#Torbert

[nobrashfestivity]

Stephanie Torbert An Exhibition of Photographs by Harold Henry Jones, February 3 to March 1, 1969 Offset lithograph Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona Gift of the Aaron Siskind Estate

[rgray34]

1970 Novato Ranch

[snimbusjavy]

Torbert Oscillator is an inventor and shock trooper of the Assembly.

The Assembly faction has never leaned so heavily into assault as they do support, but Torbert's own inventions were so remarkable and effective there was no option but to put him in the front lines. With an electric rifle, lightning fields, and his little Battle Electrifier Entity drone, Torbert is a very tough soldier.

And to think such a powerful trooper has such a soft spot for bees...

[movie-titlecards]

Dragon Soldiers (2020)

My rating: 7/10

"It's a goddamn dragon, bro!"

For one of those low-budget, straight to DVD/streaming dragon movies, this is actually really good. The plot is a bit stolen from Predator, but it works, the characters are likeable and played by competent actors, and the production values are solid as well - the CGI beast is a bit janky at times, but the use of location is excellent and easily makes up for that. This is fun.

[psykicks]

Curt Connors gives "speaking directly into the lavaliere mic for emphasis" energy while Otto Octavius gives "speaking directly into the lavaliere mic because he does not in fact know how a lavaliere mic works" energy despite the fact that Otto also has theater tech kid written all over him.

[moviesandmania]

GLOWZIES Sci-fi comedy horror - free on YouTube soon

‘Earth’s up, dude’ Glowzies is a 2023 sci-fi comedy horror film about a group of military vets and influencers battling glowing zombies. The movie was directed, co-edited and co-produced by Hank Braxtan (Jurassic Hunt; Dragon Soldiers; Snake Outta Compton; Unnatural; Chemical Peel; Blood Effects) from a screenplay co-written with Guy J. Jackson. It was produced by Arielle Brachfeld, Kevin Brooks,…

[artdesnoires]

Willie Torbert

[1264doghouse]

Jerry Garcia & Dave Torbert

[todaysdocument]

Discharge Petition for H.R. 7152, the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Record Group 233: Records of the U.S. House of RepresentativesSeries: General Records

This item, H.R. 7152, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, faced strong opposition in the House Rules Committee. Howard Smith, Chairman of the committee, refused to schedule hearings for the bill. Emanuel Celler, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, attempted to use this discharge petition to move the bill out of committee without holding hearings. The petition failed to gain the required majority of Congress (218 signatures), but forced Chairman Smith to schedule hearings.

