Reagan

by Bob Spitz

  the self-described cocky: “I covered up by becoming the cockiest of all, by talking the loudest, laughing the longest, and wearing the curliest, most blatantly false eyelashes in Hollywood.” Lawrence J. Quirk, Jane Wyman: The Actress and the Woman (New York: Dembner Books, 1986), p. 17.

  in a scenic river town: St. Joseph is on the Missouri River.

  “crippled” by shyness: Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 14.

  Richard Fulks, an unsparing disciplinarian: “I was reared under such strict discipline.” Jane Wyman quoted in Morella and Epstein, Jane Wyman, p. 6.

  Early in adolescence: Gary Chilcote, “Jane Wyman, Reagan’s First Wife, Grew Up Here,” St. Joseph’s News-Press, Nov. 7, 1980.

  When her husband died: “My mother and I were bored to death with that town.” Jane Wyman quoted in Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 16.

  separated from him: “Still in her teens she impulsively entered marriage . . . but in less than a month she knew it was a terrible mistake and the marriage was dissolved.” Nell Blythe, “Jane Wyman,” Movie Life, March 1957.

  Eugene Wyman was the name: Edmund Morris, Dutch (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 717.

  It took another two years: “Jane Wyman Divorced from Ernest F. [sic] Wyman,” Los Angeles Examiner (morgue file), 1935, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  She later boasted: “Star Began Her Career on a Hunch,” DET, July 12, 1941.

  “Before I became a blonde”: “Jane Wyman’s Hair Brings Luck,” studio-written article in press book for An Angel from Texas, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  fraught with the kind: “During this period, she made the casting rounds, rebuffing dozens of men who sought to exploit her sexually.” Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 18.

  “I had had enough”: “Jane Wyman’s Hair Brings Luck.”

  “a girl on the make”: Louella Parsons, quoted in Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 43.

  In May 1936: Jane Wyman’s Warner Bros. contract, May 6, 1936, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  “wise-cracking chorus girl”: Referring to her role in The King and the Chorus Girl. Morella and Epstein, Jane Wyman, p. 14.

  “dumb bunny . . . floozie”: Referring to her roles in Ready, Willing and Able and The King and the Chorus Girl. Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 23.

  “Ronnie was the dream”: Ibid., p. 30.

  Jane, impatient and high-strung: “My first impulse, as always, was to resent it . . . to feel that someone was pushing us around.” Jane Wyman quoted in untitled and undated article, Photoplay, from Anne Edwards’s research in author’s possession.

  he called “leadingladyitis”: “Leadingladyitis is an infatuation that won’t hold up, once the play is over and you each go back to playing yourselves.” WTROM, pp. 38–39.

  It hit him again: Ibid., p. 79.

  “Everyone could see that Janie”: Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 37.

  “I just couldn’t see [Jane]”: Alex Gottlieb, interview with Anne Edwards, original transcript in author’s possession.

  “She had real fire”: Olivia de Havilland, interview with author, Oct. 4, 2015.

  to “good scout”: Cynthia Miller, undated article, Modern Screen, from Anne Edwards’s research in author’s possession.

  “Ronnie always had a cause”: Leon Ames, quoted in Marilyn Goldstein, “Reagan’s America: The California Years,” Newsday, Jan, 18, 1981.

  “This time appeared to represent”: Lawrence Williams, “The Disordered Memories of a Movie Actor,” Westport News, Oct. 31, 1980, p. 21.

  “Arguing politics drew them together”: June Allyson with Frances Spatz Leighton, June Allyson (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982), p. 95.

  “I was a loyal”: MI, June 30, 1987, p. 110; “I always believed that all this left-wing talk”: MI, Oct. 23, 1987, p.140; the party’s platform against high tariffs: MI, June 30, 1987, p. 118.

  he created a job: “After talking it over with my mother, I came up with a plan that worked like a charm.” AAL, p. 93; WTROM, p. 84.

  “Ronnie had this wonderful”: Untitled article from Anne Edwards’s research in author’s possession, Photoplay.

  “She was so experienced”: Jerry Asher, quoted in Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 42.

  “so nervous and tense”: Louella Parsons, quoted in Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 45.

  Jane claimed he eventually: “Ronnie simply turned to me as if the idea were brand new and said, ‘Jane, why don’t we get married?’” Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 43.

  an old “stomach disorder”: A. Alleborn, memo to T. C. Wright, Oct. 4, 1939, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  Years later, Nancy Reagan disclosed: Morris, Dutch, p. 162.

