The House of Kennedy(90)







Joe Sr. makes a splash as a Hollywood studio head during the 1920s, and Gloria Swanson (right) stars in his notorious film Queen Kelly. His calls to her are cited as “the largest private telephone bill in the nation during the year 1929.” (Photo above by Morgan Collection/Getty Images. Photo right by United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock)





Joe Sr. makes a splash as a Hollywood studio head during the 1920s, and Gloria Swanson (right) stars in his notorious film Queen Kelly. His calls to her are cited as “the largest private telephone bill in the nation during the year 1929.” (Photo above by Morgan Collection/Getty Images. Photo right by United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock)





Jack (left) and Lem Billings (right), his childhood best friend, traveling in Europe in 1937. (Photo by ? CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)





Joe Sr. (center) demands great things of his two eldest sons, Joe Jr. (left) and Jack (right). (AFP via Getty Images)





The Kennedys at Hyannis Port. From left: Jack, Jean, Rose, Joe Sr., Patricia, Bobby, Eunice, and Ted (holding football). (Photo by ? CORBIS/ Corbis via Getty Images)





Eunice (left) and Rosemary (right), smiling and waving. “Rosemary, you have the best teeth and smile in the family,” Eunice tells her older sister.(Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)





Rosemary and Joe Sr. in England, where he serves as ambassador. Rosemary adores her father; he says of her, “I don’t know what it is that makes eight children shine like a dollar [coin] and another one dull.” (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)





The Kennedys en route to England in 1938. From left: Kathleen, Patricia, Rose, Ted (in front), Bobby, and Jean. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images)





Kathleen, nicknamed Kick, with William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington. Kick declares her days in England made her “a person in her own right, not just a Kennedy girl.” (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)





Kick marries Cavendish in wartime London. Despite his noble title, Kick’s Catholic family oppose her marrying a Protestant — except Joe Jr. (behind Kick), who gives the bride away. (Photo by Everett/Shutterstock)





Joe Jr. (left) joins the war as a Navy pilot, and Jack (above) as a lieutenant in the Navy. Lifelong sibling rivals, Joe downplays the medal Jack receives for heroism when his PT Boat is sunk, but concedes, “To get anything out of the Navy is deserving of a campaign medal in itself.” (Photo left by Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images. Photo above by Denver Post via Getty Images)





Joe Jr. (left) joins the war as a Navy pilot, and Jack (above) as a lieutenant in the Navy. Lifelong sibling rivals, Joe downplays the medal Jack receives for heroism when his PT Boat is sunk, but concedes, “To get anything out of the Navy is deserving of a campaign medal in itself.” (Photo left by Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images. Photo above by Denver Post via Getty Images)





Posted to DC before shipping off to the South Pacific, young Jack falls in love with Inga Arvad, a twice-married Danish journalist suspected of being a Nazi spy, whom Hitler once called “the most perfect example of Nordic beauty.” (Photo left by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images. Photo right by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)





Posted to DC before shipping off to the South Pacific, young Jack falls in love with Inga Arvad, a twice-married Danish journalist suspected of being a Nazi spy, whom Hitler once called “the most perfect example of Nordic beauty.” (Photo left by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images. Photo right by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)





A decade later, Jack has to work hard to woo Jacqueline Bouvier; but as friend Lem Billings says, “there was nothing Jack liked better than a challenge.” (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)





Jack, seated under an early campaign sign and photos of his parents, first enters congress at the age of 29 in 1947, but is often mistaken for a staffer, given his youth and often disheveled appearance. (Photo by Yale Joel/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images)





Jack is known to call up Judy Garland (seen here campaigning for Kennedy in 1960) to request she sing him “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by telephone. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)





Judith Exner, who briefly dated Frank Sinatra, acts as a liaison between mobster Sam Giancana and Jack Kennedy. (Photo by Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)





Founding member of the “Rat Pack” Frank Sinatra is a big Kennedy booster, and considers himself part of the “Jack Pack” inner circle. (AFP/AFP via Getty Images)





Advertisement for the 1960 Presidential TV debates between Kennedy and Nixon, and a “Youth for Kennedy” campaign button. (Photo left by David J. & Janice L. Frent/ Corbis via Getty Images. Photo above by David J. & Janice L. Frent/Corbis via Getty Images)





Advertisement for the 1960 Presidential TV debates between Kennedy and Nixon, and a “Youth for Kennedy” campaign button. (Photo left by David J. & Janice L. Frent/ Corbis via Getty Images. Photo above by David J. & Janice L. Frent/Corbis via Getty Images)

James Patterson's Books