Reagan
Page 94
My agent, Sloan Harris, has stood behind me through five books and countless crises. His canny advice and belief in my work somehow conspire to keep everything on an even keel. Heather Karpas, his former assistant and now colleague, pulled strings and oiled the gears.
Lastly, but most important, my wife, Becky Aikman, the Omniscient, the Queen of Context. Her insight, wisdom, and love guided me through every page of this book. She inspires me. She is the most remarkable person I know.
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
AAL: Ronald Reagan, An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980)
AE: Anne Edwards, Early Reagan: The Rise to Power (New York: William Morrow, 1987)
DET: Dixon [IL] Evening Telegraph
FOIA: Freedom of Information Act
KK/NR: Kitty Kelley, Nancy Reagan (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991)
LCA: Lou Cannon Archives (Davidson Library, University of California-Santa Barbara, Special Collections)
MCPA: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, Ronald Reagan Oral History
MI: Edmund Morris interviews for Dutch (New York: Random House, 1999)
NR/MT: Nancy Reagan with William Novak, My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan (New York: Random House, 1989)
PP/HW: Personal Papers/Handwriting Files, part of the RRPL’s public archives
PPP: Pre-Presidential Papers file
RRPL: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
WTROM: Ronald Reagan and Richard Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me (New York: Deull, Sloan, and Pearce, 1965)
PROLOGUE
“some rough sledding”: WTROM, p. 241.
“a couple of turkeys”: Ibid., p. 245.
$15,000 in new pumps . . . veterinary care: Edmund Morris, Dutch (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 294.
“I’m living from guest shot to guest shot”: Murphy James, “When the Gipper Played Vegas,” San Antonio Express-News, 1984, Murphyjames.com/gipper. The friend is WB publicist Barney Oldfield.
“of a Hollywood couple”: Yearling Row manuscript, RRPL, private papers.
Billed as “Ronald Reagan Presents”: RR, letter to Murphy James, Mar. 9, 1983, RRPL, PHF Series 2, Box 18, Original Legal.
“as sort of an impresario”: WTROM, p. 249.
The El Rancho was the obvious: Las Vegas Strip Historical Site, lvstriphistory.com.
The deal was negotiated: “In twenty minutes Beldon Katleman at the El Rancho was on the dotted line.” WTROM, p. 249.
“who left almost nothing to the imagination”: Obituary of Lili St. Cyr, New York Times, Feb. 6, 1999.
The Last Frontier held more promise: Las Vegas Strip Historical Site.
“stick her toe in the water”: Ibid.
Evelyn Ward, a glamorous: Mike Barnes, “Actress Evelyn Ward Dies at 89,” Hollywood Reporter, Jan. 11, 2013.
the Adorabelles: “A chorus of semi-nude girls.” Robert Metzger, Reagan: American Icon, Phildelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989, p. 144.
“no singer or dancer”: Bob Thomas, “Reagan in Night Club; But Not from Choice,” Associated Press, Feb. 15, 1954.
“She was a great audience for him”: John Bradford, quoted in KK/NR, p. 91.
“was rough as a cob”: James, “When the Gipper Played Vegas.”
“By the end of the first week”: Terry Mulgannon, “When Ronnie Played Vegas,” Los Angeles, Apr. 1983, p. 179.
the Four Aces were appearing: Les Devor, “Vegas Vagaries,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, Feb. 17, 1954, p. 6.
“in a flimsy, see-through dress”: James, “When the Gipper Played Vegas.”
“This business was built”: Thomas, “Reagan in Night Club; But Not from Choice.”
“If you didn’t sing or dance”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at the Kiwanis International Convention,” in Speaking My Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 19.
“Russian aggression aimed at world conquest”: Ronald Reagan, “How Do You Fight Communism?” Fortnight, Jan. 22, 1951.
another MCA agent, Taft Schreiber: “It was Revue through Taft Schreiber who approached me.” RR, testimony before federal grand jury, Feb. 2, 1962, pp. 95, 100.
“everyone of stature”: WTROM, p. 231.
“personal interest in television”: Ibid., p. 230.
Reagan’s only nod to fashion: “If the debut doesn’t work out, I’ll be ready for mourning.” Reba and Bonnie Churchill, “Ronald Reagan Launches Night Club Debut Soon,” News Life, Oct. 11, 1953.
