Movie Nights with the Reagans

by Mark Weinberg

  My mind raced. It was Jim who had brought me to the Reagan campaign. He was hired as a senior advisor (but not press secretary) to Reagan shortly after Connally withdrew from the race. A few months later, Jim recommended me to Reagan’s press secretary, Lyn Nofziger, who gave me a job as a press assistant on the campaign “tour.” Lyn assigned me to the traveling staff, and I had a permanent seat on the Reagan campaign plane. Jim and I got back together right after the election in the Washington office of the president-elect, where Brady was the chief spokesman. My main job was to write the press releases announcing President-elect Reagan’s Cabinet and senior White House staff selections. I would take a draft to Jim, he would make some edits, call the president-elect on the phone, read it to him for approval, and then it would be issued. More than once Jim looked at me and said, “Kid, getting things approved will never be this easy again.”

  Between Election and Inauguration Days, one of the most popular Washington parlor games, especially among those of us in the Press Office, was to guess who President-elect Reagan would choose to be his White House Press Secretary. Jim wanted the job and was well qualified. But the president-elect took his time in making up his mind. It was not that he did not want Jim; it was just that he had higher-profile jobs to fill first, such as Cabinet secretaries, and he wanted to make the best possible decision. Almost every day, there would be a rumor about another “leading candidate” for the position of White House press secretary, complete with reports from California about people the president-elect was supposedly interviewing for the job.

  At this early stage of the incoming Reagan administration, there were already false rumors popping up about Mrs. Reagan’s supposed dominating style. One of the most outrageous had to do with my boss, Jim Brady. There were rumblings that he did not “look the part” to Mrs. Reagan—that she wanted someone more youthful and handsome. Absolute garbage. Neither the president nor Mrs. Reagan ever judged people on the basis of their looks. (I would point out that Reagan’s longtime press secretary, Lyn Nofziger, was intentionally not a matinee idol—and proud of it. But he was a favorite of the Reagans who appreciated his loyalty and talents.) Nancy Reagan heard the silly rumor and was so amused by it that she once signed a picture to Jim calling him her “Y&H,” meaning youngest and handsomest. It was a sign of true affection because she knew that a lot of Reagan people fondly referred to her husband as the “O&W,” meaning oldest and wisest.

  When we arrived at the hospital, I accompanied Mrs. Brady to the emergency room entrance. Hospital staff took Sarah to her husband’s side.

  I waited in a hallway, still not knowing that the president had been shot. The initial news reports were that he’d escaped unharmed. Without warning, around a corner came an entourage of people surrounding a gurney on which the president was lying. Surrounding him were doctors, nurses, Secret Service agents, military personnel, policemen, and, of course, Mrs. Reagan, who looked panic stricken. They walked briskly toward the suite of operating rooms.

  I found out later that the president had insisted on walking into the hospital but then collapsed once he made it through the entrance. Upon examination in the emergency room, he was found to have been shot in the chest, suffering a collapsed lung, and was prepped immediately for surgery.

  I spent that night at the hospital going between where President Reagan was in recovery and where Jim was in recovery.

  In its own way, the shooting was another example, in this case a cruel one, of Hollywood playing an outsized role in Ronald Reagan’s life. The gunman, John Hinckley, was reportedly obsessed with the young actress Jodie Foster after watching the 1976 film Taxi Driver and, in his bizarre, damaged mind, thought an assassination attempt would get her attention and elevate his social status.III

  During the course of Jim’s long recovery, both of the Reagans agonized over what they could do to help the Bradys. They also were heartbroken over the fact that a Secret Service agent and a Washington, DC, policeman were injured in the attempt. The president felt guilty that Jim was injured because of a gunman shooting at him. The Reagans helped set up a trust fund so that the Brady home could be renovated to accommodate Jim’s use of a wheelchair. Jim’s injuries were severe, deeply impacting his mental abilities. But, the president refused suggestions over the years that followed to remove Jim as his press secretary due to his impairment. A doctor had told President Reagan that keeping Jim in the position was crucial to his recovery. He explained that Jim needed a goal to strive for, even if he would never resume the job, and urged the president not to replace him. Astonished, Reagan said, “Why, I was never planning to make a change there at all.” Despite Jim’s inability to resume his role leading the White House press office, he retained the title of Press Secretary to the President until the last day of the Reagan administration.

  Much has been written over the years about how the president was affected by the shooting. In his 2015 book Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency, the TV news personality Bill O’Reilly alleged that Reagan became mentally incapacitated after the assassination attempt—a slow descent that led him to watch soap operas all day, among other ridiculous claims—and that Mrs. Reagan became his minder, deciding “whom Reagan will and will not see.”IV Many Reagan historians have disputed this completely. I was there every day and can state without question that the president did not change much from the shooting at all. He remained energetic, of good humor, optimistic, engaged, and involved in policy making. He was out of the hospital in less than two weeks and back in the Oval Office within a month. And I never knew him to watch soap operas.

  It is true that Mrs. Reagan changed, but not as O’Reilly contends. She was much more concerned about her husband’s safety and worried whenever he was away from her. That’s why Camp David proved more and more of a sanctuary, especially in the summer months, when they could take walks, ride horses, and swim without fear. It made our movie nights even more of an escape for a woman who now lived practically every minute fearful on some level that another assailant was out there waiting for her husband.

