by Anne Edwards
EARLY
REAGAN
BOOKS BY ANNE EDWARDS
BIOGRAPHY
Sonya: The Life of Countess Tolstoy
Vivien Leigh: A Biography
Judy Garland: A Biography
Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell
Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor
A Remarkable Woman: A Biography of Katharine Hepburn
Early Reagan
NOVELS
The Survivors
Miklos Alexandrovitch Is Missing
Shadow of a Lion
Haunted Summer
The Hesitant Heart
Child of Night
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Inn and Us (with Stephen Citron)
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
P. T. Barnum
The Great Houdini
The Bible for Young Readers
EARLY
REAGAN
ANNE EDWARDS
TAYLOR TRADE PUBLISHING
Lanham • New York • Boulder • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
Published by Taylor Trade Publishing
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom
Distributed by National Book Network
Copyright © 1987 by Anne Edwards
First Taylor Trade edition 2012
This Taylor Trade edition of Early Reagan is a republication of the edition first published in New York in 1987. It is reprinted by arrangement with the author.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
“The Second Time Around” by Sammy Cahn and James van Heusen, copyright © 1960 Twentieth Century Music Corporation. Used by permission.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
The hardcover edition of this book was previously catalogued by the Library of Congress as follows
Edwards, Anne, 1927—
Early Reagan.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Reagan, Ronald. 2. Presidents—United States—Biography.
3. Moving-picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography.
I. Title.
E877.2.E39 1987 791.43’028’0924 [B] 87-7728
ISBN 0-688-06050-1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
IN MEMORY OF
PETER HEGGIE,
WHO DEDICATED HIS LIFE
TO THE CAUSE OF THE AUTHOR
AND THE FREEDOM OF THE WRITTEN WORD.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the writing of this book, my own past has pointed my hand. Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood years often crossed my own. I have known what it is to be under contract to a film studio. We have worked for, and been friends with, some of the same people; we were both survivors of the terrible years of the Hollywood witch hunts; and we had both headed a large guild of artists—Reagan as president of the Screen Actors Guild for six years, and I as president of the Authors Guild for four years. Throughout, I have consciously tried to be as impartial as I could, to make the facts and the people who were close to Reagan reveal the man. Without the constant help of those witnesses and the many hours they gave to answer my questions, this book could never have evolved as it has. Awaking sleeping memories can be a disquieting experience.
Current history has been inclined to regard Ronald Reagan’s first fifty years as having only a small bearing on the man who in 1964 gave his famous “A Time for Choosing” speech in support of Barry Goldwater’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency. I have tried to provide a reliable chronicle of the events and actions in the first fifty-five years of Ronald Reagan’s life that will serve to better understand the very long making of this, the United States’s fortieth president.
I owe so many debts of gratitude—to Bill and Jean Thompson and to the people of Dixon—who opened their homes, their hearts and their memories to me; to Dwight A. and Janice M. Wilson and Mr. Reagan’s other family members in Illinois who painstakingly helped me trace Mr. Reagan’s roots; to the faculty of Eureka College who gave unstintingly of their time; to Ralph McKinzie, Mr. Reagan’s football coach, who gave me a day filled with humor and sharp memory that will never be forgotten; to the folks at Radio WHO in Des Moines; and all the marvelous artists and technicians from Warner Brothers who helped me to recreate those years in Ronald Reagan’s life.
I must also make special thanks to the executive staff and the board of the Screen Actors Guild, who granted me permission to study the Guild’s minutes so that I could reconstruct Mr. Reagan’s activities as a labor leader. I understand that I was the first person to have been accorded that privilege, and I am most appreciative of the trust this implied. No words can adequately be found to thank Jack Dales and Chet Migden for their interviews and help, or Mark Locher, National Public Relations Director of the Screen Actors Guild, for his unstinting cooperation and the many weeks he allowed me to sit and work in his offices. Nor would my research at the SAG have been complete without the memory and assistance of Kim Felner.
I have also had the good fortune to work with some of the finest archivists and librarians in the country. I shall never be able to express enough thanks to Anthony Slide and the library staff at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; to Leith Adams and the staff at the University of Southern California Film Archives, who gave me full access to the Warner Brothers Archives; and to Stephen Ourada and the staff at the University of Wisconsin Film Archives.