  “two of Hollywood’s very nicest”: Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, Nov. 1, 1939.

  “wooing the blonde Miss Wyman”: Press book for Brother Rat and a Baby, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  Jane’s sonar picked up: “Jane was . . . making jokes constantly, [and was] terribly jealous.” Louella Parsons, The Gay Illiterate (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1944), p. 161.

  The discord didn’t help: “[The show] may go big, but as it looked at its opening stand, it’s nothing to stand in line for—and nobody did.” Paul Spiegle, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 16, 1939.

  his Eureka College songs: Joy Hodges, letter to Anne Edwards, May 4, 1986, in author’s possession.

  Ronnie found his footing: “Ronald Reagan [is] very personable, deft and obviously at home on a stage.” Variety, Nov. 22, 1939.

  As 1939 drew to a close: Los Angeles Examiner, Dec. 31, 1939; Finland’s Note New York Journal and American, Dec. 30, 1939.

  Finland’s “stout resistance”: “Allies Pledge to Sweden Expected,” New York Times, Dec. 28, 1939.

  “and join your Russian friends”: “Incidents in European Conflict,” New York Times, Dec. 28, 1939.

  During interviews with the Washington: “Flashbulbs popped as he engaged Casey Jones, managing editor of the Post, in a long discussion of the situation in Finland.” Morris, Dutch, p. 165.

  “He did not always pick”: Joy Hodges, letter to Anne Edwards, May 4, 1986.

  “He was eager to absorb”: Ibid.

  “they’ll be husband and wife”: Los Angeles Examiner, Jan. 26, 1940.

  “beautiful beyond dreams”: Leonora Hornblow, quoted in Morris, Dutch, p. 166; Los Angeles Examiner, Jan. 27, 1940.

  “I hope my Ronald”: Nelle Reagan, letter to Myrtle Kennedy, quoted in Morris, Dutch, p. 164.

  TWELVE: “WHERE’S . . . WHERE’S THE REST OF ME?”

  “was not an actor”: Garry Wills, Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985), p. 177; Pat O’Brien said that Wallis saw RR as “a hick radio announcer from the Middle West.” Pat O’Brien, The Wind at My Back: The Life and Times of Pat O’Brien (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964), p. 240.

  “When you were struggling”: Olivia de Havilland, interview with author, Oct. 4, 2015.

  “generated so much good will”: Ruth Waterbury, quoted in Lawrence J. Quirk, Jane Wyman: The Actress and the Woman (New York: Dembner Books, 1986), p. 47.

  Ronnie spotted an announcement: Variety, Jan. 17, 1940.

  George Gipp was a reprobate: Sports Illustrated, Sept. 10, 1979.

  Wallis always envisioned Spencer Tracy: “We should like nothing better than to have him play Rockne.” Hal B. Wallis, letter to J. Arthur Haley (University of Notre Dame), Sept. 11, 1939, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  Cagney had been the studio’s: “Cagney would insure the picture’s success. O’Brien would not.” Robert Bruckner, letter to Rev. Hugh O’Donnell (University of Notre Dame), July 26, 1939, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  “the gangster type”: J. Arthur Haley, letter to Bryan Foy, Sept. 2, 1939, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  “the Loyalist Cause”: “The university, knowing this fact, do not feel that they can jeopardize their reputation because
of the publicity thus received.” Ibid.

  “get those double chins”: memo, Bob Fellows to Hal Wallis, 1/23/1940, Warner Archives, USC.

  Wallis had already rejected: Memo from Hal Wallison personal note paper, Knute Rockne production file, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  he came prepared with props: “I barged into his office and slapped the pictures down on his desk.” WTROM, p. 92.

  Ronnie got him work: Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, Jane Wyman: A Biography (New York: Delacorte, 1985), p. 40.

  It already represented: Dan E. Moldea, Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob (New York: Viking, 1986), p. 17.

  A pact with the American: Ibid., pp. 17–18.

  Within eight years: AE, p. 211, footnote sourced from a periodical cited as Reader, Nov. 2, 1984.

  “a magnificent piece of machinery”: RR, quoted in AE, p. 291.

  He refused to eat lunch: Olivia de Havilland, interview with author, Oct. 4, 2015.

  “On Saturday, let’s go out”: Lew Wasserman, quoted in Leith Adams interview with author, Feb. 20, 2015.

  “He loved motion and exciting”: Alan Spiegel, interview with author, Oct. 9, 2015.

