Posted on 02/06/2015 7:47:17 AM PST by PROCON
It’s the 104th birthday of Ronald Reagan, and since he was one of the most widely recognized world leaders, it’s not hard to find some interesting facts about the 40th president.
Reagan had a long career as an actor and union leader before he became the governor of California in the 1960s and won the presidential election in 1980.
Here are 10 facts about President Reagan you may not know.
1. Reagan really did enjoy jelly beans. According to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, his favorite flavor was licorice. Reagan started eating jelly beans in 1967 as he was trying to quit a pipe-smoking habit. He switched to Jelly Bellies a decade later.
2. One food that Reagan didn’t like was brussels sprouts. This is according to the Reagan Library website. In her autobiography, Nancy Reagan said her husband wasn’t a fussy eater since he traveled on the public speaking circuit for decades, but he also didn’t like tomatoes.
3. Reagan’s nickname of “Dutch” was given to him at an early age by his family. Reagan’s ancestry is Irish on his father’s side and Scots-English on his mother’s side.
4. The future president’s last movie role was in the 1964 release, The Killers. Based on an Ernest Hemingway story, it was Reagan’s only role as a villain in a film, and it was the first made-for-TV movie. However, The Killers was considered too violent for TV, and released to movie theaters instead.
5. The future president lost partial hearing in one ear when he was hurt on a movie set in the late 1930s, after a gun was fired next to his ear. Decades later, President Reagan wrote to Michael Jackson offering his support after Jackson was burned filming a TV commercial.
6. Ronald Reagan started out in life as a Democrat and supported the New Deal efforts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Reagan officially became a Republican in 1962, but he had grown more conservative during the 1950s as he toured as a General Electric spokesman.
7. Reagan was not the original choice to star in “Casablanca,” instead of Humphrey Bogart. The urban legend over the issue is documented on snopes.com, and it started with a paragraph in a Warner Brothers’ press release issued before the movie was made. Bogart was always expected to play the lead role.
8. In 1950, Reagan campaigned for Helen Gahagan Douglas in her bitter Senate race against Richard Nixon. A decade later, Reagan campaigned widely for Nixon in the 1960 presidential election against John F. Kennedy.
9. Ronald Reagan is the only U.S. president to get a divorce. He had married actress Jane Wyman in the 1940s and the couple was divorced in 1948. He married actress Nancy Davis in 1952.
10. Young Ronald Reagan was successful as an actor and football player at Eureka College. But his most important role was a lifeguard at a local park in Illinois. The future president saved an estimated 77 lives in his summers as a lifeguard.
Happy Birthday to the greatest President in my lifetime.
The Iranian hostage crisis resolution during the swearing in was dramatic enough in itself
I was in college then, & didn't fully appreciate his presidency until late in the first term.....Bush Sr was always a head scratcher - but I guess it was to shore up the centrist vote.
My all time favorite President
Happy Birthday of Ronald Reagan!
Lincoln has to settle for 4th place because Reagan won the Cold War against a far more formidable and dangerous foe with far less bloodshed.
The Best, and sadly, the LAST POTUS.
Don’t forget to wish Mrs. Vigilanteman a Happy Birthday as well. This marks the start of her sixth decade on earth and I’m STILL younger.
Happy Birthday, Mr. President. Your class and leadership had a lot to do with my departure from the Democratic party after that disaster of a Carter presidency. I got to see what a real President was like. It’s just too bad that your Republican successors have never come close to your leadership.
What the hell happened?
Thanks Mikey!
The 80’s were the best years of my life.
A big part of that was having Ronald Reagan as my President.
Woo-Hoo, Happy B-Day to your honey as well; what an honor to share the same day.
I love going on to youtube and watching “election night 1980” and “election night 1984”
1984 was called before dinner time was over
Happy birthday, Mr. President.
You looked out for and loved America.
I used to buy Jelly Bellies when Reagan was in office. I got them because he had them in the Oval Office ... :-) ...
And I liked the licorice ones, too! I’m going to get some Jelly Bellies today, to celebrate his birthday!
Youre welcome
the Photo Posted...in the thread...before i made my post is Marvelous!!
Yep. I loved Sam Kinison's bit about Mondale driving home that night. I think it was in Sam's second appearance on the Letterman show.
Thank you. He really had a wonderfully wicked sense of humor.
A few of President Reagan’s quotes:
http://www.baxtercountyrepublicans.com/reagan.html
God bless Mrs. Reagan, he obviously loved her dearly. I imagine she misses him terribly.
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