One of the greatest advantages I had in recreating Mr. Reagan’s life was the use of transcripts of personal interviews made by the Department of Special Collections at the University of California in Los Angeles, and the Regional Oral History Office at the University of California at Berkeley, and by Jean Kinney for her newspaper columns “Around About” in Scottsdale, Arizona. I had the good fortune to be the first author to have the availability of these transcripts. Everyone involved in these programs is truly a dedicated person, working to preserve our history. I cannot say enough about the fine interviewing techniques of Gabrielle Morris, Stephen Stern, Mitch Tuchman and Jean Kinney.
No biographer ever had a better secretary-assistant than I have in Barbara Howland, who has seen me through four complicated books and has become a super sleuth and a grand literary detective. I am also blessed with an editor, Harvey Ginsberg, who never lacks faith in me. With each book, my husband, Stephen Citron’s, counsel and astute insight grows as does my dependence upon him. I cannot imagine that I would have had the stamina to complete this challenging book without his love, care and constant help.
Many contributors of known reliability have asked that I not publicly name them. I abide by their wishes, but I do want those confidential informants to receive here my public thanks. And to the many people (they are not names, but people, who have given unselfishly of their time) listed below, please forgive the absence of a larger note of appreciation. All of you have been most generous and I consider myself a very fortunate author to have had your assistance. Here then are my thanks to (in alphabetical order):
Jon Anderson, production manager, WHO-TV, Des Moines, IA; Betty J. Ankle, executive secretary, Monmouth, IL, public schools; Gregory A. Apel, Iowa City, IA; Gregory
D. Baker, photographer, Dixon, IL; John M. Bartholomy, president, William Woods College, Fulton, MO; Wayne Bastian, Fulton, IL; Lynn Beer, College Relations, Eureka College, Eureka, IL; John Behrens, CBS Broadcast Group, New York, NY; Lois Bell, Martin Luther King Library, Washington, D.C.; Barry Black, Phoenix, AZ; H. B. Brooks-Baker, Burke’s Peerage, London, England; Myrna Brown, Sterling, IL; George T. Bryson, Jr., Richmond, VA; Richard Burdick, Sarasota, FL; Marcelle Cady, Los Angeles, CA; Anne Caiger, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; John M. Caldwell, archivist, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK; Gil Cates, Directors Guild, Los Angeles, CA; Edward Chodorov, New York, NY; Debra Cohen, Life Picture Service, New York, NY; Ned Comstock, USC Archives of Performing Arts, Los Angeles, CA; Arlene Dahl, New York, NY; Shirley Davey, BBD&O Advertising Agency, Avalon, CA; Ruth Degenhardt, Berkshire Anthenaeum, Pittsfield, MA; Frank Delaney, London, England; Vernon Denison, Tampico, IL; Alvah Drew, Jr., Dixon, IL; Ralph Eckley, Monmouth, IL; Polly Brown Edwards, Washington, D.C.; Ruth G. Edwards, Reference Dept., Dixon Public Library, Dixon, IL; Nanette Eichell, Danbury Public Library, Danbury, CT; John Elliott, University of Wisconsin; Deloris A. Ferger, Dixon, IL; Joanne Foster, Eureka College, Eureka, IL; Marian Foster, Ronald Reagan Home, Dixon, IL; Jack Gilford, New York, NY; Madelaine Lee Gilford, New York, NY; Alex Gottlieb, Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital, Woodland Hills, CA; Evelyn Greenwald, SCAN, Los Angeles, CA; Stella Grobe, Loveland Community House, Dixon, IL; Benjamin J. Guthrie, clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.; James K. Hall, chief, Freedom of Information—Privacy Acts Section, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; Enid Hanks, Galesburg Public Library, Galesburg, IL; Gardner Haskell, librarian, Public Library, San Francisco, CA; Tim Hawkins, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research; George Hearne, president, Eureka College, Eureka, IL; Catharine Heinz, director, Broadcast Pioneers Library, Washington, D.C.; Arthur Hershey, Los Angeles Turf Club, Inc., Arcadia, CA; Dan Heusinkveld, county clerk, Morrison, IL; Richard L. Hill, New York Public Library, New York, NY; Jan-Christopher Horak, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Judy Horgen, Danbury Public Library, Danbury, GT; Janet Horvak, New Milford Public Library, New Milford, GT; John Houseman, New York, NY; Mevelyn Hughes, SAG, Hollywood, CA; R. W. Ibach, Jr., director, Public Relations, Chicago Cubs, Chicago, IL; John Imrie, Scots Ancestry Research Society, Edinburgh, Scotland; Mrs. J. M. Irvin, Monroe, WI; Mrs. Phyllis W. Johnson, Arlington, VA; Nathan Juran, Los Angeles, CA; Melba Lohmann King, Des Moines, IA; Command Sergeant Major Klein, Camp Dodge, Johnston, IA; Robert