"Black Jack" was the nickname of Jackie Kennedy's father, John Vernou Bouvier.
------------- [excerpts from Camera Girl, by Carl Sferrazza Anthony, Gallery Books - 2023] --------------------
On July 14, she arrived in New York City, met by her father. All year long he looked forward to this annual summer reunion....
He typically welcomed his daughters with an effusion of embraces and kisses, as well as a critique of their appearance combined with flattering praise....
Then they would typically begin arguing, Bouvier-style - heated and unrelentingly loud. Months earlier, after using his Bloomingdale's charge account with abandon, she failed to call him on Easter Sunday, and he yelled at her for both using the card and ignoring him.
His reactions were not entirely predictable. Initially upset when he learned that she applied for the year long study-abroad program through Smith College, he then felt such pride at her acceptance that he offered to underwrite it all.
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Born on May 19, 1891, in New York (where he lived until the age of two), John Vernou Bouvier III was raised in Nutley, New Jersey, attending grammar school in nearby Morristown. After he was expelled from boarding school at Phillips Exeter Academy for gambling, his father pushed him through Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School with the help of tutors until he was accepted at Columbia University.
He studied there for two years, then transferred to Yale in 1910. A member of the secret society Book and Snake, he excelled at tennis and was on the rowing team, but Jack - in his white flannel trousers, Bloody Mary in hand, cranking up the phonograph - was mostly renowned for his parties.
An entitled, arrogant rogue, Jack gambled illegally (mainly on prizefights, at the racetrack, and in casinos) for high stakes in the company of his pal New York mayor Jimmy Walker. He sped along the Motor Parkway into Long Island, knowing he'd never be ticketed because the chief of police was a former family gardener.
On occasion, he donned goggles for a dangerous flight in a Stinson Reliant monoplane to East Hampton, where he also organized and managed a summertime amateur baseball team, Bouvier's Black Ducks.
He never contradicted rumors of his sexual escapades, including that of an affair with fellow Yale Glee Club member Cole Porter. To stand apart from his peers, he devised a distinct appearance with fashion trademarks such as longer-than-normal shirt cuffs and cuffless trousers, black dancing pumps without socks, and a blue silk straw-hat band that matched his eyes.
In 1919, he was thrown out of the Hotel Knickerbocker because he made a "little skip" through the lobby, then in a "rude and unseemly manner stared at the greatly embarrassed ladies . . . made loud noises, used abusive language and by means of threats, force and violence, attempted to enter the ladies dressing room." Jack sued the hotel manager for assault.
Jack also staged grand public entrances. When he exited his shining black Lincoln at the premier of Showboat, his diamond cuff links and gold-tipped walking stick were noted in the press. He stood for a moment until he had the attention of the gawking crowds, then swirled off his black cape and gracefully draped it over his arm.
(His theatricality even led a talent scout to encourage him to audition for the role of Rhett Butler in the film version of Gone with the Wind.) One reliable affectation never failed to get him attention. Night or day, summer or winter, he was never seen without his face glowing with the darkest possible tan, whether obtained from the sun or a lamp.
Borrowing money from his wealthy great-uncle, he bought a seat on the Stock Exchange, proving wildly successful as a broker. He lived a fast, indulgent life - introspection and emotional commitment were not for him. In June 1914, he quickly got engaged to golf champion Lillian B. Hyde, then suddenly broke it off.
By April of 1920, his fiancee was Baltimore debutante Eleanor Carroll Daingerfield Carter. The engagement was called off after six months. Pursuing Chicago heiress Emma Stone but failing to commit, he got his comeuppance when she married his brother.
His unwillingness to marry angered his father....
Jack's July 7, 1928, wedding to his sisters' friend Janet Norton Lee, an eager social climber seventeen years his junior, seemed only to serve the purpose of making his father happy.
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