Queen. Her gloves and slippers and bag matched her gown. She covered her costume with an elegant evening cape that fell gracefully to the floor. I thought my mommie was the most beautiful First Lady of all.
Also included throughout are poems recalling the presidencies of Washington, Jackson, Cleveland, McKinley, Harding, Eisenhower, and this one, a paean to FDR:
When Roosevelt was President in 1932
He used lots of initials to solve his problems new.
There was NRA—the New Deal Pack
And FRA—the Banking Act
For unemployed—there was WPA
And for better houses, FHA
The poem to “Fala,” FDR’s dog, is the longest in the book. Some of her shorter poems discuss in verse such issues as “The Old Frontier,” “The New Frontier,” and “The Twist.”
This publication, had it been released, would have been a landmark commercialization by the Kennedys. Jackie protected the family interests by involving herself at the highest level, personally supervising and approving every level of production, marketing, and publication. Arlene Dalton was a close friend of hers from Random House.
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