Knutson, USC Archives of Performing Arts, Los Angeles, CA; Tressie M. Kozelka, Peoria, IL; Pam Kulik, promotion manager, WHO Broadcasting Co., Des Moines, I A; Charles Lamb, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN; Karen J. Laughlin, Iowa State Historical Dept., Iowa City, IA; Paul Layet; Andrew Lee, Research Dept., Universal Studios, Universal City, CA; Verl L. Lekwa, Columbus Junction, IA; Judy Leonard, Galesburg Board of Education, Galesburg, IL; Paul Lerner, William Morrow, New York, NY; David LeVine, Dramatists Guild, New York, NY; Eleanor M. Lewis, Research Associate, Smith College, Northampton, MA; Fiona Lindsey, London, England; Donald Littlejohn, Eureka College, Eureka, IL; Arthur Lloyd, San Francisco, CA; Reverend Fred Long, Tampico, IL; Pruda L. Lood, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, CA; Ms. Joan McCollum, Eureka College, Eureka, IL; Mary Ann McFarlane, Latin School of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Mrs. Violet (Winston) McReynolds, Dixon, IL; Wilbert Mahoney, Military Archives, Washington, D.C.; Alice Mappen, Dixon, IL; Melba Matson, Monmouth, IL; Virginia Mayo, Los Angeles, CA; Mark Meader, National Archives and Record Services, Washington, D.C.; Ron Mix, news editor, Dixon Evening Telegraph, Dixon, IL; John L. Molyneux, Rockford Public Library, Rockford, IL; Reverend Benjamin A. Moore, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Los Angeles, CA; Patricia Moore, Wrigley Museum, Avalon, CA; Winifred B. Moore, Sterling, IL; Emil P. Moschella, chief, Freedom of Information-Privacy Acts Section, Washington, D.C.; Lisa Mosher, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA; Donald Murray, Fulton Press, Fulton, IL; Victor Navasky, The Nation, New York, NY; Judy Noack, Warner Brothers, Burbank, CA; Gene Nelson, Beverly Hills, CA; Isabelle Newman, Dixon, IL; Paul and Helen Nicely, Tampico, IL; Audrey O’Rourke, Public Library, Rockford, IL; Dixie Painter, genealogist, St. Joseph, MO; Arthur L. Park, Los Angeles, CA; Bernard F. Pasqualini, The Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA; Anna Pendergast, St. Joseph, MO; Herb Plambeck, Des Moines, IA; Armando Ponce, Universal City Studios, Universal City, CA; James B. Poteat, Television Information Office; Sarah Price, London, England; Roy Prutt; Alejandro Rey, Hollywood, CA; Cheri Ritchhart, Des Moines Register, Des Moines, IA; Jill Schary Robinson, London, England; John W. Rogers, Warner Brothers, Burbank, CA; Gertrude Crockett Romine, Monmouth, IL; Mrs. J. Roy, Genealogical Research Specialist, Public Archives, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Michael Ruark, Dixon, IL; Rick Ryan, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; Karen St. Pierre, Museum of Broadcasting, New York, NY; Janet Saunders, Dixon Public Library; Joy Hodges Schiess, Katonah, NY; Tony Schipps, SAG, Hollywood, CA; Chuck Schlesselman, Des Moines, IA; Gloria Scott, Public Library, Corona, CA; James Seale, president, Christ Historical Society, Nashville, TN; Tom Shaw, editor, Dixon Evening Telegraph, Dixon, IL; William Shaw, publisher, Dixon Evening Telegraph, Dixon, IL; Jack Shelley, Ames, IA; Reverend Tom W. Shepherd, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Dixon, IL; Shirley Shisler, Public Library, Des Moines, IA; Don Siegel; Louis Sindlinger, Dixon, IL; Bette Smith, Bennett, IA; Ann Steinfeldt, University of Wisconsin; Ezra Stone; Dorothy Swerdlove, curator, The Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Lincoln Center, New York, NY; Linda Taetes, Tampico, IL; Frances Tanabe, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.; Raymond Teichman, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, NY; Benjamin Thau (now deceased), Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital, Woodland Hills, CA; Ethel Trego, Monmouth, IL; Molly Tuthill, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, CA; Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ulrich, Grinnell, IA; Diane M. Vicarel, The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Youngstown, Ohio; Rudy Villasenor, Los Angeles High School Alumni Association; Mike Walker, Petersburg Public Library, Petersburg, VA; John H. Wetzell, Sterling, IL; Jeremy Williams, Warner Brothers, Burbank, CA; Maggie (Mrs. Lawrence) Williams, Westport, CT; Robert Williams, Verona, NJ; Waverly K. Winfree, librarian, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA; David S. Wolfson, CBS Songs, New York, NY; Roger Worthington, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL; Jean Wynne, The Authors Guild, New York, NY; Jim Zabel, sports director, WHO, Des Moines, IA; David Zeidberg, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
ALMOST
THE
CONQUERING
HERO
SEPTEMBER 14-16, 1941
“See the conquering hero comes!
