The Triumph of Nancy Reagan by Karen Tumulty (short books for teens txt) ๐
Read free book ยซThe Triumph of Nancy Reagan by Karen Tumulty (short books for teens txt) ๐ยป - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Karen Tumulty
Read book online ยซThe Triumph of Nancy Reagan by Karen Tumulty (short books for teens txt) ๐ยป. Author - Karen Tumulty
Their marriage started off as a picture of bliss. Jane, whom Ronnie called โButton Nose,โ gave birth to their daughter Maureen Elizabeth on January 4, 1941. The Reagans had two terriers, adorably named Scotch and Soda. Thanks to the negotiating skills of their new agent, Lew Wasserman, there was enough money to start building a comfortable house on a plot of land they bought in the Hollywood Hills. It sat at the end of a long driveway, and had a breathtaking view of the city, the ocean, and the mountains.
But their careers were never in sync. Hers languished in the first few years of the 1940s, while Ronnie got his two most acclaimed parts, as doomed Notre Dame halfback George Gipp in Knute Rockne All American and as wealthy Drake McHugh, who loses his legs to a sadistic surgeon, in Kings Row. The first gave him a nickname, โthe Gipper,โ which stuck with him through his political career. In the latter, Ronnieโs character is most remembered for the passion with which he cried: โWhereโs the rest of me?โ
That one lineโโWhereโs the rest of me?โโwould become a self-defining metaphor for Ronnie. It spoke to his awakening need to find a more authentic identity than the ones confected for him by screenwriters. They saw him as good-looking enough but short on star quality. He didnโt exude sex appeal or danger. Even as Ronnie watched himself on the screen in Kings Row, delivering his most acclaimed performance as an actor, he realized: โI had become a semi-automaton โcreatingโ a character another had written, doing what still another person told me to do on the set. Seeing the rushes, I could barely believe the colored shadow on the screen was myself. Possibly this was the reason I decided to find the rest of me.โ
Events across the globe would soon disrupt his career and his life. Ronnie had been an army reservist since his days in Iowa. When World War II arrived, he was ordered to active duty. But his bad eyesight made him unfit for combat, so from the spring of 1942 through the end of the war, he served stateside in a military motion-picture unit, run by the predecessor to the US Air Force, that made training, morale-building, and propaganda films. โBy the time I got out of the Army Air Corps, all I wanted to doโin common with several million other veteransโwas to rest up awhile, make love to my wife, and come refreshed to a better job in an ideal world. (As it came out, I was disappointed in all of these postwar ambitions),โ Ronnie recalled.
He still nurtured hopes of vaulting from B movies to top roles in main attractions. His agent Lew Wasserman told him to be patient. After all, he was still getting $3,500 a week under his contract. But as Ronnie whiled away his time building model ships at a rented house on Lake Arrowhead, he couldnโt help noticing that the better parts were starting to go to younger men. The only real demand for his talents was on the speaking circuit, which, as he put it, โfed my ego, since I had been so long away from the screen.โ
Meanwhile, Janeโs star was ascending. She moved from playing ditzy blondes to challenging parts that brought critical acclaim. Her rise began with her role as the love interest of an alcoholic in 1945โs The Lost Weekend, costarring opposite Ray Milland and under the direction of Billy Wilder. It accelerated the following year, when she played emotionally stunted Ma Baxter in the drama The Yearling. She won the 1949 Best Actress Oscar for her starring role in Johnny Belinda, where she portrayed Belinda MacDonald, a deaf woman who had been raped. By dramatizing sexual violence and its consequences, the film pushed boundaries and required a relaxation of the Motion Picture Production Code.
Jane immersed herself for months at a time in these grim roles, not breaking character even when she was at home. During the filming of Johnny Belinda, six-year-old Maureen had to learn a few words in sign language to communicate with her mother. (When the divorce finally came, Ronnie joked darkly to a friend: โMaybe I should name Johnny Belinda as co-respondent.โ)
But Janeโs new success was not the only reason the marriage hit the rocks. Ronnie was starting to talk incessantly about politics, though he had not yet begun his rightward drift from New Deal liberalism. His wife found the subject deadly. The trouble in their relationship became increasingly apparent to their friends. Jane once told actress and singer Joy Hodges: โWell, if he is going to be president, he is going to get there without me.โ The gulf grew and deepened as Ronnie became preoccupied with his work with the Screen Actors Guild. Founded in the 1930s as a vehicle to give actors some leverage against being exploited by the producers who held their multiyear contracts, SAG was going through a turbulent and politically fraught period. Having joined the unionโs board in 1941 and been elected its president in 1947, Ronnie was spending five nights a week at the headquarters, girding for marathon negotiations with producers. Seven months after becoming SAG president, Ronnie was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which had been established in 1938 as a special investigatory panel to investigate citizens and organizations suspected of having Communist ties. Its clout had increased dramatically in 1945, when it became a permanent committee of Congress.
As Ronnie entered the committeeโs hearing room on Capitol Hill, โthere was a long drawn-out โoooohโ from the jam-packed, predominantly feminine audience [at] the tall Mr. Reagan, clad in a tan gabardine suit, a blue knitted tie, and a white shirt,โ the New York Times reported. The movie actor also ditched his contact lenses for glasses that gave him more gravitas.
Ronnie was grilled about the possibility that a โclique of either Communists or Fascistsโ was trying to exert influence over the union.
Comments (0)