  “Who cares about character?”: Aljean Harmetz, Round Up the Usual Suspects (New York: Orion Publishing, 1993), pp. 183–84.

  “He was a bully”: Olivia de Havilland, interview with author, Oct. 4, 2015.

  but he backed out: “I MUST REFUSE THE ROLE OF CUSTER IS NO MORE THAN A FOIL TO JEB STUART.” John Wayne, telegram to Bryan Foy, undated, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  She describes a publicity: RR describes this event somewhat differently in WTROM, p. 96.

  “Flynn repeatedly showed up hours”: Olivia de Havilland, email to author, Sept. 4, 2015.

  “a damned noble organization”: WTROM, p. 132.

  “There was a caste system”: Olivia de Havilland, interview with author, Oct. 4, 2015; “They were largely people of lesser standing.” Jack Dales, interview, “Pragmatic Leadership: Ronald Reagan as President of the Screen Actors Guild,” UCLA Center for Oral History Research, May 2, 1981, p. 2.

  “You know we had a war”: B. P. Schulberg, quoted in Nancy Lynn Schwartz and Sheila Schwartz, The Hollywood Writers’ Wars (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), p. 29.

  He resented being forced: “I thought it was an infringement on my rights.” AAL, p. 89.

  paying its quarterly dues: RR’s “Application for Senior Membership,” SAG Archives, April 8, 1937; “He paid a $25 admission fee and $7.50 in quarterly dues.” Valerie Yaros, SAG historian, quoted in “SAG Notes,” SAG Archives, Aug. 12, 2002.

  “She nailed me in a corner”: WTROM, p. 133.

  His father was a flag bearer: “Jack never bristled more than when he thought working people were being exploited.” AAL, p. 90.

  “a good, solid board member”: Jack Dales, interview, UCLA Center for Oral History Research, May 2, 1981, p. 7.

  she “knew a guy”: Ibid., p. 5.

  “I want you to meet”: Jack Dales, interview with Anne Edwards, undated, original transcript in author’s possession.

  “Jane Wyman wasn’t wrong”: Ibid.

  “He seemed to enjoy”: Olivia de Havilland, interview with author, Oct. 4, 2015.

  Variety named him: Daily Variety, Dec. 18, 1940.

  “the whole country is getting”: Los Angeles Examiner, Dec. 12, 1940.

  “I wanted one, too”: RR, quoted in Morella and Epstein, Jane Wyman, p. 42.

  “General Ronald Reagan Jr.”: Edmund Morris, Dutch (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 172.

  “I wanted a boy”: DET, undated; AE, p. 230.

  “We don’t want to go”: Los Angeles Times, Sept. 24, 1944.

  “Next morning, we dashed”: Jane Wyman quoted in Morella and Epstein, Jane Wyman, p. 45.

  With a twenty-year: Ibid., p. 52.

  “putting wifehood and motherhood first”: “She really worked at the marriage.” Ruth Waterbury, Photoplay, quoted in Quirk, Jane Wyman, p. 53.

  “I was twenty-seven”: Ibid., p. 54.

  “I don’t think Hollywood”: Adolph Zukor, quoted in The Argus (Melbourne, Australia), Aug. 12, 1939.

  “people whose daily morals”: David Denby, “From Hitler to Hollywood,” The New Yorker, Sept. 16, 1913.

  “to combine entertainment”: Edward G. Robinson, letter to Prof. D. R. Taft, Dec. 22, 1938, quoted in Steven J. Ross, Hollywood Left and Right (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 103.

  seven times what it: AE, p. 237.

  “As far as the plot”: Wolfgang Reinhardt, memo to Hal Wallis, July 3, 1940, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  Even before a script: Joseph Breen, memo to Jack Warner, Apr. 22, 1941, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  “It got to the end”: RR, interview with Lou Cannon, May 5, 1989, LCA, p. 6.

  “All of a sudden a wave”: Ibid.

  “long, hard schedule”: WTROM, p. 103.

  “In our special field”: “Statement of Principles,” Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, 1944, Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers Archive.

  “Most of the leading characters”: Daily Variety, Dec. 23, 1941.

  “I felt I had neither”: WTROM, p. 4.

  “Gradually, the affair began”: Ibid., p. 5.

  In the earlier version: “Fine director that he was, he just turned to the crew and said, ‘Let’s make it.’ Ibid.

  “No rehearsal—just shoot it.”: AAL, p. 96.

  “I began to feel”: WTROM, p. 6.

