John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson spoiled news photographers assigned to the White House. Nowadays the cameramen are thinking wistfully of the good old days: of shots of John John playing under his father's desk, of a husky Kennedy in bathing trunks on a Southern California beach, of L.B.J. raising his shirt to show his surgical scar or hoisting his beagles by the ears.

Richard Nixon is not about to be caught by anyone's candid camera. Laments one White House photographer: "We pretty much do the ceremonial stuff in the office—bill signings, Cabinet meetings. The photographic image of Richard Nixon is...