Stanley Tretick was Kennedy’s White House photographer. That famous shot with little John Jr.’s round face under Daddy’s Oval Office desk? Those Look magazine pics with the whole Camelot crew? All Tretick’s.
Kennedy saw value in photos with his wife and children at the Hyannis compound and in a golf cart. They lent endearing credibility to his popularity. To him they equaled Saturday Evening Post’s Norman Rockwell covers.
Today Mitt parades his five sons. And always there’s so-called candids of Mommy, daughters and dog Obama. Kinfolk portraiture goes big in politics.
Fade-in/fade-out. Passing on in 1999, exMarine Tretick left all possessions to his forever friend, author Kitty Kelley. Inside a Marine Corps locker used as his coffee table were more than 200 unseen Kennedy snaps.
Next month Thomas Dunne Books will publish “Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the Kennedys” by Kitty Kelley.
One of Kitty’s accompanying memories dates to November 1963, when Jackie had Tretick pose the family together. Those magazine photographs were en route to newsstands when, later that month, JFK was assassinated.
CONTINUING our era of looking back: Wednesday, Lincoln Center, Mike Bloomberg hosts a screening of “Koch: The Man, the Mayor, the Movie.” It’s for current City Hall-niks and the old Kochers. Diane Coffey, who served with him, Patti Harris, who worked for him and is now first deputy mayor, grace the documentary.
NYC Mayor Ed Koch (1978-1989) is combative, funny, blunt. Filmmaker Neil Barsky looks into the 87-year-old “quintessential New Yorker,” master of street politics, transformed from little-known liberal congressman to law-and-order chief exec in a city of gut-wrenching issues: race, AIDS, homelessness and gay rights.
New York — the world’s most wondrous place.
Buffalo, NY’s Rich Entertainment Group is really rich. The money behind B’way’s musical “Chaplin,” last week they treated the entire cast, backstage crew, front-of-the-house staff, ushers, probably the pro in the men’s room, everyone, to dinner . . . Wes Anderson’s film “The Grand Budapest Hotel” has a grand cast: Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Ed Norton, Willem Dafoe and a partridge in a pear tree.
MARIAH Carey’s husband, Nick Cannon, and Alicia Keys’ other half, Swizz Beatz, attended the Children’s Rights Benefit at the Plaza. Asked is he concerned with Nicki Minaj’s alleged threats to shoot his wife, Nick said, “I’m glad she’s not stalking me. So far we’re all safe.” And added: “We were all scared.” He also confirmed Mariah’s extra security, hired to watch the children, was still in place.
GEORGE McGovern just left us. Remaining with me is a story once related by Queens Congressman Gary Ackerman. His constituency had minted buttons that read: “Queens for McGovern.” The conservative district suggested they lose that politically incorrect phrase. Those buttons changed to “Flushing for McGovern.”
STEVE Guttenberg’s gone high professionally but not far geographically. New York-born, Massapequa-educated, his new movie “Affluenza” filmed in Great Neck.
“New big money is a disease. An affliction. The film’s inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby,’ ” said Steve. “It’s about the wealthy in 2008. My character’s a stockbroker. A little blown up. His skin is stretched. The privilege trickles down to his college kids.
“The standard value of today’s society in suburbia ranks importance according to affluence. With disgusting over-the-top spending and living, nothing can rattle your cage. In the movie, my spoiled daughter’s always on the phone. With values important to over-the-top financiers, my wife spends $7,500 a month in Prada. I know she’s having an affair with our neighbor, but I figure I can deal with it.
“To what makes more sense — being rich or having character — I say, ‘Character is ridiculous.’ I tell my half rich brother I’m better off than he.
“Then the person I play suddenly gets hurt financially. Losing money is not assuaged by once having had money. You also lose the moxie, the mojo. My nephew moves in, and what happens is I’m underwater in my own home.
“The story centers around my family. Samantha Mathis plays my wife, Danny Burstein’s my brother, Nelson Peltz’s daughter Nicola plays my daughter.”
“Affluenza” is out next year.
IN line with unemployment making us unable to maintain today’s spend-spend mentality: Remember, if you’re depressed and think nobody cares whether you live or die — just try missing a few car payments.
SO now comes the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel. Once New York had the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Sixth Avenue, Queensboro Bridge, Triboro and what was Idlewild Airport. Now we’ve got the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, Avenue of the Americas, Edward I. Koch Bridge, Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and John F. Kennedy Airport. What’s next? Biden Boulevard? Or how about a dead end named after John Liu?
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.