If Steve McQueen was the King of Cool, John V. Lindsay was without a doubt the Mayor of Cool. He was in fact mayor of New York City from 1966 – 1973, and though not exactly the blue-blooded WASP some make him out to be, he certainly exuded an aristocratic elegance and a Kennedy-esque sense of effortless style. A graduate of the Buckley School, St. Paul’s School and Yale, where he joined Scroll and Key, the tall, athletic Lindsay was a Navy gunnery officer during World War II, earning five battle stars through action in the invasion of Sicily and a series of landings in the Pacific theater.
Early on in his political career in Congress Lindsay caused a stir by opposing legislation to combat communism and pornography, but defeated William F. Buckley and others for the Mayor’s office in ’65. He maneuvered gracefully through some of the city’s worst crises, including the transport workers, teachers and sanitation strikes, earning a Life magazine cover in May of 1968 on “The Lindsay Style†with the tagline “Cool Mayor in a Pressure Cookerâ€. Here we give you some outtakes of the photos. Lindsay almost snagged the Democratic presidential nomination in ’72 as well, nearly saving us from Nixon. Imagine having had James Bond in the White House instead of Tricky Dick….
Jared Paul Stern is the editor of DRIVEN.
Having some hair envy; look at those locks!
and he gave Florence Henderson crabs…
And he gave Florence Henderson crabs! (which is such a retro STD, nicely done JL).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/26/florence-henderson-john-lindsay-crabs_n_884699.html
Killer hair. Love that knit blazer he’s wearing in a few shots.
I will never tire of photographs from Life!
Yeah,right.Lindsay as president.
You obviously werent around when he was mayor or you wouldnt be saying that.
He was the consumate politician/phony.My father wanted to lynch him.
Me too.Too bad hes dead now.
Very stylish guy-yes. But John Lindsay didn’t come within 100 miles of the 1972 Democratic Presidential nomination.
Love that on his Wiki under “political party” it says: “Republican, Liberal, Democratic”. Too funny.
Such good style. Great post. Thanks.
JVL= the original RINO, and that last snotline about Nixon is beyond folly; he was a man without a party after his first NYC term. Personally, he was a classic UESer in the days when there wasn’t really an UWS, other than Columbia.
Wow. David Lynch meets Cary Grant.
never heard of him, and now seeing these photographs I want to know everything about him… he looks very cool.
He caused the transit strike because he refused former Mayor Wagner’s offer of help in mediating, something the transit union felt was disrespectful.
The funny thing is that he got criticized for wearing chinos when going into “rough” neighborhoods, but the residents seemed to respect that he didn’t try to dress “hip” or “down” but rather dressed as himself.
The Man was Cool.
I’m sorry, but I can’t look at the man and not think crabs.
Great timing with this post.
Very interesting to see that there are gentlemen from an older generation(no insult intended) also following ACL.
It goes to show so many actually DO favor style over substance.
Very smooth and dapper.
William F. Buckley > John Lindsay
A man of good intentions and impeccable personal integrity, Lindsay was so convinced of the moral justness of his cause that he dismissed anyone who questioned him (especially any outer-borough white) as a bigot, and rushed ahead with his ideas. Their unintended consequences still haunt New York, and the nation.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_1_sndgs01.html