Talking Politics

JFK's speech therapist

by Seth Gitell

With the 37th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy approaching, it's interesting to note that a little bit of history is residing only a few houses down from the president's birthplace in Brookline. That history comes in the form of Benjamin Stolow, 96, who served as Kennedy's instructor in oratory.

Stolow was a professor at the Staley College of the Spoken Word, on the corner of Babcock Street, when Kennedy enrolled to improve his public-speaking skills. Staley, which had taught Boston mayor James Michael Curley, was a staple of any serious Boston pol's education. With Kennedy, Stolow focused on debating.

"I taught him how to take a drink without touching any water," Stolow says. "I showed him how to be perfectly relaxed and not to memorize anything." Kennedy was big on in-class work, but not so keen on after-school drills. "He never did any home lessons," Stolow recalls. "He didn't like to do any homework, but he was a wonderful, charming person." Asked how Kennedy did at Staley, Stolow says, "He received a degree - a doctorate, the DAO - doctorate in the art of oratory."

But Stolow refuses to grade Kennedy's performance during the 1960 presidential campaign, when the candidate's poise and confidence in the televised debates are thought to have won him a narrow victory over Richard Nixon. "I can't comment on that," Stolow says. "You're going to have to draw your own conclusions on that."