Rehearsals for a Lead Role (Ronald Reagan article)

Rehearsals for a Lead Role
Ronald Reagan Was a Liberal, an Actor, A Labor Chief -- but Some Unscripted Plot Twists Forged a New Character

By John Meroney Special to The Washington Post Sunday, February 4, 2001; Page G01

HOLLYWOOD -- All day, memories had been flooding back to him. Riding home from the airport across the west side of L.A., he was traveling the same streets he had driven years before. Back then he knew the town by heart, and used to drive it with the top down on his green Cadillac convertible.

As the car pulled into the residence of 668 St. Cloud Rd. in Bel Air, the city was beginning to slip into the afternoon dusk. Millions of tiny lights would soon fill the L.A. basin, a scene he always thought remarkable. And looking out across it on that January day when he became a private citizen 12 years ago, Ronald Reagan knew that had it not been for the events of his life in this place, he probably never would have been president.

This week, Ronald Reagan will join John Adams and Herbert Hoover as the only presidents to reach the age of 90. An entire generation knows him only as president or as the ailing statesman living in seclusion. Even though Reagan was a movie star who appeare in 53 motion pictures, and is unique among presidents in that so much from his early years is preserved on film for posterity, that critical part of his life has largely become forgotten history.

His movies rarely appear on television. (During the 1980 presidential campaign, Federal Communications Commission officials banned them from broadcast because they asserted it gave him an unfair advantage.) Dozens of books have been written about him, but the three decades he spent as a movie star and labor leader are given scant attention in most.

This is remarkable given that Reagan's life during the 1940s and '50s was often more dramatic than the parts he played. He lived in surroundings so compelling that they have formed the basis of many great films, such as "Chinatown" and "L.A. Confidential." Writers from Raymond Chandler to James Ellroy have for decades carved their stories from Reagan's era in Hollywood. The town was at the height of its glamour, and was steeped in national political intrigue. And Ronald Reagan not only witnessed this, but was a central figure to much of it.

This is an older article I've had in my bookmarks for some time. It really provides insight into the forces that molded Reagan into the President he became. It's a little lengthy, but I hope you'll give it a look.

This is the part I always liked:

A scene from 1946, once recounted by Reagan: The setting is the posh residence of a top star, a meeting of the HICCASP. Reagan is running late, and arrives to grab a seat next to MGM studio head Dore Schary.

"Lots of people here I didn't think I'd see," he says.

"Stick around," answers Schary.

FDR's son James stands to propose adopting a statement denouncing communism and the Soviet state. "I was amazed at the reaction," remembered Reagan. One musician stands to assert that the Soviet constitution is superior to the American one. A screenwriter says he'd volunteer for Russia if war between it and the United States ever broke out. "I decided that an Irishman couldn't stay out, and took the floor and endorsed what Roosevelt said." Pandemonium. Reagan recalled one woman having a heart attack.

The meeting breaks up. Schary tells Reagan, "We're meeting up at Olivia de Havilland's apartment."

Reagan goes over to find about a dozen HICCASP members celebrating how they'd just smoked out the Communists.

Reagan is looking at de Havilland, grinning.

"What's so funny?" she asks him.

"Nothing," he says, "except I thought you were one."

She looks at him, smiling, "I thought you were one. Until tonight, that is."

God bless you, President Reagan.

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