88th CONGRESS. House of Representatives No. 5 Motion to Discharge a Committee from the Consideration of a RESOLUTION (State whether bill, joint resolution, or resolution) December 9, 1963 To the Clerk of the House of Representatives: Pursuant to Clause 4 of Rule XXVII (see rule on page 7), I EMANUEL CELLER (Name of Member), move to discharge to the Commitee on RULES (Committee) from the consideration of the RESOLUTION; H. Res. 574 entitled, a RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE BILL (H. R. 7152) which was referred to said committee November 27, 1963 in support of which motion the undersigned Members of the House of Representatives affix their signatures, to wit: 1. Emanuel Celler 2. John J. Rooney 3. Seymour Halpern 4. James G Fulton 5. Thomas W Pelly 6. Robt N. C. Nix 7. Jeffery Cohelan 8. W A Barrett 9. William S. Mailiard 10. 11. Augustus F. Hawkins 12. Otis G. Pike 13. Benjamin S Rosenthal 14. Spark M Matsunaga 15. Frank M. Clark 16. William L Dawson 17. Melvin Price 18. John C. Kluczynski 19. Barratt O'Hara 20. George E. Shipley 21. Dan Rostenkowski 22. Ralph J. Rivers[page] 2 23. Everett G. Burkhalter 24. Robert L. Leggett 25. William L St Onge 26. Edward P. Boland 27. Winfield K. Denton 28. David J. Flood 29. 30. Lucian N. Nedzi 31. James Roosevelt 32. Henry C Reuss 33. Charles S. Joelson 34. Samuel N. Friedel 35. George M. Rhodes 36. William F. Ryan 37. Clarence D. Long 38. Charles C. Diggs Jr 39. Morris K. Udall 40. Wm J. Randall 41. 42. Donald M. Fraser 43. Joseph G. Minish 44. Edith Green 45. Neil Staebler 46. 47. Ralph R. Harding 48. Frank M. Karsten 49. 50. John H. Dent 51. John Brademas 52. John E. Moss 53. Jacob H. Gilbert 54. Leonor K. Sullivan 55. John F. Shelley 56. 57. Lionel Van Deerlin 58. Carlton R. Sickles 59. 60. Edward R. Finnegan 61. Julia Butler Hansen 62. Richard Bolling 63. Ken Heckler 64. Herman Toll 65. Ray J Madden 66. J Edward Roush 67. James A. Burke 68. Frank C. Osmers Jr 69. Adam Powell 70. 71. Fred Schwengel 72. Philip J. Philiben 73. Byron G. Rogers 74. John F. Baldwin 75. Joseph Karth 76. 77. Roland V. Libonati 78. John V. Lindsay 79. Stanley R. Tupper 80. Joseph M. McDade 81. Wm Broomfield 82. 83. 84. Robert J Corbett 85. 86. Craig Hosmer87. Robert N. Giaimo 88. Claude Pepper 89. William T Murphy 90. George H. Fallon 91. Hugh L. Carey 92. Robert T. Secrest 93. Harley O. Staggers 94. Thor C. Tollefson 95. Edward J. Patten 96. 97. Al Ullman 98. Bernard F. Grabowski 99. John A. Blatnik 100. 101. Florence P. Dwyer 102. Thomas L. ? 103. 104. Peter W. Rodino 105. Milton W. Glenn 106. Harlan Hagen 107. James A. Byrne 108. John M. Murphy 109. Henry B. Gonzalez 110. Arnold Olson 111. Harold D Donahue 112. Kenneth J. Gray 113. James C. Healey 114. Michael A Feighan 115. Thomas R. O'Neill 116. Alphonzo Bell 117. George M. Wallhauser 118. Richard S. Schweiker 119. 120. Albert Thomas 121. 122. Graham Purcell 123. Homer Thornberry 124. 125. Leo W. O'Brien 126. Thomas E. Morgan 127. Joseph M. Montoya 128. Leonard Farbstein 129. John S. Monagan 130. Brad Morse 131. Neil Smith 132. Harry R. Sheppard 133. Don Edwards 134. James G. O'Hara 135. 136. Fred B. Rooney 137. George E. Brown Jr. 138. 139. Edward R. Roybal 140. Harris. B McDowell jr. 141. Torbert H. McDonall 142. Edward A. Garmatz 143. Richard E. Lankford 144. Richard Fulton 145. Elizabeth Kee 146. James J. Delaney 147. Frank Thompson Jr 148. 149. Lester R. Johnson 150. Charles A. Buckley4 151. Richard T. Hanna 152. James Corman 153. Paul A Fino 154. Harold M. Ryan 155. Martha W. Griffiths 156. Adam E. Konski 157. Chas W. Wilson 158. Michael J. Kewan 160. Alex Brooks 161. Clark W. Thompson 162. John D. Gringell [?] 163. Thomas P. Gill 164. Edna F. Kelly 165. Eugene J. Keogh 166 John. B. Duncan 167. Elmer J. Dolland 168. Joe Caul 169. Arnold Olsen 170. Monte B. Fascell [?] 171. [not deciphered] 172. J. Dulek 173. Joe W. [undeciphered] 174. J. J. Pickle [Numbers 175 through 214 are blank]

[blinkbones]

What is it Torbert says about truth and justice? Oh, we dedicate ourselves daily anew. Something like that. I’m gonna commence dedicating myself twice daily. Might come to three before it’s over.

No Country for Old Men (2007)

[krystalklear21]

Introducing: Otto Octavius. A Battlemage who hailed from the Imperial City in Cyrodiil.

Name: Otto Octavius Race: Imperial and Nord Gender: Man Age: 50 Birthplace: Imperial City, Cyrodiil Alignment: Lawful Neutral MBTI- INTJ

Sexuality: Sapiosexual / Pansexual

Personality: Charming, ruthless, intensely focused, highly intellectual, driven by curiosity and innovation, disregard for social conventions. Condescending, arrogant, sarcastic, proud, snobbish, stoic, high standards, elegant. When he compliments someone, he offers praise with a touch of condescension, highlighting perceived shortcomings in a sophisticated yet critical manner. Otto can be a very strict and tough teacher, but his precious students mean a great deal to him.