  The feature film that topped off our weekend was the action-adventure movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, the highest-grossing film of 1981 and one of the most successful Hollywood productions ever. Raiders introduced viewers to the dashing archaeologist Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, fresh from his popular role as Han Solo in the Star Wars series. The brilliant yet crusty daredevil would go on to star in three sequels: Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade, and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was an overt return by Hollywood to the action-adventure series of the past.

  Raiders of the Lost Ark, set in 1936, was the most successful and popular of the four. In the film, Indiana Jones travels to the South American jungle to find a golden statue. Returning to America, Dr. Jones learns about the existence of an artifact called the Ark of the Covenant, which, according to legend, was the receptacle for the Ten Commandments. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, methodically building up Nazi Germany’s military in preparation to dominate Europe and ultimately the world, has dispatched agents to bring him the artifact. He believes that its supernatural powers will make Germany invincible. Jones, also traveling in search of the ark, runs into an old flame from his past, Marion Ravenwood, played by the actress Karen Allen, whose life is in jeopardy after she associates with the wrong people.

  I suspect what most impressed the Reagans about Raiders of the Lost Ark was that the film, with clear-cut heroes and villains, peppy theme song, and litany of engrossing seat-of-your-pants adventures, was as close to a golden oldie—as Reagan called the films from his era—as a movie in the 1980s could come, marking an overt return to action-adventure films such as High Noon.

  “My dad was generally discomfited by more modern films with their profanity, sexuality, gritty realism, and less than sunny political perspective,” his son Ron recalled. “He preferred the more predictable tropes of cinema from the thirties and forties, where heroes wore uncomplicated white hats and women
were ‘the gals.’ ”V

  The president believed that the films of yesteryear were far better than anything Hollywood made in the modern era. He would press this view on anyone he could find, particularly the service members posted at Camp David who would occasionally join us for an evening’s film.

  “He would say this as if revealing an important truth,” Ron told me, “seemingly unaware that young soldiers agreeing—or at least pretending to agree—with their commander in chief was a foregone conclusion.”VI

  Raiders of the Lost Ark undoubtedly kindled many memories in the president, and a wistful yearning or two. The movie was in effect a modern update of the classic Western, with a daring hero battling villains such as the Nazis. The president spoke passionately about the Nazis and the evil they brought to the world. He told us that for a long time, he kept a film of American soldiers liberating Nazi concentration camps so that he could show actual evidence to anyone who questioned the reality of the Holocaust.

  President Reagan also loved any movies with scenes of horseback riding, which was one of his favorite pastimes at Camp David. And he was outspoken in his love for those animals. Once, when we watched an action movie that featured scenes of horses falling during battle, Reagan stood up and offered a long monologue on how much was done behind the scenes to ensure the animals’ safety.

  Harrison Ford’s portrayal was drawing comparisons to one of Reagan’s most famous costars. One review called Ford “Hollywood’s slickest swashbuckling hero since Errol Flynn.”VII The New York Daily News, too, noted that Ford evoked Flynn at the height of his movie stardom. Others suggested that director Steven Spielberg modeled Indiana Jones on the legendary actor. Spielberg himself explained that he saw Ford’s character as “a remarkable combination” of Flynn and Humphrey Bogart.

  As it happened, Reagan had a vivid memory of Flynn, who was his costar in the 1940 Western Santa Fe Trail. Flynn played the future Confederate general Jeb Stuart; Reagan played George Custer. The film’s other big stars were Olivia de Havilland, as the love interest Kit Carson Holliday, and Raymond Massey, who portrayed the abolitionist John Brown. Reagan’s interactions with Flynn, one of the biggest stars of the day, taught him many lessons about humility and the fleetingness of fame. The handsome actor, whom Reagan once called “a beautiful piece of machinery,” was such an A-lister that just being associated with an Errol Flynn film boosted Reagan’s stature. “Suddenly there were people on the lot greeting me who hadn’t previously acknowledged my existence,” he recalled.VIII His association with Flynn also helped him put his own image in perspective. Reagan (and everyone else on the set) was acutely conscious of Flynn’s preening, which to the future president became a reminder to keep his own feet firmly on the ground.

  Reagan remembered Flynn, then thirty years old, with thick, dark hair and a thin mustache, as a “strange” and “needlessly insecure” person who was nonetheless very “aware” of his stardom.IX At one point, Flynn flew into a rage on the set when he hadn’t been called for a shoot for four straight days. Reagan surmised that Flynn believed this meant his role in the film wasn’t as big as he’d been told.X

  The president recounted a story about Flynn that he’d retold many times over the years. In one scene in Santa Fe Trail, Reagan was standing next to Flynn around a campfire. Flynn then walked over to the director, had a whispered conversation, and came back to the group. Within seconds, the director moved Reagan away from the star. It turned out that Flynn had wanted to ensure he was the tallest individual on film. He didn’t want Reagan, who was roughly the same height, in his camera shot.