Reagan turned up the heat: “Nitery Reviews: Last Frontier,” Variety, Feb. 17, 1954, p. 10.
Once, when he was in high school: “Mrs. J. E. Reagan Is Hostess to Society,” Dixon Telegraph, Sept. 9, 1927, p. 3.
The nightclub act did relatively: Ralph Pearl, who covered the engagement, reported that the act did only “fair biz.” Las Vegas Sun, Feb. 20, 1954.
was well received by the critics: “The question of what can Ronald Reagan do in a night club act has been answered. . . . He can entertain.” Devore, “Vegas Vagaries.”
He made only $5,500 a week: This figure was reported in an interview that Edmund Morris did with the Last Frontier’s Herman Hover in Dutch, p. 754.
After the shows, when most performers: “They returned to their hotel room after each show and spent their days reading . . . and visiting Lake Mead.” Murphy, “When the Gipper Played Vegas.”
“The nightclub life”: NR/MT, p. 127.
As a lifetime Roosevelt Democrat: “I began my citizenship as a New Deal Democrat.” Letter to Ms. Jamie Harrison, Spring 1977, RRPL, PPP Box 20, Folders G-H.
“encroaching government control”: WTROM, p. 267.
And he’d gone for Ike in 1952: “My first Republican vote was for Eisenhower.” RR, letter to Lucinda Williford, c. 1980, RRPL, PPP Box 20, Folder W.
ONE: AN IDEAL PLACE
Even well into his eighties: The scenes of RR’s Midwest upbringing are culled from MI, Sept. 17, 1986, p. 18, and Dec. 22, 1986, p. 47.
“My hometown was a small town”: MI, Mar. 24, 1987, p. 82.
“one of those rare Huck Finn”: WTROM, p. 18.
“I’ve never known anything”: RR, letter to Jo and Phil Regan, Apr. 22, 1987, PP/HW, RRPL.
the cargo ship Joseph Gilchrist: Passenger list, emigrant ships, from Liverpool to US East Coast Ports, 1857, theshiplist.com.
just twelve sod-and-stone huts: “Reagan Genealogy,” New Yorker, Nov. 9, 1981, p. 12; “The Irish Ancestry of President Ronald Reagan,” Debrett Ancestry Service, p. 4.
“bright and ambitious”: AE, p. 24.
a boardinghouse with twelve: London census, 1851.
“gardener’s laborer”: 1851 census of Peckham, Parish of Camberwell, County of Surrey, District 8, Household #81.
Her three uncles were notorious: “Patrick Mulcahy’s three brothers had all been imprisoned for long periods of their lives.” AE, p. 24.
“barbarity and atrocity”: National Enquirer, Aug. 5, 1980.
marrying at St. George the Martyr: Marriage record of St. George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey, England, Oct. 31, 1852.
Michael signed the marriage certificate: Alma Imhoff Lauritsen, “Michael Reagan Puts Down Roots in Illinois,” essay in Patricia Meade White, The Invincible Irish: Ronald Wilson Reagan: Irish Ancestry and Immigration to America (Santa Barbara: Pertola Press, 1981), p. 79.
“the Golden Doorway”: “Rise of Industrial America: Immigration in the United States 1851–1900,” U.S. Library of Congress report.
“For richness of soil”: Albert M. Lea, Notes on the Wisconsin Territory (Philadelphia: H. S. Tanner, 1836), pp. 13–14.
As the early settlers discovered: “There were no trees. It was all just prairie for as far as you could see.” Ed Kolk, interview with author, May 5, 2015.
You could
gaze off: “One of the early settlers built his ‘house’ eight or ten feet up a tree to escape the company of snakes.” Lauritsen, “Michael Reagan Puts Down Roots in Illinois,” p. 83.
And game was plentiful: Fay Freed Christian, “Early Carroll County,” posted on genealogytrails.com.
By the time the 1860 census: 1860 census of Fair Haven township, Carroll County, Illinois.
In nearby Savanna, the so-called: “Preston’s History,” ch. 10, cited in AE.
and sending them to school: Ron Reagan, My Father at 100 (New York: Viking, 2011), p. 35.
died from tuberculosis: Obituary of William Reagan, Fulton [IL] Journal News, Oct. 9, 1883.
Thomas, the eldest son: Obituary of Thomas Reagan, Fulton [IL] Journal News, July 5, 1889.
