James G. Benze Jr. - Nancy Reagan: On the White House Stage

MODERN FIRST LADIES

Lewis L. Gould, Editor

TITLES IN THE SERIES

Lou Henry Hoover: Activist First Lady, Nancy Beck Young
Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier, Barbara A. Perry
Lady Bird Johnson: Our Environmental First Lady, Lewis L. Gould
Betty Ford: Candor and Courage in the White House, John Robert Greene

ON THE WHITE HOUSE STAGE
JAMES G. BENZE, JR.

The photographs in this book are courtesy of
Ronald Reagan Library.

2005 by the University Press of Kansas
All rights reserved
Published by the University Press of Kansas
(Lawrence, Kansas 66049), which was organized by
the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and
funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State
University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State
University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita
State University

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Benze, James G.
Nancy Reagan : on the White House stage / James G.
Benze, Jr.
p. cm. (Modern first ladies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7006-1404-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7006-2370-9 (ebook)
1. Reagan, Nancy, 19232. Presidents spouses
United States Biography. 3. Reagan, Nancy, 1923
Marriage. 4. ActressesUnited StatesPolitical
activityCase studies. 5. ActingPolitical aspects
United StatesCase studies.
I. Title. II. Series.
E878.R43B46 2005
973.927'092 DC 22 2005008586
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.

For my wife, Pam, and my son, Jay

EDITORS FOREWORD

Nancy Reagan was a controversial first lady before her husband assumed the presidency in January 1981, and she has remained so to the present time. From her hints that Jimmy Carter and his wife should move out of the White House early to her current advocacy of stem cell research, Mrs. Reagan has been an outspoken public figure and a target for criticism. During her tenure in Washington, she was labeled Queen Nancy for her opulent lifestyle and a Dragon Lady for exercising too much influence on her husband during the Iran-Contra scandal. The Just Say No antidrug program stirred ambivalent feelings about her commitment to dealing with this recurring social problem.

Most of the historical literature on Nancy Reagans time in Washington has been negative and polemical. During the 1980s polls of scholars rated her at the bottom among all presidential wives. Subsequent surveys have seen her move up from that poor evaluation, but she seems unlikely ever to ascend to the level of an Eleanor Roosevelt or a Lady Bird Johnson. Nevertheless, Mrs. Reagan deserves more than the heated rhetoric that has followed her even after she and President Reagan returned to California in 1989.

James G. Benzes study of Nancy Reagan in the White House is an important step toward our having a better understanding of where she fits in the continuum of presidential wives. Seeing Nancy Reagans life in the theater and films as a key to understanding how she approached her duties as first lady, Benze has constructed a careful and informed narrative of what Mrs. Reagan did and her impact on her husbands presidency. The result is a book notable for its balance and insights into what she meant to accomplish. Benze is critical where appropriate; he is not a partisan defender or attacker. His goal is to see where Nancy Reagan drew on the tradition of other first ladies and where she made new contributions to the institution. He succeeds in that task. After finishing Benzes narrative of Nancy Reagans eight years in the White House, the reader will understand her importance, the strong feelings she evoked, and the lasting legacy she has imparted to her successors. Nancy Reagan was and is a woman whose performance has stirred passionate defenders and acerbic critics. In Jim Benze, she has been the beneficiary of a sympathetic and astute biographer who provides historical context and perspective of a high order.

Lewis L. Gould

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are a number of people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. The employees of the Reagan Library were patient in explaining exactly what was and was not available at any particular moment and helped me acquire copies of relevant primary material. Lewis Gould, the series editor, read numerous chapter drafts and critiqued them in positive and careful ways. He was always willing to share his own expertise, and was extremely patient with the many obstacles that arose in the completion of the text. The same can be said of Fred M. Woodward of the University Press of Kansas. I thank them both for the opportunity they have afforded me.

I appreciate the support of Washington and Jefferson College in providing release time from my teaching schedule in order to finish the writing of the manuscript and financial support in obtaining materials for it. I am also extremely lucky to have my own personal editor in my wife, Pamela, who took the time from her busy schedule to help in the many revisions of the text. Final responsibility for the contents of this book is, of course, my own.

INTRODUCTION

This book grows out of several essays I have written on first ladies, the most notable being a bibliographic essay on Nancy Reagan published in Lewis L. Goulds American First Ladies (New York: Routledge, 2001). While this book draws upon these previous writings, it differs from them in several important ways.

The most obvious differences are length and focus: my earlier writings on Nancy Reagan were essays, part of larger works, and sought to place Nancy Reagan in the context of her predecessors; the present work is a book devoted entirely to Mrs. Reagan, and focuses on her influence on her husbands political career and in particular his presidency. While Ronald Reagan was in the White House, Mrs. Reagan had much to do not only with the presidents schedule, but also with his appointments and even specific policy issues. However, Mrs. Reagan had no grand political agenda of her own. Her involvement in policy stemmed from her desire to make her husbands presidency a success.

In these pages, I argue that Mrs. Reagans training as an actor affected the way in which she influenced her husbands presidency. Ronald Reagan has often been quoted as saying, How can a president not be an actor?The same can be said of the first lady. Yet up to now, Mrs. Reagans long experience with the theater and the movies have generally not been considered in examining her role as first lady.

Nancy Reagan had a long association with show business. Her mother, Edith Luckett, was a stage actress, and Nancy caught the acting bug from her. Edith once bought Nancy a Mary Pickford wig complete with long blonde curls. Nancy loved to march around the house wearing the wig, proclaiming that she would grow up to be an actress. From her earliest days, Nancy was indeed an actress, having to be virtually three different people depending on where she found herself. She would act one way when she was staying with her mothers sister in Bethesda, Maryland, another when she was with her father in New Jersey, and still another when she was away at school.