Kennedys Are New Arbiters Of Taste In U.S.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29510, 11 May 1961, Page 2

Kennedys Are New Arbiters Of Taste In U.S.

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KATE LANG

(This is the first in a series of six articles by Kafe Lang, the well-known author and journalist, on the tastes of the President of the United Stales and Mrs John F. Kennedy.)

In the last few months, strange things have been happening. In Washington, D.C., a successful business man, strongly Republican, has had his house redecorated with French Provincial furniture; a 57th street tailor reports a flood of requests for two-button suits; and a Fifth avenue department store can’t keep pillbox hats in stock.

A Georgetown hostess, used to giving parties for 50, has suddenly started giving little dinners for eight; along Madison avenue, the emphasis on teamwork is out. It’s in to be ambitious, direct, and to stick with your own ideas. Is America faced with fad, fashion or revolution? It is now nearly four months since John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the thirtyfifth President of the United States and Jacqueline Kennedy the First Lady. In that time, they have given a kingsized jolt to American tastes and values. They have started to create a new American image for other nations They are sparking what England refers to as “the Renaissance on the Potomac." Whether Democrat or Republican. men and women across America are falling under the enchantment, aping the looks, and imitating the habits of this young couple For the most part, we’ve had to be satisfied with celebrities as our nearest equivalent to a group that sets the colour, tone and standards of American life. Now. in the Kennedys. we have larger-than-life heroes. How far will America go? Will we ape every detail of their tastes as soon as it is revealed? Will the men of America put their overeoats in the attic and wear suits alone, even In freezing weather? Will women continue to snatch “Jackie” dresses off the racks, run to get a “Jackie” haircut, serve creme brule nightly for dessert, and name their little girls Caroline? To get at the whys and wherefores of the Kennedy taste, to find out where we might be going in the coming years, we interviewed members of the White House staff and friends of the Kennedys To find out whether fhe Kennedys would be good for American taste, we snoke to some of the social critics who have been recently enlivening our best-seller lists Russell Lynes, called "an encyclopedia of American

culture,” is our country's liveliest authority on taste. Author of the well-known book, "The Tastemakerg,” Mr Lynes told us: “The Kennedys’ understated tastes are a helpful sign that this country is coming of age. "Taste," he continued, “is made up of education, personal sensibility and the morality of one’s time. What’s good taste in one generation is invariably bad taste in the next and good taste aagin the third (look at our current craze for Victoriana).

"Taste is reflected in one’s choice of clothes, art, furniture, games, food, drink, even salads. "In the last century, taste was considered the sole province of women. Foreign visitors invariably found women more interesting to talk to than men, because the only time a man showed any interest in the arts was after he had made his fortune (and could hire an adviser*. Today, men are doing the advising themselves—on the boards of symphony orchestras and museums, at auctions and art galleries. “Can anyone today imagine Kennedv reacting like Coolidge, who, when he was offered six Cezannes for the White House, turned them down? “Upper-Middlebrows” “The response to the Kennedy*," continued Mr Lynes “has been unusually quick and will undoubtedly continue. The fact that he enjoys reading might well affect the taste for books. Mrs Kennedy's interest in the arts will stimulate those areas. We Americans forget that Europe imitates our way of life to an enormous degree. Perhaps now we ean give the Europeans something more than ‘coke’ and jazzy, fluorescent - lighted drugstores. “On the highbrow-lowbrow scale, the Kennedys are uoper-middlebrows. They aren’t initiators, and wouldn’t be likely to discover and promote a new poet or sculptor. They are much more apt to reflect advanced taste than make it. But that’s how it should be.

Highbrowism is, after all, a bit of a pose.” We then spoke to Cleveland Amory, whose bailiwick is society, and whose definitive works are three books: “The Proper Bostonians,” "The Last Resorts,” and "Who Killed Society?”

Mr Amory was enthusiastic, saying that “the Kennedys are symbolic of a trend up in American culture." He seemed to feel that they are an example of it, rather than the creators of it. In ferreting out their general appeal, he told us, “I do not buy the nonsense about the ‘high social stratum’ of the Kennedys. We have come of age enough to elect a rich man, but the society anele is just silly. "There was an ancient and distinguished aristocracy in this country before the Kennedys. I can think of no-one to whom the word ‘society’ would mean less than Kennedy himself.” Here, we think, Mr Amory is speaking from his own position. He may think it’s silly, and Kennedy may think it’s silly, but the social position of the first family works a potent magic on the American people. Mr Amory made one statement that we think it should be well to remember. “I think.” be said, “we can get along very nicely, and have since 1778. without a king and queen Any country can survive without royalty but no country can survive without an elite possessing good breeding, good manners and good taste. The Kennedys are representative of just such an American elite." (Copyright 1961, New York Herald Tribune Inc.) (In the second article of this series, Miss Lang describes how the Kennedys kicked the stuffiness out of the White House.)