/internal/media/dispatcher/45933/fullJohn F. Kennedy plastic Halloween maskcirca 196010 5/8 × 7 1/16 × 6 in. (27 × 17.9 × 15.2 cm)Plastic, MetalThe Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Collection2002.033.00010One molded, translucent, plastic, painted, caricature Halloween mask meant to be President John F. Kennedy.
Mask has exaggerated features. Hair and eyebrows are painted brown and black, lips painted orangish pink with large white teeth showing. Holes cut in mask for eyes, nostrils, and small slit for mouth below teeth. Small area of blue painted around perimeter of eye holes; the rest of the eyes are painted white. Forehead and eye lines in face are emphasized with painted brown lines. Mask has all-over peachish color painted on to the plastic surface to suggest skin tone. Molded ears stick out from the sides of the mask. The mouth is smiling.
The mask is translucent allowing the wearer's skin and face to slightly show through. Two small metal grommets with a puncture hole in the middle of each one are just above each ear for a string or elastic to be attached when wearing.
Most of the skin-tone paint on the mask is worn off; highest relief areas of mask have paint loss. White and orange paint stains in hair on front of mask. Inside of mask is very dirty; stains show through to the front - this is mainly visible in the chin area. (JM 04/11/2017)Artifacts6623417.938785877626.987553975122101Mask15.2400000000Plastic Halloween mask in the form of a caricature of President John F. Kennedy. The translucent, painted mask has exaggerated features. The hair and eyebrows are painted brown and black, lips painted orange-pink with large white teeth showing. Holes are cut in mask for the wearer's eyes, nostrils, and a small slit for the mouth is below the teeth. The eyes are painted white with a little blue around the holes. Molded ears stick out from the sides of the mask. The mask is translucent allowing the wearer's skin and face to slightly show through. String or elastic would have been used to tie the mask on the wearer's head. The mask has no stamps indicating when or where it was manufactured.ToysCaricaturesPop CultureHalloweenMaskCostumeKennedy, John F.Regular and translucent plastic adult masks with exaggerated features were manufactured representing both President and Mrs. Kennedy in the early 1960s. As of Fall 2022, the Museum has a regular Jacqueline Kennedy mask (2002.024.0001) and a translucent John F. Kennedy mask (2002.033.0001). While this translucent John F. Kennedy mask has no stamps indicating when or where it was made, all of the Museum's other caricature masks were manufactured in France, likely by the same company, in the early 1960s. These include caricature masks of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, French president Charles de Gaulle, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban president Fidel Castro. In addition to these adult masks, the Museum also has full children's Halloween costumes representing President and Mrs. Kennedy, produced by Ben Cooper, Inc. in 1963. If you have examples of President or Mrs. Kennedy masks from the 1960s, please let us know at oralhistory@jfk.org. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator