GRGR(31): Ambassador Kennedy 682.10

[Doug Millison]

JFK's father. Pynchon puts "Jew-zeppy" in Nalline's mouth perhaps to 
emphasize Joe Kennedy's reputed anti-Semitic tendencies, as 
Weisenburger reminds us, noting that he was ambassador to the Court 
of St. James from December 1937 - November 1940  and that his 
financial success  included "his 1930 consolidation of Radio Keith 
Orpheum, the parent company of RKO Pictures. [Three years later the 
studio produced _King Kong_.]"  FWIW, JS (who just trashed Omerta, 
the final novel of Mario Puzo, a person JS has previously referred to 
as an old friend, in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle Book Review) 
reports that Pynchon introduced his mother as an anti-Semite -- how 
much credit to give this kind of uncorroborated report and 
after-the-fact re-constructed dialogue is a question you'll have to 
answer for yourself; I don't give it much credit.