Forget Marilyn. Forget Sinatra. Forget Camelot.

As the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination nears, a noted historian and expert on Kennedy's White House tenure urges the public to shift its focus from the myth to the man.

Daniel Czitrom, a history professor at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley and co-author of "Out of Many: A History of the American People," said Kennedy made marked turnabouts during his presidency – particularly around Cold War diplomacy and the civil rights movement.

Somehow though, Czitrom contends the nuances of Kennedy's presidency get lost in the glitz and lore, largely because of the simultaneous explosion of television as the go-to medium for news and entertainment, where the lines continue to be blurred....