#40. Reagan, Ronald Wilson

Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas – Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) was the 40^th President of the United States from 1981-1989. Ronald has the honor of having his time in the White House defined as an “era.” The Reagan Era. He implemented Reaganomics. That means, basically, he cut taxes and government spending. He had two landslide election experiences – one because voters were not happy with the other guy and wanted somebody different, and one because they were mesmerized by him. Yes, somebody did try to kill him, but the perpetrator didn’t have a political concern, he was just trying to impress Jodie Foster, following the example of a character in a film she was in who went around shooting people. What’s weirdly ironic about that is well, Ronald Reagan was in a lot of films. His first lead role in the movies was “Love Is On The Air” in 1937; the one that’s most talked most was “Knute Rockne, All American” (the famous Gipper). During WWII, he produced hundreds of training films for the Army Air Force.

In the 50s he moved to TV, hosting the GE Theater, coming into our homes every week with a smile and a story. And remember Wagon Train? Zane Grey? Death Valley Days? Of course you do. By the end of the 60s he’d appeared in 53 feature films and established himself as a regular visitor in our living rooms via those black and white screens with the little nano-nano antenna on top. Famous enough to get himself elected governor of California, he feasted on politics from 1967 to 1975. It took a little finagling to get to the White House in 1980, but once in, without that “two terms only” rule no doubt he’d have gone a third. Or maybe not; he was 77 by then, the oldest person (at that time) to be in the presidential role. And though inflation had been reduced and the unemployment rate had fallen; the national debt had nearly tripled as a result of those tax cuts and increased military spending. He is remembered today as “the Great Communicator.” Was that due to years of portraying whatever character he was assigned? Or did he have a natural gift for connecting?

The Boy In Illinois

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois February 6, 1911, the younger son of Jack and Nelle Wilson Reagan; his brother Neil was three years older. Jack was a salesman, and, it is said, had an alcohol problem; the family moved several times before settling in Dixon, Illinois, a town of 8,000 about a hundred miles west of Chicago, in 1920. Nelle was deeply religious; she was active in the Disciples of Christ church and led prayer meetings there. Ronald attended Dixon High School, then Eureka College, where he played guard position for the 1930 and 1931 Eureka Red Devils football teams. His first job was as a lifeguard; he spent summers working at Lowell Park Beach in Dixon. A marker there proclaims he saved 77 lives although some of those may have been pretty girls faking distress so they could be rescued by the handsome hunk called “Dutch.”

Ronald graduated Eureka College with a BA in economics and sociology in 1932 and headed for Davenport, Iowa and a job as sportscaster for football games in the Big Ten Conference; then to Des Moines and station WHO as a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs. Imagine this – the station received basic descriptions of the games by wire; Ronald then created play-by-play accounts for the airwaves. Definitely a communications skill. In 1936 he traveled with the Cubs to their spring training in California, and the “hunk called Dutch” took a screen test. Zap, he wound up with a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers. Hollywood! 1937! Ronald was 26 years old. He became a star; Gallup polls placed him in the “top 100” in 1941 and 1942.

And What About Pretty Girls?

Let’s start with Jane Wyman. Ronald and Jane co-starred in a movie together in 1938 – it was Brother Rat, a comedy about cadets at VMI and the pranks they pulled; it was adapted from a successful Broadway play. Probably fun to make too; Ronald and Jane started dating then. They married in 1940; daughter Maureen was born the next year; in 1945 they adopted a son they named Michael. Another daughter in 1947, Christine, only lived two days. Jane filed for divorce in June 1948. It was a year before the divorce was final; Ronald hadn’t wanted it to happen, but in the “oh well” department for Jane, he was her third husband; overall she married five times between 1933-1965.

And then there was Nancy Davis. She and Ronald met in 1949 when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild and she needed help because her name had erroneously come up on the Hollywood blacklist. He helped, and they began dating. Nancy had already been squired around by some good-looking actors – Clark Gable and Robert Stack and Peter Lawford to name a few. Ronald was leery of marriage after his divorce from Jane, but he and Nancy finally tied the knot March 4, 1952. William Holden was best man; the Little Brown Church in the San Fernando Valley was the place. And the “My Ronnie-My Nancy” couple that we watched during those White House days began to evolve.

Their daughter Patricia (known as Patti Davis in later years) was born October 21, 1952; yes, if you’re counting on your fingers that’s seven-and-a-half months later; their son Ronald was born six years after that. An interesting thing about Nancy’s “I Love Ronnie” fetish – she really was stuck on Ronnie, but her relationship with her kids was sometimes contentious. Of her two – Patti and Ron, and her step-kids Maureen and Michael, her worst relationship was with Patti; years of family feuding lay ahead.

Nancy Begins

Anne Frances Robbins (1921- 2016) was born July 6, 1921 in Manhattan. Called “Nancy” from the beginning, she was the only child of Kenneth and Edith Luckett Robbins. Kenneth and Edith separated soon after their daughter’s birth and Edith traveled the country pursuing acting jobs; she left Nancy in the care of her sister Virginia Luckett in Bethesda, Maryland. “My favorite times were when Mother had a job in New York and Aunt Virgie would take me by train to see her,” Nancy recalled in later years. Edith married again in 1929; Nancy’s new step-dad Loyal Edward Davis was a prominent neurosurgeon. The family moved to Chicago and he formally adopted Nancy, legally changing her name to Nancy Davis. Nancy attended Girls Latin School of Chicago from 1929-1939; then Smith College in Massachusetts for a major in English and drama, graduating in 1943.

