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Camelot, the 1960 musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, takes its title from the site of King Arthur's legendary sixth-century English court, and its tragic yet lavishly produced story centers on Arthur, his queen, Guinevere, and Lancelot. The word "Camelot" soon came to be associated in the U.S. public mind with the youthful stylishness, sophistication, and optimism of President John F. Kennedy's administration (1961-1963), chiefly because the musical's popularity coincided in time with the period of John and Jacqueline Kennedy's occupation of the White House. Further, the media reported that the First Couple enjoyed listening to recordings of this musical. As a result "Camelot" eventually took on the generic meaning of "a period, time, or place regarded as idyllic, peaceful, idealistic, youthful, enlightened, and optimistic." And so the mythology enveloping a sixth-century English king was conferred via the theater and politics to the grandson of Irish immigrants - a 20th-century U.S. president - whose "one brief shining moment" was cut short by assassination on November 22, 1963.
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