Likes: books, libraries, Dwemer mechanisms, research, experimentation, innovative magic and technology, teaching and mentoring, and puzzle-solving.

Dislikes: ignorance, apathy, inefficiency, mediocrity, overly superficial pursuits, deceit, disrespect, research distractions

Fears: Unforeseen consequences of experiments or studies gone wrong, especially if they endanger his students or threaten Skyrim's magical balance, falling short of his high standards or being perceived as inadequate, getting hurt from vulnerability and emotional exposure due to his guarded nature (especially in forming close personal connections), losing control over situations (such as in experiments and magical endeavors), and losing the people he loves and cares about (especially Rose).

Character Class- Enchanter Skills- Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Conjuration, Sneak, Enchanting Occupation- Professor of Aetherial Physics and Dwemer Engineering at the College of Winterhold Relationships - Mentors students Sameth and Myvrana Giladren. Collaborates with faculty and scholars including Tarakel, Aicantar, and Calcelmo. Views Calcelmo in the highest regard but also as a rival in the field of Dwemer research. He hates Marcurio. Marcurio's (bisexual disaster) playboy charismatic charm and playful banter clashes with Otto's personality.

Bio: Otto Octavius, an Imperial Battlemage born and raised in Imperial City, Cyrodiil. He absorbed an education deeply rooted in arcane studies under the guidance of his esteemed parents. His mother, an Imperial sorceress, Maria Octavius, and his paternal grandfather, Tobias, a Nord mage, were positive parental figures in his life, while his father, Torbert, a Nord Battlemage, was abusive, negligent, and often drunk. His father used to be very harsh and strict in Otto's magic training, contrasting Tobias' and Maria's methods.

As he matured, Otto's scholarly pursuits expanded beyond norms, delving into the enigmatic realms of Dwemer Engineering and Aetherial Physics. His fascination with Dwemer constructs led him to decipher and comprehend the intricacies of Dwemer machinery, seeking to unravel the secrets behind their enigmatic technologies. His pioneering work in integrating Dwemer principles into contemporary magical and mechanical innovations earned both admiration and skepticism among magical circles, though his intense focus on knowledge often distanced him from personal connections, including love and sex. Despite acclaim in the Imperial Court, Otto felt at odds with its political climate post the Great War. Seeking enlightenment and sanctuary, he ventured to the College of Winterhold in Skyrim, embracing a role as a professor of Aetherial Physics and Dwemer Engineering.

He doesn't want to admit it, but he's a softie when it comes to his precious students and friends.

Otto doesn't fit the conventional image of a muscular Nord hero and harbors occasional insecurities about his weight and appearance.

[erthlyheavn]

LEGAL NAME: Dr. Olivia Octavius

NICKNAME[S]: Liv, Doctor Octopus, Doc Ock

DATE OF BIRTH: March 23rd, 1978

SEX: Transfemale

PLACE OF BIRTH: Schenectady, New York

CURRENTLY LIVING: Hudson Valley, New York

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: English

EDUCATION: M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

HAIR COLOR: Brown

EYE COLOR: Hazel

HEIGHT: 5'9

WEIGHT:  None of your business <3

FAMILY INFORMATION

SIBLING[S]: N/A

PARENT[S]: Torbert Octavius & Mary Octavius

CHILDREN: N/A

PET[S]: N/A

RELATIONSHIP INFORMATION

SEXUAL ORIENTATION:  Bisexual

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single / verse dependent

SINCE WHEN: Verse dependent

tagged by: @eideticspider (thanks! ^^)

tagging: Uhhh, there's too many of you to tag so whoever wants to!

[rxtualistic]

"sorry, is this your — is this your property?" torbert asked, rubbing the dirt off on his jeans before holding out a hand. "i'm tobert and i'm really sorry to trespass like that but you have a ghost orchidea right there and it's an extremely rare plant." he hadn't been able to stop himself from studying the specimen. "it's in good conditions, too. you could make some good money out of it. i wouldn't mind paying for it." // @bloodrodeo

[mortimermcmirestinks]

if you're still doing the youtuber to celebrity thing... manyatruenerd (civ player) to Gandhi (civ character).

sure thing buddy boy!