Sound the trumpet, beat the drums!”
—DR. THOMAS MORELL,
text for Handel’s Joshua
1
HE STOOD ON THE PLATFORM OF UNION STATION, Los Angeles, narrow as a long knife, an easy smile on his tanned young face, his chestnut hair Brylcreemed to perfect order. Photographers crowded in close. One called out, “Step back, Ronnie… you’re casting a shadow across Miss Parsons.” Ronald Reagan acknowledged the command. The small, dark-haired middle-aged woman beside him held her toothy, smiling pose. Clearly, she knew she was the focal point of the group about to depart. In a few moments, they would board the City of Los Angeles for the two-day journey to Dixon, Illinois, and the “Louella Parsons Day” celebration that was being held in her honor. Reagan and Parsons were both former Dixonites, a fact that had given Hollywood’s most powerful columnist the necessary angle for the best press coverage of the event.
Reagan was one of Hollywood’s most popular young players, on the verge of becoming a major star. The studio felt he needed Parsons and the publicity her name generated to give him a bit of a nudge over the edge. His mother, Nelle, was accompanying her son on what she reckoned was his moment of glory—his return as a celebrity to Dixon. Once considered petite, Nelle now appeared almost frail. But she stood steadfastly behind him like
a tin soldier, arms at the side of her white-collared print-silk frock, her proud new hat balanced on her head like the grandest tricorn. She and Parsons were about the same age. Yet Nelle had the aura of an earlier generation.
Fifteen minutes had been allotted to the press. When that time ran out, Virginia Lindsey, one of the publicists accompanying the tour (which would also present the other Hollywood players gathered on the sun-glinted platform), stepped forward. Parsons and her daughter, Harriet, turned and headed for the rear car of the train, where they were helped on board with a mass of hand baggage by several Pullman-car porters. A moment later, Hollywood’s first lady of gossip appeared on the rear platform, smiled and lifted her white-gloved hand in a stiff wave—a gesture obviously gleaned from studying royal photographs—and the cue for the rest of her Hollywood celebrity group to follow.
Nelle took her son’s arm and skillfully maneuvered her way with him over the microphone wires and through the crowd. Only the white line across the bridge of Reagan’s nose gave away his most carefully guarded secret—the thick-lensed, horn-rimmed glasses he wore privately, without which his shortsightedness made the world a blur. Not until the train had pulled out of the station and was well on its way did he replace his glasses. He settled his six-foot frame into the green upholstered seat of his drawingroom compartment across from Nelle, leaving the door open. Ed Oettinger, Parsons’s brother, came by to see if they were comfortable. Celebrity-group members George Montgomery and Ann Rutherford peeked in and asked if they would care to join them for a drink. Reagan smilingly refused (Nelle was a teetotaler). Finally, Sam Israel, another publicist, informed Reagan that Parsons wanted to see him. He got up and followed Israel to the rear car, which had been turned into a private lounge, where Parsons, in high spirits, was holding court to the rest of her entourage. Comedians Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna and Joe E. Brown, film stars Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, had agreed to join them in Dixon, and there was nothing Parsons enjoyed more than being surrounded by the famous—unless it was to be attended by them.
