COBRA PRODUCTIONS

Helen O’Donnell

Writer and Producer

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Cobra Productions is named for my late father, Kenneth “Kenny” O’Donnell. He became the right hand political consiguliere for President John F. Kennedy. Kenny was Bobby’s best friend. He would later become JFK’s Political Chief-of-Staff in the White House

Cobra Productions is a television and film production company based in Washington, D.C., a city my father came to love.

Cobra Productions will have a new, innovative approach. Cobra Productions will combine the technology & skill of today with the extraordinary, high flying style & kick-ass attitude that captures the period that gave us the “New Frontier.”

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Our first project is based on my latest and forth coming book called, “The Watchman Cometh.” We plan to develop it into a series.

The story will take us behind the scenes of Jack and Bobby’s powerful and complicated friendship with Kenneth O’Donnell and the intertwining between the labor unions and the mob as Jack Kennedy gears up for a White House run, which is increasingly threatened by his young brother’s zealous pursuit of organized crime.

I have written several articles and books about my father and his relationship with President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy including my books, A Common Good, The Friendship of Robert F. Kennedy & Kenneth P. O’Donnell; The Irish Brotherhood: John F. Kennedy, His Inner Circle, and the Improbable Rise to the Presidency; and my latest Launching LBJ, How A Kennedy Insider Helped Define The Johnson Presidency.

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I also worked with the remarkable anchor of MSNBC’s Hardball and author Chris Matthews on his book on Jack Kennedy called JFK: Elusive Hero.

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In addition, I worked with BBC Radio4 in London as the Presenter and Co-Producer on a radio programme called “The Kennedys.” Also, I worked with Circle Films in Dublin, Ireland on a documentary film entitled “Jack, Bobby and Kenny – The Irish Mafia.”

“The Watchman Cometh” is the first of several projects we have in development.

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They include a play based on my dad’s tapes, another book & series called “The Washington Rat Pack,” which is a terrific story about Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Marilyn Monroe – which include wonderful inside stories circa late 1950, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas.

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We are passionate about these stories and Cobra Productions.

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Cobra Productions is new venture that captures the spirit of these unique times.

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As Frank Sinatra used to sing, “The Best is Yet to Come . . .” 

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Stay connected – we will have more

news soon!

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Comments about Helen’s work:

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“A stunning bit of political storytelling. [Launching LBJ] gives readers an inside look at the deep sense of duty that carried the country through the hours, days, and months after John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

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Helen O’Donnell, a gifted writer, shows how her father and others in “JFK’s “Irish Mafia” steered Vice President Lyndon Johnson into the presidency. It’s a fine read for those of us in love with the “new Frontier” history.”

CHRIS MATTHEWS, anchor of MSNBC’s Hardball and author of Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.

“No one knew John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson better than Kenneth O’Donnell, and no one tells the story of their coming apart with more verve and insight than his daughter Helen, in this marvelous account of tragedies and achievements that transformed America.”

JOHN A. FARRELL author of Richard Nixon, The Life

THE IRISH BROTHERHOOD: John F. Kennedy, His Inner Circle, and the Improbable Rise to the Presidency, By Helen O’Donnell with the taped recollections of Kenneth P. O’Donnell (Counterpoint Press)

“Working from extensive recordings left by her father, former political aide Kenneth “Kenny” O’Donnell Sr., Helen O’Donnell (A Common Good) produces an intimate, complex look at the years leading up to J.F.K.’s presidency, a span covering 1946–1961. .  . O’Donnell presents them in an accessible, engaging manner; the figures portrayed are full-fledged characters, and the story unfolds like a political drama.”

A COMMON GOOD, The Friendship of Robert F. Kennedy & Kenneth P. O’Donnell (William Morrow)

“Kirkus Reviews hails A Common Good as “a moving and intimate study of a unique friendship but also of the time and place, now long ago, in which this friendship formed and blossomed.” O’Donnell “set out to write ‘a good book about two good men.’ In this she has succeeded.”