With Mom as an actress who had friends like ZaSu Pitts, Walter Huston, and Spencer Tracy, Nancy eased into acting; 1945 a road tour; 1946 a Broadway musical; 1949 a seven-year contract with MGM. She was usually cast as “a steady woman; a loyal housewife; a responsible young mother.” And then in 1952 she became a wife and a mother. “I was never a career woman,” she later said. “I became an actress because I hadn’t found the man I wanted to marry.” Well then.

SAG, and The Governor’s Mansion

The Screen Actors Guild, in case you’re not familiar with it, is a labor union for actors; it was founded in 1933 when major movie studios were forcing actors into binding multi-year contracts. SAG sought to protect its members, and to expand work opportunities for them. Ronald served as President of SAG twice; between 1947-1952 issues included the Hollywood blacklist which banned any entertainment professional who was a member of, or in sympathy with, the Communist Party, from any work in the studios. Ronald also joined the American Veterans Committee, worked with AFL-CIO to fight right-to-work laws, and spoke out against racism. He supported Harry Truman in 1948, then began shifting to the right; he supported Eisenhower in 1952 and Nixon in 1960. He criticized Medicare, calling its legislation the end of individual freedom in the United States. In 1962 he registered as a Republican.

He announced his candidacy for the California governorship in 1966. Incumbent Pat Brown labeled Ronald an extremist; the press called Ronald “monumentally ignorant of state issues.” But guess what. Ronald was elected with 57 percent of the vote. And he won again in 1970. During his eight years as California’s governor, public schools deteriorated due to his opposition to additional public education funding, the homicide rate doubled, and armed robbery rates rose, even with the many laws he signed to toughen criminal sentencing. Ronald decided it was time to tackle the presidency.

Teflon?

On January 20, 1981 there was no snow in Washington, DC on inauguration day, just California sunshine. Limos were back for the parade; Frank Sinatra was back for the ball. And something happened that day that seemed a little too much like a Hollywood movie plot. After 444 days of President Carter’s negotiations, the release of 52 American hostages from Iran was announced, just minutes after the Reagan swearing-in. Reverend Donn Moomaw, pastor of the Bel Air church the Reagans attended, uttered these words in his benediction at the ceremony “We thank you, O God, for the release of our hostages.” And what an announcement for a brand new president to make at his inaugural luncheon – “Some 30 minutes ago, the planes bearing our prisoners left Iranian air space, and they’re now free of Iran.” Once the press got hold of the news the country went wild – the National Christmas Tree on the ellipse was lighted; the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building were bathed in red white and blue; yellow ribbons spread country-wide in joy and celebration. Theories about that perfect timing spread too, as gossip will. But 1984 brought him a second inauguration day.

“Reaganomics” was about tax cuts, though critics labeled it “trickle-down economics” — the belief that tax policies that benefit the wealthy will spread to the poor. Rising budget deficits and wealth inequality ultimately marked the Reagan era. A massive buildup of the military took place, the arms race escalated, Grenada was invaded, Libya was bombed, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran was revealed. And yet, Ronald Reagan gained the name “the Teflon President,” nothing bad seemed to stick. No matter what he did, he remained popular in the public eye.

Astrology?

Remember that assassination attempt early on? It wasn’t a political thing, but it definitely impacted how the White House operated during the Reagan years. Which brings us to Nancy. Having her husband shot terrified Nancy; when Merv Griffin told her a woman named Joan Quigley had predicted that particular day would be dangerous for the president, Nancy hired Joan at a salary of $3,000 a month. Private lines were set up at the White House and Camp David and used, according to some reports, throughout the day. In his 1988 memoir, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington, White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan wrote the following about Nancy Reagan’s consultations with an astrologer: “Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.” He wanted her fired; VP George Bush also suggested she be fired. In 1990, Joan Quigley released a book in which she asserted that she was “in charge” of the President’s scheduling during the Reagan administration. Nancy’s comment: “Astrology was simply one of the ways I coped with the fear I felt after my husband almost died. Was astrology one of the reasons [further attempts did not occur]? I don’t really believe it was, but I don’t really believe it wasn’t.”

Reality?

There are those who believe Nancy greatly influenced “her Ronnie” and his decisions in the White House. Clearly she viewed herself as his protector; “The Gaze” labeled the way she watched him as he spoke. But there is no questioning her impact on style and glamour as First Lady. She wanted everything in the White House redone, and she set about doing it, taking donations from citizens to cover the expense. She dressed exquisitely, accepting gifts of dresses, gowns and suits from fashion designers who were delighted to have their names associated with White House goings on. The problem with that? Accepting gifts from the tax-paying public? The “glamorous paragon of chic” was in violation of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 though she claimed she gave most gifts to museums after wearing them. And that new state china service she commissioned from Lenox? Those 4,370 pieces etched in gold cost $209,508, during a time when her husband’s administration proposed that ketchup be counted as a vegetable for school lunches.

Ronald and Nancy returned to California in 1989; friends had purchased a home for them in Bel Air; they also had their ranch in Santa Barbara. He was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 1994 at the age of 83 and died June 5, 2004, being cared for by Nancy in his last years. Nancy died of congestive heart failure March 6, 2016, at the age of 94. Ronald and Nancy are buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. Both received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor; they were jointly awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor.

As to me partying with the Reagans? Absolutely dreadful idea.