  Reagan purposely moved dirt with his feet and built up a little mound, so that when the camera went to a wide shot, he stood taller than Errol Flynn. He wasn’t too sure that Flynn enjoyed what he did, Reagan recalled, but the other actors on the set sure did. The president had an impish side to his character on occasion, and he especially liked to deploy it against people who displayed a grandiose sense of themselves.

  The truth is, as Reagan would later admit, he had envied the type of role that Flynn and, later, Harrison Ford, made famous. He longed to play the same type of character in various movies. But, as he noted, he was usually typecast in “the light-drawing-room comedy-type pictures.”XI He had a running battle with Warner Bros. for years on that score.XII

  Ronald Reagan always preferred playing heroes. During his entire acting career, spanning dozens of roles, he recalled playing a bad guy only twice. The first time was in high school, where Reagan played the villain in George Bernard Shaw’s play Captain Applejack. The second, and much better known, instance was in the violent 1964 film The Killers, his last movie. Reagan played a gangster and in one scene even slapped around the actress Angie Dickinson. His character, a Mob boss, was named Jack Browning. John Cassavetes and Lee Marvin were also in the film, which was based on an Ernest Hemingway short story.

  This was the only villainous role in his professional film career, one reviewer noted, “and he plays it shockingly well.”XIII

  “I’m afraid they took advantage of an actor’s ego,” Reagan recalled about when he agreed to do the film. They told him, “But you’ve never played a villain before,” which made it seem like an interesting challenge. But Reagan knew it was not a role for him, and his audience did, too. “A lot of people kept waiting for me to turn out to be a good guy in the end and dispatch the villains in the last reel,” he reflected later, “because that’s the way they had always seen me before.”

  The lesson for the future president was simple: “Heroes are more fun.” He quoted a man named Eddie Foy, a well-known actor and vaudevillian, who once said, “Sing pretty, act pretty, pretty things they enjoy.”XIV These were lessons that informed Reagan’s views as “the Great Communicator.” As he remarked to us many times in the White House, people like to be uplifted, and they responded to leaders who appealed to their hopes and aspirations. As such, the president insisted on using language that was affirmational. America was “the shining city on a hill.” In one speech I wrote for him, I used the phrase “never forget,” and he changed it to “always remember.” Not wanting to hurt my feelings, he made a point of telling me that he liked the speech a lot but always wanted to be positive rather than negative.

  Indiana Jones, of course, was a hero, which was why the Reagans, like most of America, responded so positively to him. At first glance, Dr. Jones was cynical, distant, maybe even a little self-interested. But he could be counted on to defend the red, white, and blue, as well as the woman he loved. That was a role Reagan liked but did not get to play very often in Hollywood.

  On a handful of occasions, however, Reagan did get his wish. Perhaps the most interesting was his role as Jeff Williams in the 1951 film Hong Kong. The plot, described on the film website IMDb, sounds eerily like an Indiana Jones film: “The theft of a jeweled treasure is within an adventurer’s grasp; he is restrained by his love for a good woman.”

  Many years later, various commentators tried to equate the Indiana Jones films with the Reagan era. The film historian Douglas Brode noted that Ford played “a rugged individualist [who] could face off against evil empires and defeat them”—not unlike President Reagan himself. On the other side of the world, the Australian academic Katherine Biber argued that Indy “represented the political and cultural sentiments of the Reagan era.” I’m certain the president didn’t see it in those terms. I think he just found it a fun movie.

  The Indiana Jones films would, of course, cement Harrison Ford in the pantheon of top action stars. All of us who watched Raiders of the Lost Ark enjoyed a scene that became an iconic fan favorite, in which Indiana Jones is chased through a variety of obstacles, several of which almost cost him his life. After getting through that, he is confronted by an intimidating swordsman who proceeds to do a long, impressive routine with a scimitar and challenges Ford to a fight. Initially, Indiana Jones plans to battle him with his whip. Then, with a look of exhaustion, he calmly, and comically, pulls out his rev
olver and shoots the guy dead. The scene, apparently, was improvised. On set, Harrison Ford had suffered through dysentery and didn’t have the stamina for a long, drawn-out fight sequence, such as the one that had been planned, so he suggested this abrupt ending instead.XV

  As an actor, Reagan had used a gun before, but that was not the only time he used one. In fact, he owned a gun as a private citizen. Once, when he lived in Iowa, he’d used a .45-caliber pistol to foil a robbery at a boardinghouse. He was renting a room there and heard a commotion outside his second-story window. Reagan grabbed his gun and called out to the robber from the darkness, “Drop it! I’ve got a .45 up here and I’m going to blow your head off.”

  Even then, Reagan was a good actor and a great communicator. What the robber didn’t know was that the gun didn’t have any bullets.XVI

  4

  ON GOLDEN POND

  Starring:

  Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda

  Directed by:

  Mark Rydell

  Viewed by the Reagans:

  September 26, 1981

  The Film That Hit Close to Home

  An aging couple so devoted to each other that there often seemed to be little room for anyone else. A rebellious daughter with a notoriously difficult relationship with her father. This was the essence of the Academy Award–winning On Golden Pond. At the time, some people were saying the same about the Reagan family.