The Kennedy Men_ 1901-1963 - Laurence Leamer [32]
The Kennedy boys were tough beyond measure. As a back, Joe Jr.’s greatest attribute was his crushing aggressiveness. Pounding into his opponents, he preferred to run over them rather than to finesse his way around the defenders. Joe Jr. treated the football field as a testing ground where the crack of tackles and blocks was so vicious that all but the most heedless and fearless were driven to the sidelines. Jack, a wiry quarterback who led the Dexter eleven to victory, was made of more subtle stuff.
Joe Jr. was even more his father’s son on the baseball diamond. He would argue with the umpire, an unthinkable affront to the sportsmanlike ideal of Dexter. He scurried after every fly ball within reach, shouting the other outfielders aside. When he pitched, he threw the ball with such force that he nearly knocked the catcher backward. Only Jack could catch his brother, although tears welled into his eyes as the ball burrowed into his glove and he sometimes dropped the ball, to the glowering disdain of Joe Jr.
At Dexter, as for the rest of their lives, each brother had not simply friends but admirers who championed them and put down the other brother. Those who cared for Joe Jr. celebrated his exuberant extroversion, the way he grasped for every ball and fought every fight, seeing him as a model of boyhood. Those who cared for scrawny Jack considered him a deeper sort and thought that extroverts shouted their insensitivity to the world. But both boys played with intensity, not understanding those who sauntered after fly balls or blocked halfheartedly in football games.
The boys would have found these afternoons on the playing fields of Dexter perfect if only their father had been there. He was gone sometimes for months, but when he returned, it was as if a firestorm of life had descended into the Kennedy living room. Joe purchased a controlling interest in FBO, a film company, and had gone to the West Coast to become a Hollywood magnate. “At that time he was the only Christian in the movie picture business,” Rose recalled. “And I believe the story was that the Jews would get this Irishman. But on the contrary, he had banking experience while the other people had not.”
FBO made cheap films, its greatest asset being Tom Mix, a cowboy star beloved by boys across America. On one of his visits to Brookline, Joe returned with Tom Mix outfits, an awesome prize for Joe Jr. and Jack. When he arranged for films to be shown at Dexter School, it was a special occasion that none of the other fathers could provide.
In Hollywood Joe learned one of the profound lessons of his life. He had always believed in family as a manifestation of his will. He saw in Hollywood how the Jews were able to maintain control of this important new industry. As much as they competed with and berated their competitors, they stood together against the Gentile world. That was their strongest weapon.
Joe would build his family to stand together too, against all who might challenge them. “As long as they stick together that is the important thing,” Rose recalled as the essence of her husband’s thinking. “That is what he believed and expected.”
When Joe was home, he always accompanied Rose to St. Aidan’s for mass on Sunday. The Kennedys cut fine figures as they entered the Tudor church. Joe had taken away from Harvard a sense that clothes were the way a man advertised himself, telling the world about his class, his aspirations, and his confidence. He was an impeccable dresser—as concerned about his clothes as was his wife about hers—and he walked with a sprightly, self-confident step. His fellow parishioners could easily see that Joe Kennedy was a man of the world, with a pretty, youthful wife and a handsome family. The Kennedys did not mix much with their Brookline neighbors, barely nodding a greeting before sitting down.
As they kneeled in their pew,