Many A True Nerd did this thing with UpIsNotJump

UpIsNotJump was in this thing with Hbomberguy

obviously Hbomberguy did this thing with AOC

here's AOC with senator Ed Markey

Ed Markey was preceded in office by Torbert MacDonald, who both A) has a fantastic name and B) looks exactly like him

Torbert was college roommates with JFK

here's JFK with Indira Ghandi (no relation), nee Indira Priyadarshini Nehru

and here's a photo of young Indira Priyadarshini Nehru with Mahatma Ghandi.

eight steps is a little too far for my taste but Ghandi is a historical figure so :/

[beautifulinternetwhispers]

stars : Courtney Loggins, Ruben Pla, Tarkan Dospil, Joston Theney, Antuone Torbert and Heath C. Heine

director : Hank Braxtan

score 2 out of 4 stars

This wasn't a terrible film. the plot was fairly interesting and the cgi dinosaurs were pretty decent which is rare in these movies. It was let down by some pretty dodgy acting but that was really the only thing lacking for the most part

[dankusner]

Jackie Bouvier did not yet grasp the extent to which not just Jack but Bobby and their father would ruthlessly evaluate her as a political commodity.

She told Gore Vidal that she once overheard them, recalling that “they spoke of me as if I weren’t a person, just a thing, just a sort of asset, like Rhode Island.”

Unexpected news about Jackie’s sister was announced in national newspapers on Dec. 12, 1952.

After just nine weeks of work, Lee quit her job and became engaged to Michael Canfield, whose father was the president of the book publisher Harper & Row.

The era’s societal judgment that her younger sister “beat her to the altar” may have prompted a pang of inferiority only reinforced by the continued deafening silence from Jack Kennedy.

Twelve days after he was elected to the Senate, Jack was a groomsman in the Williamstown, Mass., wedding of his friend Robert Kramer.

Ten days later, in the last week of November, he left for a European trip with Torbert MacDonald, a personal friend and political ally since they’d been Harvard roommates.

Torb was not only Jack’s regular companion on overseas trips that had them both womanizing with abandon but a politically ambitious and savvy adviser as well.

(He would seek and win a U.S. congressional seat in 1954.) They went to England, Ireland, Italy, and France, where, in Paris, Jack met with foreign affairs officials to discuss the situation in Vietnam. After three weeks away, Kennedy returned on Dec. 17 and stayed in Boston to preside over a children’s Christmas party at the VFW named for his late brother. His next trip to Washington was to interview candidates for his new Senate staff, not to take Jackie to any holiday parties. The Bouvier stole and gown were seen more on the mannequin than on their creator.

katiecouric.com Inside the Early Courtship (and Complicated Sex Lives) of Jackie Kennedy and JFK Ryan Buxton 16–20 minutes

An excerpt from Camera Girl: The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy.

Jackie Kennedy is arguably the most famous first lady in American history, and after decades of dissecting everything from her unforgettable fashion to how she influenced our country’s culture, you might think there’s nothing new to learn about this formidable figure. A new book is here to prove that wrong — and uncover a treasure trove of juicy stories in the process.

In Camera Girl: The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, author Carl Sferrazza Anthony investigates the early years of the woman who eventually ascended to the White House. The book explores her college years, her formative adventures in Paris, and a notable job you may not have realized she had. The title comes from Jackie’s role in the early 1950s as the “Inquiring Camera Girl” for the Washington Times-Herald. As part of that work, she’d hit the streets to photograph everyday people and ask for their opinion on topical questions that often revealed as much about the woman asking them as the ones who answered.

And while the book is specifically about her pre-White House years, it does chronicle how she got there. In the exclusive excerpt below, the author explores the early courtship of America’s most glamorous couple, including why it took JFK so long to pick a mate, how Jackie ingratiated herself into his influential family, and what the future president’s notoriously voracious sexual appetite meant for their budding relationship.

Unexpected news about Jackie’s sister was announced in national newspapers on Dec. 12, 1952. After just nine weeks of work, Lee quit her job and became engaged to Michael Canfield, whose father was the president of the book publisher Harper & Row. The era’s societal judgment that her younger sister “beat her to the altar” may have prompted a pang of inferiority only reinforced by the continued deafening silence from Jack Kennedy.

