The Making of a President

Mimicry, being comedy's sharp elbow in the ribs, usually depends on the mimic's being at a safe distance from his subject --or victim; the more dignified and honored the subject, the greater the advisable distance. But an appealing showman named Elliott Reid flew down to Washington a fortnight ago with nothing less in mind than mimicking President Kennedy for the pleasure of the capital's press corps, most of the Cabinet officers, and the President himself. The result: Kennedy was convulsed, and Good Trouper Reid was once again "discovered."

Reid had finely polished the President's accents and gestures over three jobless months last fall, and once on stage, he brought down the house with his very first line; few had ever seen the President laugh so hard. His "serious mattahs" and "in my views" were unmistakably Kennedy, and his "we must move ahead" sounded like the call to federal service. Reid had his Kennedy deliver a playful jab or two at British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who was also present: "He has covahed such a wide range of topics and made so many things cleah, including several centuries of British history . . . These are, these are not easy mattahs -- even if you're British!"

After Reid, the President took the stage and deftly stole the show from the professionals -- Reid, Peter Sellers, Benny Goodman, Gwen Verdon, Sally Ann Howes. Referring to an increase in the price of tickets to the dinner, Kennedy proved to be his own best mimic: "The sudden and arbitrary action to raise the price by $2.50 over last year is wholly unjustified," he began, pointing his stern, recruiting-poster finger. "The American people will find it difficult to accept this decision . . ." and so on, in perfect parallel to his famous scolding of the steel industry.

Reid, who at 42 has endured 25 years of being faintly praised as the one saving grace of uniformly bad productions, is now assured a bright new popularity. He has had offers to do his first nightclub performance in Los Angeles' Cocoanut Grove with Eddie Fisher later this month, and with White House approval, he will appear alongside some towering stars at a Madison Square Garden Democratic rally May 19.

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