Reagan Ronald - REAGAN: an american journey

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADAFEBRUARY 15, 1954

Ronald Reagan had lost his way.

Identical corridors splayed through the Hotel Last Frontier like spokes on a wheel, and none of them seemed to lead to the Ramona Room. One spoke led off to the Gay 90s Bar, where the Kirby Stone Four were setting up for their midnight-to-dawn gig. Another cut through the 21 Club Casino, whose rows of ravenous slot machines were clacking away like castanets. The hall to the left emptied into the Carillo Room, a tony watering hole for the after-show crowds, and past that to the Chuck Wagon, its wood-paneled pub. A fifth spoke descended to a subterranean passage known to hotel guests as the Marine Room, offering underwater glimpses into the deep end of the pool. The Ramona Room, for all Ronald Reagan knew, might have been located on Mars.

He stood at the hub, deciding which way to turn, like a piece on a game board. The wrong move would make him late for his own opening night.

The Last Frontier had pulled out all the stops for its Ronald Reagan showcase. The hotels nightclub was known for its top-flight entertainers, but rarely attracted Hollywood stars. Most actors steered clear of Las Vegas engagements, fearing its seamy aura would tarnish their fame. But Reagan, whose own aura of late had dimmed, had little choice.

He was forty-three and experiencing what he referred to as some rough sledding, a Hollywood euphemism for a career on the skids. His contract at Warner Bros., where hed been a studio stalwart since 1936, had ended in a whimper of lowly scripts and lower box-office receipts. Freed to work for any studio, he hadnt fared much better. He made, in his words, a couple of turkeysTropic Zone, an unimaginative action yarn, at Paramount, even though he knew the script was hopeless, followed by Law and Order at Universal, based on a stale, B-western formula. Since then, hed rejected every dismal script, setting off a six-month drought. It was the longest layoff of his professional career.

Throughout that career, Ronald Reagan had been a reliable if unspectacular movie star, with a body of solid roles to his credit. Pictures like Knute Rockne, All-American and Kings Row had elevated him from feature player to marquee prominence. His agent, Lew Wasserman, was a powerhouse, the capo di tutti capi, with the clout to keep Reagan gainfully employed. In 1947, Reagan had been elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, a position that bestowed prestige even as the parts failed to measure up. And his new wife, Nancy Davis, ten years his junior, attractive and smart, was what Hollywood called a comer. Together, they spent nights dancing at the Mocambo and Ciros or in their booth at Chasens, breaking bread with the Dick Powells or the Jack Bennys or the Bill HoldensHollywood royalty. On the surface, Ronald Reagan was similarly enthroned.

But in the film business, the surface was usually make-believe. Reagan was still handsome, still virile, still radiantly charming, but he was too old now to play the lead in a romance or action flick, he didnt sing or dance well enough to do musicals, and he wasnt the subtle kind of actor who might get parts in more nuanced fare. So at the moment, the Reagans were in a real crunch.

Money was tight. Having gone for a while without getting his standard $75,000-per-movie fee, Reagan had been dipping into savings to cover his myriad necessities. There was child support to his ex-wife, Jane Wyman, and a new, unexpected baby, Patti, his first with Nancy. He was paying off two homesa new hideaway in Pacific Palisades and a 350-acre ranch, Yearling Row, in the Malibu Hillsthat together required three mortgages. The ranch, in particular, was a financial black hole: $15,000 in new pumps to make the water potable, veterinary care for fifty steer that had contracted pink eye, unanticipated fees to ranch hands. And taxes. Taxes! They were enough to send Ronald Reagans blood pressure soaring. The federal government had him in a chokehold. He had made a serious tax miscalculation that plunged him into debt to Uncle Sam. During World War II, when Reagan served in an Army Air Force stateside unit, he took advantage of a servicemans right to defer taxes until after the war. Reagan had heard that servicemen after World War I had been forgiven their tax debts, and he gambled on a similar gift the second time around. Gambledand lost, bumping him into a predatory tax bracket that left him $18,000 in the hole. To make matters worse, in addition to his screen layoff, there had been a freak accidenta broken leg sustained in a charity softball gamethat sidelined him for another long stretch, as hospital fees in the five figures piled up.

Im living from guest shot to guest shot on television, and an occasional personal appearance, he complained to a friend who had recently thrown him a bone of a role: to narrate a public service film for North American Rockwell, the military manufacturing behemoth, that would pay him scale, around $240.

Money was so tight that he shopped a radio series based on the hijinks of a Hollywood couple, an Actor and Actress who go into ranching, but no one bit. Then came the biggest blow. Just before Christmas, Reagan accepted a part in a picture called