  THIRTEEN: IN THE ARMY NOW

  The stark reality of it: “This easily is the greatest thrill I’ve ever had.” “Squadron Debuts During 1941 Visit,” DET, Presidential Edition, Feb. 28, 1981.

  The City of Los Angeles: “Hollywood Moves to Dixon,” DET, Oct. 12, 1941.

  a starring role in Casablanca: Hollywood Reporter, Jan. 5, 1942.

  “We shot night exteriors”: WTROM, p. 103.

  “an action melodrama”: Bosley Crowther, “‘Desperate Journey,’ a Futile Chase Through Germany, with Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan,” New York Times, Sept. 26, 1942.

  “he did more or less”: Marilyn Goldstein, “Ronald Reagan’s America: The California Years,” Newsday, Jan. 18, 1981.

  Jack Warner had secured: Draft of letter from Warner Bros. Pictures to Asst. Sec. of War, Sept. 1941, Warner Archives, USC; RR deferment: Jack Warner, memo, Jan. 1, 1942, Warner Bros. Archives, USC; RR’s final orders, Mar. 24, 1942, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  studios “tremendous investment”: Letter from Roy Obringer to Commanding General, Ninth Corps Area, Mar. 28, 1942, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  “due to a shortage”: U.S. Army, telegram to Jack Warner, April 2, 1942, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  “She was furious with him”: Edmund Morris, Dutch (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 727.

  a strict policy to suspend: RR’s contract suspended Apr. 20, 1942. “History of RR’s Contracts,” Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  His Army pay amounted: Tony Thomas, The Films of Ronald Reagan (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel, 1980), p. 143.

  Ronnie dashed off a memo: RR, memo to Steve Trilling, Apr. 5, 1942, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  “Long shots and shots”: “A lot of rescheduling took place to get my final scenes on film.” AAL, p. 97.

  In the eighty years since: In 1863, the government seized the property belonging to John C. Frémont on that ground that it was needed for the Civil War effort. Sally Denton, Passion and Principle, John and Jessie Frémont, the Couple Whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America (New York: Bloomsbury, 2007).

  “tired of being used”: Morris, Dutch, p. 191.

  In late May 1942: “I received word today that Reagan’s agent has notified Trilling that Reagan’s commanding gene
ral has approved his transfer to the Air Force.” Hal Wallis, memo to Jack Warner, May 29, 1942, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  places like Kearney: “U.S. Military Airfields, Camps, Forts and Stations,” Wartime Press, wartimepress.com.

  Disney had made a number: Owen Crump, UCLA Center for Oral History Research, Margaret Herrick Library, Oct. 22, 1991, p. 7.

  March on Marines: List of short films from Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  By coincidence, in 1941: Jack Warner, letter to Henry H. Arnold, Dec. 23, 1941, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  Warner, toting a sheaf: Jack Warner consulted with director Howard Hawks on ideas for aviation films, including the recruitment and training of fighter pilots. Jack Warner, memo “Notes for Washington Talk,” undated, Warner Bros. Archives, USC; Jack Warner, memo “Suggested Plan of Operations for the Motion Picture Activities Division, Army Air Forces,” Apr. 24, 1942, Warner Bros. Archives, USC.

  “After the war is won”: Ibid.

  “people will know we really”: Ibid.

  “virtually in shambles”: Owen Crump, UCLA Center for Oral History Research, Oct. 22, 1991, p. 28.

  On June 8, 1942: “Ronnie Reagan (2/Lt.) arrived June 8 to help out.” Owen Crump, quoted in Morris, Dutch, p. 192.

  “I looked up”: Owen Crump, UCLA Center for Oral History Research, Oct. 22, 1991, p. 29.

  “My first assignment”: AAL, p. 98.

  was officially activated: Doug Cunningham, Hap Arnold, Warner Bros. and the Formation of the USAAF First Motion Picture Unit, undated, typescript provided to the author, p. 1.

  The Rear Gunner: The National Archives Motion Picture Collection, Record Group 18, Accession 2351.

  Recognition of the Japanese Zero Fighter: Ibid., Group 208, Accession 3276.

  “prepared to lose ten million”: Quotes attributed to Westward Bataan are from Stephen Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood: Movies and Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 115.

  “is morale in capital letters”: Review for This Is the Army, Variety, Aug. 4, 1943.

  He loved the magazine’s: An entry in Edmund Morris’s War Diary, Feb. 19, 1943, says: “[RR] reveres [Reader’s Digest] as the sum of All human wisdom.” Morris, Dutch, p. 202.