Crazy How Dean Martin’s Whole Thing Was To Be Deeply Fond And Affectionate Toward A Complete Clown

an excerpt of mahler’s ‘adagietto’ from symphony no. 5 led by leonard bernstein and the new york philharmonic recorded in st. patrick’s cathedral on june 8, 1968, the day of bobby’s funeral. (yes it’s the real recording)

days before the funeral, jackie called leonard bernstein to help ethel plan bobby’s funeral. when bernstein told her that women couldn’t sing in the cathedral, jackie said “so what? this is special. this is bobby. they will make an exception.”

finally they settled on mahler. after the funeral, jackie sent him a letter of gratitude, thanking him for his participation:

“when your mahler started to fill (but that is the wrong word — because it was more this sensitive trembling) the cathedral today — i thought it was the most beautiful music i had ever heard. i am so glad i didn’t know it — it was this strange music of all the gods who were crying. and then — if only you could have seen it - it was the time when ethel had thought of the most touching thing — having the littlest nephews and nieces, small children, before that terrifying array of cardinals and gold and gothic vaults, carry all the little vessels for communion up to the high altar, so that they could have some part in the farewell to the uncle they all loved so much. they were so vulnerable — and your music was everything in my heart, of peace and pain and such drowning beauty. you could just close your eyes and be lost in it forever.”

in an interview with jean stein a year later, bernstein shared his thoughts about that day:

it was just a movement from mahler’s fifth, but it’s of particularly poignant intensity, and it’s just exactly the right music for this occasion. even, perhaps, too emotional, or passionate. but somehow nothing could be emotional or passionate enough to express that moment.

and here are the three of them (bobby, jackie, and leonard) at the dining hall of the metropolitan opera house in new york city. april 28 1965.

what i would do to travel back in time and attend a hickory hill party

my glorious pibble

oh pibble, my pibble

with your face all squished down

oh pibble, my pibble

and a tummy so round

oh pibble, my pibble

with a howl so loud

oh pibble, my pibble

you make us so proud ❤️

😮‍💨

president john f. kennedy on the phone with the attorney general, his brother, robert f. kennedy in march of 1963, laughing at his own joke about topeka, kansas.

this clip always kills me cuz bobby doesn’t even give him a pity laugh. also the last few seconds being incoherent mumblings but both seem to perfectly understand each other.

there is no greater love than the love the wolf feels for the lamb-it-doesn't-eat.

JFK's campaign advertisement with look magazine outtake (1960)

"Johnson and the Kennedys" from the August 7th, 1970 issue of LIFE Magazine.

James Dean, February 8, 1931 - September 30, 1955.

During the making of George Stevens’s Giant (1956).