“millinery and fancy dry goods”: Fulton [IL] Journal News, Mar. 12, 1886.
“the party began skylarking”: “Reagan and others protested, all in vain.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, July 9, 1889.
“setting fire to a pile of velvet”: “She returned in a few minutes, and on opening the door was driven back by the smoke.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Oct. 10, 1890.
to avoid such a fate: Fulton [IL] Journal News, Mar. 20, 1885.
so that Jennie would be: Barbara Mask, interview with author, May 6, 2015.
Her symptoms took “an unfavorable”: “Mrs. John Reagan is very low with consumption and the disease has taken an unfavorable change.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Nov. 30, 1886.
Soon after Jennie passed: “At the time of Mrs. [Jennie] Reagan’s death, Anna was afflicted with whooping cough.” Obituary of Anna May Reagan, Fulton [IL] Journal News, Aug. 4, 1903.
By mid-1888, reports: “He has been failing in health for some time.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Dec. 28, 1888; “Johnny Reagan is very low and daily grows weaker.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Jan. 1, 1889.
“John Reagan, aged thirty-four”: Fulton [IL] Journal News, Jan. 11, 1889.
little Annie was placed: Fulton [IL] Journal News, Oct. 14, 1892.
Situated on a channel: “This area, one of the narrowest spots on the Mississippi, is called The Narrows.” Ed Kolk, interview with author, May 5, 2015.
“Those riverboat crews were tough”: Ibid.
In 1896, Orson G. Baldwin: “Mr. Baldwin was one of the best merchants in Fulton . . . a member of the city council and prominent in society and politics.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Mar. 16, 1901.
Bennett had no river: “We think saloons are coming in a little too thick.” Bennett Buzzings, 1898.
He soon made it clear: “Jack, a poor student, quit school at age twelve after completing the sixth grade.” AE, p. 27; “Baldwin . . . continued to employ Jack, whose formal education had ended at the elementary level.” Ron Reagan, My Father at 100, p. 39.
Since the end of the Civil War: Jules Tygiel, Past Time: Baseball as History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 6.
Jack found his footing: “The Bennett boys have organized a ball nine.” “J. Reagan” is mentioned as a member. Tipton [IA] Advertiser, Apr. 15, 1897, p. 8.
Jaunty and gangly: Verl L. Lekwa, Bennett, Iowa and Inland Township (Marceline, MO, privately printed, 1983), p. 96.
Jack’s job clerking at Baldwin’s: AE, p. 27.
the Baldwins decided to close: “Word comes from O. G. Baldwin in Bennett, Iowa, that he has sold out this department store there for spot cash.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Mar. 16, 1901.
He opened a lunch counter: “John Reagan is in business for himself in Bennett, Iowa. He is proprietor of a lunch counter.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Mar. 29, 1901.
taking a clerk’s job: “John Reagan is now a member of J. W. Broadhead’s clerical force having entered upon his duties today.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Apr. 19, 1901.
“quite well respected”: Nancy Kolk, interview with author, May 5, 2015.
“tall, swarthy, muscular, and handsome”: Gordon P. Gardiner, “Nelle Reagan,” Bread of Life, May 1981, p. 3.
winding up in North Clyde: Charles Bent and Robert L. Wilson, History of Whiteside County, IL (Morrison, IL, 1877), p. 145.
Daniel, Alexander, and Charles: Their tragic adventure is narrated in Daniel Blue, “The Thrilling Narrative of the Adventures, Suffering and Starvation of Pike’s Peak Gold Seekers” (Whiteside County, IL, 1860, original typescript), p. 2.
“in the teachings of the Christ life”: Obituary of Jane Blue Wilson, Fulton [IL] Journal News, May 7, 1894.
“The Bible became”: “It was her chief book.” Ibid.
“with a flamboyant mustache”: Ron Reagan, My Father at 100, p. 37.
“How those people survived”: Ed Kolk, interview with author, May 5, 2015.
Dickson’s New Indexed Bible: The family Bible, passed from Jane Wilson to Nelle Reagan, appears on the cover of Bread of Life, May 1981, battered and held together by tape.
“deep-seated yearning”: Obituary of Jane Blue Wilson.
found Thomas living in La Crosse: “Nearly twenty-five years ago he left here and went to Lacrosse [sic].” “The Death of Thomas Wilson,” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Dec. 14, 1909.
