Mister Norm

Steyn On-line ^ | November 9, 2019 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

On this thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new statue of President Reagan has been unveiled across from the Brandenburg Gate, where in 1987 he challenged Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". As I discussed on the radio yesterday, all the smart people thought the line was idiotic. Yet two years later the wall was indeed torn down. With that in mind, I thought for our movie date this week we'd spend some time with Ronald Reagan on the silver screen.

If I recall correctly the Left's dismissal of Reagan back in the pre-wall-toppling Eighties, it's that he was a third-rate B-movie ham of no consequence and simultaneously such an accomplished actor he was able to fool the American people into believing he was a real president rather than a mere cue-card reader for the military-industrial complex. These would appear at first glance to be somewhat inconsistent characterizations, but they can be reconciled if you have as exquisitely condescending a view of the American people as, say, Gore Vidal.

Phrases like "bit player" and "B-movie" get bandied about a lot by the Reagan disparagers, especially in Europe. But they're both terms with precise definitions, and they don't apply to most of his quarter-century in motion pictures. He was a B-movie actor for a couple of years - and why not? He was a sports announcer at WHO radio in Des Moines who talked his way into a screen test at Warner Brothers, not some trained stage actor from Broadway trying his luck on the coast.

[dznutz]

I saw the title and thought the article was about this Mr. Norm.

[867V309]

it’s a dog-eat-dog world and I’m wearing milk bone underwear

[simpson96]

[Bullish]

How long until some sweet, tolerant leftists destroy it?

[Rummyfan]

There's something very appealing about Reagan in pictures - an average joe who's holding his own with Doris Day, Barbara Stanwyck and even Susan Hayward (Girls On Probation). And compared with the self-regarding solemnity of Barbra Streisand & Co, Reagan did a better job of bridging his two interests than most current celebrities. And so "Mr Norm" in the flickers became an extraordinary figure off-camera, bringing down the curtain on Communism: from Bedtime For Bonzo to bedtime for Bolsheviks. Can't beat that.