Twelve days after he was elected to the Senate, Jack was a groomsman in the Williamstown, Mass., wedding of his friend Robert Kramer. Ten days later, in the last week of November, he left for a European trip with Torbert MacDonald, a personal friend and political ally since they’d been Harvard roommates. Torb was not only Jack’s regular companion on overseas trips that had them both womanizing with abandon but a politically ambitious and savvy adviser as well. (He would seek and win a U.S. congressional seat in 1954.) They went to England, Ireland, Italy, and France, where, in Paris, Jack met with foreign affairs officials to discuss the situation in Vietnam. After three weeks away, Kennedy returned on Dec. 17 and stayed in Boston to preside over a children’s Christmas party at the VFW named for his late brother. His next trip to Washington was to interview candidates for his new Senate staff, not to take Jackie to any holiday parties. The Bouvier stole and gown were seen more on the mannequin than on their creator.

Jackie’s stepbrother Yusha had recently updated her that her former beau, writer John Marquand, had a book that was doing well. “Very pleased to hear his book is to be a Book of the Month,” he informed her.

Months earlier, in a letter to Father Leonard that she wrote after her July visit to Hyannis, she had quoted Byron as saying that love is “woman’s whole existence,” but that men kept it separate from their larger public lives. Her intuition that Kennedy viewed marriage as a political tool was correct. Dave Powers flatly admitted that Jack “wondered about it, whether or not he would have to marry a Massachusetts girl, you know, another Irish girl, this sort of thing. And he waited until he was elected senator to find out whether there was any loss of votes there.” Jackie Bouvier did not yet grasp the extent to which not just Jack but Bobby and their father would ruthlessly evaluate her as a political commodity. She told Gore Vidal that she once overheard them, recalling that “they spoke of me as if I weren’t a person, just a thing, just a sort of asset, like Rhode Island.”

In the weeks after winning the Senate election, Jack mentioned to several close friends that his father was urging him to consider the pursuit of the presidency. Observed Charlie Bartlett, “I think Jack knew the race for the Senate was the beginning of a long race for the presidency. I think Joe had the whole thing sort of in his mind and Jack was ready to go.” Jackie, however, was never one of those who believed Jack became determined to seek the presidency only after winning the Senate and in obeisance to his father. “I think he was probably thinking about it for an awfully long time, long before I even knew,” she reflected. “It was always there.”

By year’s end, it had been nearly three months since she’d seen or heard from Jack Kennedy. She had no sense of whether he had, perhaps, begun dating someone, found some reason to consider her unsuitable for him, or there was some unspoken issue behind his unwillingness to move forward with their relationship. Jacqueline Bouvier (left) photographs a woman feeding goldfish on the rooftop pond of the Washington Times-Herald building in 1952. (Getty Images)

Initially, she presumed that, like many men, he would have to be coaxed into marriage, and her anxiety found its way into her column: “How do you expect to get married?” “How did you propose or how were you proposed to?” “What is your candid opinion of marriage?” “Can you give me any reason why a contented bachelor should get married?” “What is the food of romance?” “The Irish author, Sean O’Faolain, claims that the Irish are deficient in the art of love. Do you agree?”

In early 1952, she had asked, “Should girls take advantage of Leap Year?” Now at year’s end, she returned to the subject, asking, “What advice would you give a girl who wants to marry before Leap Year is out?” Jackie seemed to take aspects of the advice of barber Tom Lascola — “Stop waiting for him to propose to you. Propose to him” — and bookkeeper Jean Pievyak, who advised, “He’ll get scared . . . sit tight and wait until next year.”

While Jackie wouldn’t propose, neither would she wait.

Ambassador Joe Kennedy was already in residence at the family’s Palm Beach home by the time the senator-elect arrived on Dec. 21, joined by all the family by Christmas Day. Before Jack arrived, however, Jackie came to see his father.

Some thirty years later, the historian and former Newsweek editor Ralph G. Martin left a brief record of an overlooked incident that seems consequential at this critical point in Jacqueline Bouvier’s trajectory. It involved the “mutual affection” that was “quick and lasting” between her and the ambassador, as Martin termed it: “She was vacationing with the Auchinclosses at Hobe Sound, and dropped in on the Kennedy home in Palm Beach. Only the father was there. The two seemed determined to charm each other, and they did. They went swimming, made each other laugh, talked about everything from Cardinal Spellman to Gloria Swanson. When she left, she had an ally and an admirer.”

As Jackie would later observe, “I’m more like Mr. Kennedy senior than any other members of his family.” The family’s friend Robin Douglas-Home, the British pianist and author, asserted that “the only one who really knew her worth from the beginning was Joe Kennedy.”

