Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois on February 6, 1911.  He was the son of Irish immigrants who had settled in the Midwest, eventually moving to Dixon, Illinois.

There he attended Dixon High School, where he first became interested in acting.  Later at Eureka College, he majored in economics and sociology.  He excelled in a number of extra-curricular activities, serving as student body president.  He was a member of the football team and was captain of the swim team.  He was also very involved in the school's theatre program.

After graduation, Reagan got into radio.  He joined WHO in Des Moines where he served as an announcer for the Chicago Cubs.  While on the road with the team in California, Reagan took a screen test in Hollywood that led to a seven-year contract.  He was King of the "B Unit," of which he said "producers didn't want them good, they wanted them Thursday."  One of these movies was 1939's Code of the Secret Service, a film so bad that Reagan said he never even saw it.  Here he is discussing that film with talk show host Dick Cavett.

After appearing in 19 of these films, Reagan jumped to the A list in 1940, when he was cast as George Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American.  The film earned him the nickname "The Gipper," which would follow him throughout his life.  Gipp delivered a motivational speech towards the end of the film, one that is often quoted (and parodied) to this day.  Check it out here.  Two years later, he appeared in the film King's Row, which made him a star overnight.  Not only was it his favorite film to work on, but most critics consider it his finest work.

Throughout college and later as an actor, Reagan was a solid democrat, and held Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of his personal heroes.  Later in his political career, he joined several committees that echoed this philosophy and often fought against Republican-sponsored legislation.  His shift to the right began in the early 1950s when he endorsed both Dwight D. Eisenhower and later Richard Nixon in their bids for the White House. 

In 1954, Reagan was working for General Electric as host of their weekly television series.  The company also employed him as a motivational speaker, sending him cross country to speak with more than 2,000 GE employees.  He wrote his own speeches, which while non-partisan, carried a pro-business message.  This, coupled with his upbringing in a Christian household, invigorated his sense of public service.  He found himself craving a much larger stage.  His mind made up, he resigned from GE and formally registered as a republican.  As he'd state many times over, "I didn't leave the Democratic party.  The party left me."



Future Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan
with Barry Goldwater, 1964.

Reagan first gained national political attention in 1964, when he campaigned and spoke for the republican nominee for President, Barry Goldwater.  He delivered the now-famous speech "A Time for Choosing."  Although it wouldn't be enough to ensure Goldwater's presidency, it did lay the groundwork for Reagan's.  You can view that speech in its entirety here.

The following year, Reagan made his first bid for Governor of California.  His campaign had two main themes, neither of which I'm making up.  First, he vowed to "send the welfare bums back to work."  Then, in reference to anti-war protests taking place on campus, Reagan vowed to "clean up the mess at Berkeley."  He defeated the incumbent governor, democrat Pat Brown and served two terms, then set his sites higher.

He first ran for President in 1976.  The Republican primaries went down to the wire, but ultimately, Reagan lost to the incumbent, Gerald Ford.  Ford of course, subsequently lost to Jimmy Carter.  But with a multitude of domestic and international concerns, including American hostages in Iran and the skyrocketing price of oil, 1980 would be different.  In his second bid for the White House, Reagan won his party's nomination, then defeated the one-term President from Georgia.

April 28, 1981.

Two months into his first term, the President survived an assassination attempt outside a hotel in Washington, DC.  Taken to a hospital following the attack, he famously told doctors "I hope you all are republicans."  He returned to his duties just one month later, giving a rousing speech on the House floor.

The highlights of Reagan's first term include the air traffic controller's strike, the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, and the escalation of the Cold War.  He also appointed the first woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor.  These epsiodes, as well as his introduction of "Reaganomics," ensured him a second term.

He took on a number of social issues, including an intense war on drugs (Just Say No), civil rights and immigration.  Of the latter, he signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986, which made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants.  It also required employers to attest to their workers' immigration status.  Conversely, it granted amnesty to three million illegal immigrants who had been in the country since 1982.

His second term would also see its share of controversies however, including his response to the growing AIDS epidemic as well as the Iran-Contra Affair.

Farewell address, January 11, 1989.

When he left office in January 1989, he delivered what many believe to be his speech ever.  Of his eight years in office, he said "they called it the Reagan revolution.  Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense." You can watch that speech in its entirety here.

He'd stay active over the next few years, even appearing on stage at the 1992 Republican Presidential convention.  But within just a few years he'd be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and would lead a more secluded life.  His last public appearance was at the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994.

President Ronald Reagan died at his home on June 5, 2004.  He was interred at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.  In 2016, wife Nancy would join him.

Inscription: I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will
eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.

 

 

 Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Ronald Reagan was just two weeks shy of his 70th birthday at his first Presidential inauguration.  He was the oldest person ever sworn in as President, a record that would last until January 20, 2017, when Donald Trump, approaching 71 years was old, was inaugurated.
  
  
• John Hinkley, Jr. who attempted to assassinate Reagan in 1981, did so in a desperate measure to impress actress Jodie Foster (!). He was confined to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington after being found insane.  However, in 2016 he was released to his mother's care in Williamsburg, Virginia, despite public outcry.  A quick side note.  The television series The Greatest American Hero, which had been in production for several months preceding Hinkley's attack, was forced to retcon the name of its main character, Ralph Hinkley, for concerns of association.
  
  
• In 1937, Reagan joined the Army Enlisted Reserve and was commissioned as a second Lieutenant.  Due to his poor eyesight, he was barred from overseas service, instead serving in public relations.  He left the Army a full Captain in 1945.
  
  
• Reagan was elected President of the Screen Actor's Guild six times throughout the 1940s and 50s.  During his tenure, he ensured that television actors would earn residual salaries for repeats and that film actors would be paid when their movies were shown on television.  The Hollywood Blacklist Era also came during Reagan's tenure, and he was frequently called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.  Feeling used by the government, he asked during one FBI interview "do they expect us to constitute as a little FBI of our own and determine just who is a commie and who isn't?"
  
  
• Reagan was the first President to have guests in attendance at the State of the Union Address.  In 1982, he invited 28-year-old Lenny Skutnik of Washington, DC to attend, just two weeks after Skutnik dove into the icy waters of the Potomac River to rescue a survivor of the Air Florida crash.  Since then, all presidential guests seated in the gallery are referred to as "Lenny Skutniks."
  
  
• In 1993, Reagan was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that the United States can bestow.  He received it from his successor George H.W. Bush during the final days of his presidency.
  
  
• In 2001, the Navy christened the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered supercarrier that is still in service to this day.  Although many carriers had been posthumously named after former presidents, this was the first to be named after one who was still alive at the time.

• Reagan was quite fond of the 1985 movie Back to the Future, as he was used as a punchline in the film.  He liked it so much that one year later, he worked the final line of dialogue into his 1986 State of the Union address, telling America that "where we're going, we don't need roads."
  
  
• On what would have been his 100th birthday in 2011, two collections of Reagan's works were published as autobiographies.  Pick them up at Amazon.
    * An American Life
    * The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom
  
  
• As Governor, Reagan appeared on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast as its Man of the Hour.  He wanted to appeal to the every man as he started his first bid for the White House.  Here's a clip of comedian Don Rickles, uh, paying tribute to the Gipper.
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