Jacqueline Kennedy invents the “Camelot” myth, November 29, 1963
“For Jack, history was full of heroes,” Jackie tells Theodore White of Life magazine a week after the assassination. It is during this interview that she first tells of JFK listening to the cast recording of the Broadway musical Camelot, and how he loved the show’s final lyric, “Don’t let it be forgot/That once there was a spot/For one brief shining moment/That was known as Camelot.” When White dictates his story to his editors in New York, Jackie hovers nearby. She insists that the Camelot theme be predominant. This is how she wants her husband’s presidency to be remembered.