Jack Kennedy’s friend and colleague Florida senator George Smathers would later claim that Jack “told me that his father told him it was time to get married, and his father preferred Jackie.” His more intimate confidant Lem Billings disputed this: “Nobody would have talked to Jack at 35 that way, including his father,” especially since Jack “had thousands of girls” from whom he could make his own marital choice. If the ambassador was making arrangements to advance Jack’s best interests, however, “Mr. Kennedy didn’t ever let Jack know it,” Billings added. The Kennedy family poses for a portrait in Hyannis, Massachussetts, during the 1930s. A young JFK is at the center. Patriarch Joseph Kennedy, who bonded with his son’s future wife early on, is seated on the right. (Getty Images)

Within days after Jackie’s meeting with the ambassador alone, there appeared two items in nationally syndicated gossip columns. In her column “The Gold Coast,” appearing in the Dec. 21 Miami Daily News, Aileen Mehle reported, “Senator-Elect Jack Kennedy, who is one of the matrimonial catches of the decade, what with being young, intelligent, good looking, and rich (but not well groomed) is pretty excited about Mrs. Hugh Auchincloss’s daughter Jackie Bouvier, who is young, intelligent, good looking, rich, and very well groomed.” Two days later, on Dec. 23, Dorothy Kilgallen, who wrote the “Voice of Broadway” column, predicted that “U.S. Senator-elect Jack Kennedy and lovely socialite Jacqueline Bouvier will waltz down the aisle early in 1953.”

It was the first time Jackie and Jack were linked together in the press. Had the Ambassador been the source for the tips? If so, it was not the first time that Joe Kennedy had used his wide network of personal contacts in the press to plant a story about his son’s private life, without his knowledge, to serve what he believed to be the best interests of Jack’s career.

On Jan. 3, shortly after the gossip items linking them were published, Jack invited Jackie out. The previous winter, on their first “date” at the Blue Room, he had requested that Dave Powers join them. This time, Jack asked along Lucy Torres, Jean Mannix, Lois Strode, Mary Gallagher, and Evelyn Lincoln, women on his new Senate staff. The “date” was the Eighty-Third Congress’s opening session, when he would be sworn in as a U.S. senator. They, along with his new colleagues and family members, watched as he was escorted onto the Senate floor — certainly more exclusive company than the thousands of women at the campaign tea party when Jackie had last seen him, but it was still a public event, hardly an opportunity for them to reconnect in a personal way.

Further underscoring the point: Three days later, Jack attended an annual New York charity ball with the striking Maria Carmela Attolico, daughter of the former ambassador to Germany. At the same time, he was also pursuing Betsy Finkenstadt, sister of one of Bobby Kennedy’s groomsmen, though Lem Billings thought it was simply because “he never was successful in interesting her.” Asked by a reporter if he was “swamped” with marital offers from women, Kennedy jibed, “You would think so, but nothing seems to happen.”

Just as with his carefully plotted long game to win the Senate seat, however, Jack Kennedy was methodically laying out his plans for the next momentous chapter of his life. And just like Jackie, when the issue was serious, he kept his own counsel.

Thus it came as a complete surprise to her when, at some point in the first two weeks of 1953, Senator Kennedy asked Miss Bouvier to be his date to the presidential inaugural ball. John and Jacqueline play baseball at the Kennedy family’s Hyannis Port compound in June 1953. (Getty Images)

But as the relationship developed, Jackie was divesting herself of a traditional concept of marriage. A monogamous husband could not be expected in the partnership she was pursuing, but the relationship would grant her the opportunity to employ her talents and maintain independence while also giving her the status and stability of a financially flourishing husband and household. That was the scenario Jack Kennedy seemed to offer Jackie with the approach of spring in 1953.

Over time, she would come to see the degree of his compulsive promiscuity to be as much of a chronic condition as his painful back, which occasionally required him to depend on crutches. It would nevertheless prove to be a formidable “challenge,” as she seemingly lightly characterized it, to accept his sexual intimacy with other women as an analogous crutch.

In the decidedly conservative early 1950s, dating and marriage were highly idealized. Yet the famous Kinsey reports, done in 1948 and 1953, concluded that about 50 percent of all husbands committed adultery; other studies suggest it was about 33 percent who did so at least once, although these studies did not make a distinction between sexual and emotional monogamy. Based on extensive research, anthropologist Helen Fisher concluded that “we have two brain systems: one of them is linked to attachment and romantic love, and then there is the other brain system, which is purely sex drive.” Jack Kennedy was the embodiment of this theory.