“A lot of capable people”: Ed Kolk, interview with author, May 5, 2015.
And roughnecks passing through: “They’d fight and steal; there was so much thievery.” Nancy Kolk, interview with author, May 5, 2015.
“she was a natural”: WTROM, p. 9.
Mississippi Valley Stove Company: The announcement of Nelle’s reappointment appears in Fulton [IL] Journal News, Apr. 5, 1901, when she was eighteen; the announcement of her original appointment at sixteen has been lost.
Thomas and Mary’s marriage: “Something went very wrong in the Wilson marriage.” Ron Reagan, My Father at 100, p. 37.
Mary, “toothless and wizened”: Ibid.
“known for his copious blarney”: Edmund Morris, Dutch (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 17.
“an attack of lung fever”: Fulton [IL] Journal News, Apr. 2, 1901; Fulton [IL] Journal News, Apr. 9, 1901.
Annie Reagan, who had been sickly: Obituary of Annie Reagan, Fulton [IL] Journal News, Aug. 4, 1903.
“disapproved of Jack Reagan”: AE, p. 38.
it was Nelle’s uncle: “My grandfather, Alex, Nelle’s uncle, gave the bride in marriage to John Reagan.” Anne Edwards, written questionnaire of Dwight Wilson, Mar. 25, 1986.
Immaculate Conception, the Catholic facility: “John Reagan and Miss Nelle Wilson, both of Fulton, will be married this evening at 7:30 in the Catholic Parsonage in this city.” Fulton [IL] Journal News, Nov. 8, 1904.
In Fulton, it was rare: “In fact, even in the 1950s, you didn’t intermarry between the two.” Nancy Kolk, interview with author, May 5, 2015.
“a mixed marriage”: “You weren’t good enough to be married in the church if you didn’t marry another Catholic.” Ibid.
“He was a restless man”: WTROM, p. 9.
TWO: A LITTLE BIT OF A DUTCHMAN
The stores were limited: William W. Davis, History of Whiteside County, Illinois: From Its Earliest Settlement to 1908 (Chicago: Pioneer Publishing, 1908), p. 202.
empty since the local: Betsy Burkhard, “Tampico: Birthplace of a President,” DET, Feb. 4, 1984.
“a treacherous-looking stairway”: Ibid.
Jack started work at a salary: Myron S. Waldman, “Ronald Reagan’s America,” Newsday, Jan. 18, 1981.
“an extremely popular man”: Morris, Dutch, p. 14.
“Everybody liked Jack”: Joan Johnson, interview with author, Oct. 10, 2013.
were earnest drinkers: “The O’Regans of Ballyporeen had been famous for their liquor consumption.” Morris, Dutch, p. 17.
“the whole family drank”: Nancy Kolk, interview with author, May 5, 2015.
“a two-fisted drinker”: “He was fast gaining a reputation as
a two-fisted drinker when he married . . . Jennie Cusick in 1878.” Jerry Oppenheimer and Ken Potter, “Ronald Reagan’s Roots,” National Enquirer, Aug. 5, 1980.
There is strong evidence: “There has been much said about Jack’s drinking, but Elsey can’t remember a time when Uncle Jack was drunk.” Karen Putman, “Reagan Remembered by Cousin,” Coleta [IL] Daily Gazette, undated, p. 1.
But Jack Reagan was: Nelle “never understood Jack’s weekend benders.” Paul Nicely, “Remembering Reagan,” Tampico [IL] Tornado, Feb. 4, 1981.
In April 1907: Tampico [IL] Tornado, April 19, 1907; Tampico [IL] Tornado, April 26, 1907.
In Jack’s case: “He then had to drink secretly, or go to Chicago on ‘buying trips’ as often as possible.” Morris, Dutch, p. 17.
she could smell it: Ibid.
she encouraged the move: “Nelle persuaded Jack to leave Fulton and William’s influence.” AE, p. 32.
“the Lunt-Fontanne”: “Jack, a ham, more in the raconteur mode, supported his wife’s acting.” Ron Reagan, My Father at 100 (New York: Viking, 2011), p. 57.
He opposed dancing: “Three-fourths of all the fallen women fell as a result of the dance.” William G. McLoughlin, Billy Sunday Was His Real Name (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955), p. 132.