This fragrance has the best backstory I’ve ever heard: In 1937, when Kennedy was a college student, he toured France. While there, he did what any red-blooded American male does while on summer vacation on the French Riviera: He struck up a conversation with a strange Frenchman about the fragrance he was wearing. Turns out that the delicious-smelling Frenchman, Albert Fouquet, liked to dabble in perfume-making. According to Eight & Bob lore, Fouquet left a fragrance sample at JFK’s hotel with a note that said, “In this jar, you will find the dash of French glamour that your American personality lacks.” Burn.
When Kennedy got back to the States, he sent Fouquet a letter saying that all his friends back home loved the fragrance, and asked the perfumer to send eight samples and “if your production allows, another one for Bob.” (Bob, of course, is Kennedy’s baby brother, Robert Kennedy.) Fouquet complied, and labeled the samples “Eight & Bob,” and a brand was born.
Apparently Kennedy’s dad, Joe, passed out samples to some of his Hollywood friends, because requests from Hollywood nobility of the time–like Cary Grant and James Stewart–started rolling in. Then in 1939, Fouquet died in a car accident. However, Philippe, the Fouquet family butler, had often assisted Fouquet in his perfume-making, so he took over the orders. When World War II started, Philippe hid the bottles inside books that he cut by hand so that the Nazis wouldn’t seize it. After the war, Philippe never made the perfume again. (And here it’s a little fuzzy about what exactly happened to Philippe after WWII.)
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