I love it: Jackie Started The Legend of JFK 'Camelot'

From The Wall Street Journal:

In the remembrances of John F. Kennedy's presidency this week as the 50th anniversary of his assassination passes, one word continues to resonate above all: Camelot.

 

The name of King Arthur's mythical court city has its roots in medieval romantic literature, but thanks to skillful media manipulation by Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband's death, "Camelot" remains a potent mythmaking metaphor for the Kennedy administration.

 

[The inspiration] for the Kennedys' Camelot was Lerner and Loewe's musical of that name, based on T.H. White's popular novel, "The Once and Future King." While the musical opened on Broadway in 1960, it wasn't until after Kennedy's death that anyone thought to connect "Camelot" to the idealistic young president.

 

Jacqueline Kennedy single-handedly invented the Camelot myth in an interview she conducted with Theodore White (no relation to the novelist) for Life Magazine a week after the assassination. She told White that she and her husband enjoyed listening to the cast recording at bedtime, particularly the title song, in which Richard Burton as Arthur sings: "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief, shining moment, that was known as Camelot."
 

Jacqueline quoted the line and concluded, "There will be great presidents again, but there will never be another Camelot." Her observations found their way into newspapers around the country.