Once again, Jackie used her column as a mode of research, with question after question about romance, marriage, and infidelity. What she did not — and could not — know in February 1953 was how differently Jack Kennedy was treating her from other women he’d been involved with. His history with women had patterns — but his relationship with Jackie didn’t fit any of them.

As Lem explained, although Jack was “crazy about girls,” he “never really settled down with one girl.” A big part of the reason, his confidant pointed out, was that Jack had “an immature relationship with girls — that is while he was terribly interested in going out and having fun with them at night, I don’t think that he was really terribly excited about having girls as friends.” Bill Walton concurred: “He was very attentive, flirtatious; but if a woman bored him, he would drop her quicker than any known man.”

Other than suggesting he couldn’t help himself and that it was a habit indulged sometimes daily, Kennedy never speculated on what he thought were the psychological reasons for his sexual compulsion. As Chuck Spalding said, “He wasn’t by nature given to that kind of prolonged introspection.” Jack may have avoided thinking about the root cause because he never felt there was anything wrong with being compulsively sexual. The most frequent explanation given was the example and encouragement of his father. It was not merely that the ambassador took unapologetic pleasure with whomever he wished, but he had also encouraged his sons to do so at an early age.

Jack’s awareness of how suddenly death could come may have been another factor leading him to seek pleasure in life while he could. By the time he met Jackie, he had lost his siblings Joe Jr. and Kathleen in plane crashes, and he himself had come close to death three times. The first was when he was only three years old, delirious with scarlet fever. The Latin incantations of the Last Rites of the Catholic Church were shouted above the little boy in bed. He received the Last Rites on two other occasions (in 1947, while crossing the Atlantic, and in 1951, in Tokyo), due to complications from Addison’s disease. Perhaps the most acute observation on the matter came from Spalding, who saw that Jack lived with a “heightened perception about the brevity of life.” Although Jackie had no such brushes with death, she shared his habit of “surveying the scene with a kind of detachment.”

The motives and desires that brought Jack and Jackie together are typically said to have been sex on his part and money on hers. Often neglected, however, has been the full consideration of their mutual ambition.They shared a vision of a free and democratic world and wanted the sort of power that would allow them to encourage its realization. The president and first lady in later years, after they’d made their relationship official with a spectacular wedding. (Getty Images)

As the spring of 1953 approached, Jack entrusted a special project to Jackie that served to prove to her that he was the sort of partner she’d longed for but had come to believe was impossible to find. It would demonstrate that he wanted to join forces with her, not merely appreciating her intellectual ability as a sort of trophy but wanting her to put it to use. It would make him irresistible to her, and propel what became, arguably, the most momentous decision of her life.

Feb. 10 and 20 were the first times that Miss Bouvier’s name was written into the official record of the senator’s business schedule, and it may have been on one of these significant dates when they first discussed what the project would entail.

Kennedy intended to become a national leader on the issue of the growing controversy over aid the United States was providing to support France in defending its colonial control of Indochina, most specifically in Vietnam, against the increasing success of Communist guerilla fighters based in northern Vietnam, backed by China. He needed to first become an expert on the issue and fully understand the complex history of France’s presence there and its justification for delay in granting Vietnam full independence. He needed the help of Jackie Bouvier.

Excerpted from Camera Girl by Carl Sferrazza Anthony. Copyright © 2023 by Carl Sferrazza Anthony. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

What First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy really thought about who killed her husband is not known, though she was certainly skeptical of the Warren Commission’s improbable single bullet theory.

The former First Lady gave four confidential interviews to historian William Manchester in 1964 in which she spoke candidly about who she thought was behind her husband’s murder.

She also sent three letters to President Lyndon Johnson that are sealed.

Jackie’s private views might not amount to smoking gun proof of conspiracy, but they probably show that the closest witness to the crime thought her husband was killed by domestic enemies — which would be newsworthy to say the least.

The tapes and transcripts of those conversations, however, are controlled by JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, who is RFK Jr.’s cousin.

The tapes and Jackie’s correspondence are under a deed of gift seal until 2067.

And the Kennedy family is divided over RFK Jr.’s candidacy.

Which is all the more reason for a new JFK Records Act: to prevent a family dispute from obstructing the public interest in full disclosure.