Ronald Reagan

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Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician who served as the country's 40th president from 1981 to 1989, becoming the most influential voice of modern conservatism.

He was a Hollywood actor and union king before serving as California's 33rd governor from 1967 to 1975. Reagan was born in a modest family in small towns of northern Illinois.

In 1932, he graduated from Eureka College and spent time as a sports commentator on several regional radio stations.

He landed in California in 1937 and appeared in a handful of major productions.

Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild, the actor's labour union, where he sought to banish Communist rule.

He went into television and was a motivational speaker at GM Electric factories in the 1950s, when he became a conservative.

Early life

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in a Tampico, Illinois, apartment on the second floor of a commercial building on February 6, 1911. He was the younger brother of Nelle Clyde (née Wilson) and Jack Reagan. Jack was a salesman and storyteller whose grandparents were Irish Catholic immigrants from County Tipperary, Ireland, although Nelle was of English and Scottish descent. Neil Reagan, Ronald Reagan's older brother, became an advertising executive.

Due to his "fat little Dutchman" appearance and Dutch-boy haircut, Reagan's father referred to him as "Dutch"; the term stuck with him throughout his youth. Reagan's family lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg, and Chicago. They returned to Tampico in 1919 and lived above the H. C. Pitney Variety Store before settling in Dixon, Illinois. Reagan lived in the upstairs White House private quarters after his as president, and he'd quip that he was "living above the store" again.

Reagan's opposition to racial discrimination was unusual for the time, long before the civil rights movement. He recalled the time when his college football team was staying at a local hotel that would not allow two black teammates to remain there, and he welcomed them to their parents' house in Dixon, 15 miles (24 kilometers). His mother pleaded for them to stay overnight and have breakfast the next morning. Reagan's father was strongly opposed to the Ku Klux Klan due to his Catholic roots, but also because of the Klan's anti-semitism and anti-black racism. Following World War II, Reagan, who became a well-known actor, gave speeches in favour of racial equality. Later, as a politician, Reagan was often accused of appealing to white resentment and backlash against the civil-rights movement; one example was during his first run for Governor of California; one of the promises was to repeal laws prohibiting housing discrimination. Reagan denied being racist while defending his position by saying, "If an individual wishes to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, he has the right to do so." "The right to dispose of and control one's own property is a fundamental human right," he said.

Ronald Reagan said that his mother "always wanted to find the best in people," and often did." She attended the Disciples of Christ Church regularly and was very influential within the faith; she also led Sunday school services and gave the Bible readings to the congregation during the services. When the pastor was out of town, a firm believer in the power of prayer, she facilitated prayer meetings at church and was in charge of mid-week prayers. She was also an endorser of the Social Gospel Movement. Ronald's mother, not a Roman Catholic like his Irish father, was prompted by his strong dedication to the church, rather than a Roman Catholic like his Irish father. "I know she planted this faith in me," he said. Reagan identified himself as a born-again Christian. Reagan was greatly influenced by his pastor Ben Hill Cleaver, whom he described as "a marvel man" in Dixon. Cleaver was the father of Reagan's fiancée. Reagan regarded him as a second father.

Stephen Vaughn says:

Reagan had a particular belief in people, according to Paul Kengor; his faith resulted from his mother's hopeful faith and the Disciples of Christ faith, which led to his baptism in 1922.

Reagan became a member of the Hollywood-Beverly Christian Church and attended its services infrequently during his time at Hollywood. Reagan began attending Sunday services at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where he became familiar with Donn Moomaw. When serving as president, Reagan slowed his church attendance, citing the inconvenience that his vast Secret Service entourage would bring to other churchgoers and the possibility of injury (to others) as a result of possible terrorism. Reagan officially joined Bel Air as a member after leaving office and regularly attended services there.

Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed an interest in acting, sports, and storytelling. In 1927, he began his career as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park. Reagan made 77 rescues in the space of six years. He attended Eureka College in 1928. He was an indifferent student who majored in economics and sociology, and graduated with a C-average. He earned a reputation as a "jack of all trades" who excelled in campus politics, athletics, and theater. He was a member of the football team and of the swim team. He was elected president of the college body and was active in student protests against the college president.

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Entertainment career

Reagan took jobs in Iowa as a radio announcer at several stations after graduating from Eureka in 1932. He remained in Des Moines as an announcer for the Chicago Cubs baseball games. His speciality was creating play-by-play accounts of games that were limited to basic information that the station received by wire as the games were still in progress.

Reagan conducted a screen test while traveling with the Cubs in California in 1937, resulting in a seven-year deal with Warner Bros. He spent the first two years of his Hollywood career in the "B film" unit, where Reagan joked that the producers "didn't want them to be fine; they wanted them to be on Thursday."

He received his first screen credit in 1937 with the film Love Is on the Air, and by the time of 1939, he had appeared in 19 films, including Dark Victory with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. He appeared in the film Santa Fe Trail with Errol Flynn in 1940; from it, he adopted the term "gopher." Exhibitors named him the fifth most popular celebrity of the younger generation in Hollywood in 1941.

In 1942's Kings Row, Reagan played his favorite acting part, where he plays a double amputee who recites the phrase, "Where's the rest of me?" "The name of his 1965 autobiography was changed to "later." Many film critics regarded Kings Row as his best film, though critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film "outdated."

Warner boosted his paycheck to $3,000 a week immediately after making Reagan a star on Kings Row; Warner immediately tripled his pay to $3,000 a week. He was given above-the-title billing shortly afterward by Flynn, who was still a major celebrity at the time in Desperate Journey (1942). Despite playing lead roles in numerous films, Reagan was ordered to military active service in San Francisco in April 1942 and never fully became a first-ranking film actor. In the 1964 remake The Killers (his last film) with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson, he co-starred in films including The Voice of the Turtle, John Loves Mary, The Hasty Heart, Bedtime for Bonzo, Cattle Queen of Montana, Tennessee's Prince, and Bonzo's Prince, John McCain, Bonzo, Cattle Queen of Montana, Tennessee's Prince, and Bonzo's Tanty Heart, Bonzo's Love, and his last film in the actor Reagan's mother received a large amount of fan mail throughout his film career.

Reagan enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve and was appointed a second lieutenant in the Officers' Reserve Corps of the Cavalry on May 25, 1937, after completing 14 home-study Army Extension Courses.

Reagan was ordered to active service for the first time on April 18, 1942. Reagan's poor vision—he was severely impaired in sight—was restricted to limited service only, which barred him from serving abroad. As a liaison officer of the Port and Transportation Office, his first position was at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation in Fort Mason, California. On the acceptance of the US Army Air Forces (AAF), he applied for a transfer from the cavalry to the AAF on May 15, 1942, and later to the 18th AAF Base Unit in Culver City, California, and then to the Motion Picture Unit. He was appointed to first lieutenant and sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This Is the Army at Burbank, California, on January 14, 1943. After doing this service, he was promoted to captain on July 22, 1943.

Reagan was sentenced to temporary service in New York City in January 1944 for the unveiling of the Sixth War Loan Drive, which advocated for the purchase of war bonds. He was reassigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit on November 14, 1944, where he served until the end of World War II. His teams had produced 400 training films for the Air Force by the time of the war, including cockpit simulations for B-29 crews scheduled to bomb Japan. On December 9, 1945, he was dismissed from active service as an Army captain. Reagan bought a film reel depicting the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, but he kept it, hoping that concerns about the Holocaust would not have arisen someday.

In 1941, Reagan was first elected to the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), serving as an alternate member. He returned to active service and became the third vice president in 1946 after World War II. Reagan was elected president in a special election in April 1947, after the SAG president and six board members resigned in March 1947 due to the union's new bylaws on conflict of interest. In 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, and 1959, he was re-elected six times. He led the SAG through the 1957 Taft–Hartley Act, several labor-management conflicts, and the Hollywood blacklist. The blacklist, which was first established in 1947 by Studio executives who stated that they did not want to be or to have been Communists or sympathetic with radical politics, grew steadily throughout the early 1950s as the US Congress continued to look into domestic political subversion.

Reagan was instrumental in securing residuals for television actors during his tenure, as well as motion picture actors when their studio films premiered on television.

Reagan served on the national board of directors for the Arts, Sciences and Professions (ICCASP) in 1946 and was a member of its Hollywood chapter (HICCASP). His attendance at a HICCASP meeting on July 10, 1946, brought him to the FBI's attention, which questioned him on April 10, 1947, in connection with its probe into HICCASP. It was revealed that late 1940s, Reagan (under the code name T-10) and his then-wife, Jane Wyman, gave the FBI with the names of actors within the motion picture business who seemed to be communist sympathizers. "Do they (i.e.)? Probably, he was dissatisfied with the way the SAG was being used by the government, asking during one FBI interview, "do they (i.e.)" (The House Un-American Activities Committee) recommends that we establish ourselves as a little FBI on our own to find who is a Commie and who isn't?"

Reagan testified as president of the Screen Actors Guild in October 1947 at HUAC's Hollywood hearings:

Reagan testified at a "jurisdictional attack" that had been going on for seven months at the time:

Reagan opposed measures in the Mundt-Nixon Bill in May 1948, according to a spokesman:

"Ir, as the other gentlemen, I must say that that is hearsay," Reagan said when asked whether he was aware of Communist attempts within the Screen Writers Guild.

In the late 1950s, Reagan had little film roles and then shifted to television. He was hired as the host of GM's newest weekly drama, which became extremely popular. His work required him to visit GE (GE) plants 16 weeks out of the year, which often demanded that he attend 14 talks per day. In this role, he made more than $1.1 million (equivalent to $1.1 million in 2021) per year. Reagan's national fame soared during the show's ten seasons from 1953 to 1962. Reagan, the host and announcer for ABC's coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 1959. Reagan appeared on the television show Death Valley Days from 1964 to 1965, as a professional actor. Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who continued to use the stage name Nancy Davis, appeared together in three television series episodes, including one in 1958 that read "A Turkey for the President."

Early political career

Reagan began as a Hollywood Democrat, and Franklin D. Roosevelt was "a true hero" to him. In the 1960s, he went to the right-wing, became a Republican in 1962, and emerged as a leading conservative spokesperson.

He served on a variety of political committees with a left-wing bent, including the American Veterans Committee in his early political career. He fought against Republican-sponsored right-to-work legislation and helped Helen Gahagan Douglas, who was defeated for the Senate by Richard Nixon in 1950. In those organisations that led him to mobilize his followers against them, it was his belief that Communists wielded such clout.

Reagan often spoke with a strong ideological bent at rallies. He was prevented from leading an anti-nuclear demonstration in Hollywood in December 1945 by pressure from the Warner Bros. studio. When he specifically stated his opposition to mutually assured destruction, he would make nuclear weapons a key point of his presidency. Reagan also continued to restrict the dissemination of nuclear weapons. Reagan endorsed Harry S. Truman in the 1948 presidential election and appeared on stage with him in Los Angeles during a campaign address. His friendship with actress Nancy Davis soared in the early 1950s, and he shifted to the right as he endorsed the presidential candidacies of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1952 and 1956) and Richard Nixon (1960).

Reagan was recruited by General Electric (GE) in 1954 to direct the GE Theater, a weekly TV drama series. He has also traveled around the country to give motivational speeches to over 200,000 GE workers. His many speeches, many of which he wrote himself, were non-partisan but carried a conservative, pro-business message; Lemuel Boulware, a senior GE executive, inspired him. Boulware, who is best known for his sarcastic defense of unions and his ingenious tactics to gain over workers, is one of the fundamentals of modern American conservatism: free markets, anticommunism, lower taxes, and limited government. Eager for a larger stage, but not allowed to enter politics by GE, Reagan resigned, and officially registered as a Republican. "I didn't leave the Democratic Party," he said often. "I was left with the company."

He created a recording for the American Medical Association (AMA), alerting that such legislation would bring an end to liberty in America. If his listeners did not write letters to prevent it, Reagan said, "we would awakened to find that we have socialism." And if you don't do this, and if I don't do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our retirement years reminding our children and our children's children what it was like in America when men were free. Among the other Democratic programs he opposed in the 1960s were the Food Stamp Program, increasing the minimum wage, and the establishment of the Peace Corps. He has also joined the National Rifle Association (NRA) and will become a lifetime member.

In 1964, Reagan's speeches for conservative presidential candidate Barry Goldwater attracted national notice. Reagan emphasized the importance of smaller government when speaking to Goldwater. He consolidated the themes that he had discussed in his talks for GE to deliver his ostensible address, "A Time for Choosing": he recalled events from his earlier addresses.

This "A Time for Choosing" address was not enough to turn around the faltering Goldwater campaign, but it was still the pivotal event that established Reagan's national recognition. "The most popular national political debut since William Jennings Bryan energized the 1896 Democratic convention with his Cross of Gold address," Washington Broder said.

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