The Triumph of Nancy Reagan Karen Tumulty (motivational novels .TXT) 📖

recalled being with Nancy at a dinner at Chasen’s in Beverly Hills on February 1, 1990, when Sam Marx, who had been the story editor at MGM, described how Dore Schary turned down Monroe, in part because he had just signed Nancy Davis. “When he told that story to Nancy, you should have seen her face light up,” Morris said. Leonora Hornblow, widow of producer Arthur Hornblow Jr., had told Morris the same story four days earlier.

“walking into a dream world”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 74.

“Everything was a big step up when I signed with Metro, everything”: transcript from unaired interview footage, Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.

“I always recommended Nancy… popular girls on the lot”: Wanda McDaniel, “The Reagans: Their Honeymoon Begins,” Sacramento (CA) Bee, November 10, 1980, B4.

Nancy regularly spent Saturday mornings closeted with Thau in his office suite: Laurence Leamer, Make-Believe: The Story of Nancy & Ronald Reagan (New York: Harper & Row, 1983), 63.

Nancy’s screen test had been his idea: ibid.

“When I came out to Los Angeles… I liked him as a friend”: Colacello, Ronnie & Nancy, 227.

“I don’t know. I was not his,” she insisted… “And that was it”: ibid., 248.

“ ‘Wait until a year from now’… a new personality’ ”: Wallace, “M-G-M Mum on Television, Signs Video Star Anyhow.”

“Nancy Davis has the unique distinction… all but one of her movies”: This clipping is pasted in Nancy Reagan’s scrapbook, with a notation in her handwriting of the date. It does not include the publication.

“are best forgotten”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 76.

“She did something… listened to the other actor”: Edmund Morris research materials, provided to the author. His notes indicate that this quote came from an interview that Morris conducted with Ronald Reagan on December 21, 1987.

“her gift… sonority of the other speakers”: Edmund Morris, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (New York: Random House, 1999), 294.

“That picture ended movies for me”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 290.

“I’m not so naive… either on or off the screen”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 76.

“Not yet… that’s pretty much the truth”: Louella O. Parsons, “In Hollywood with Louella O. Parsons,” September 24, 1950. Clipping is from Nancy Reagan’s scrapbook, and the name of the publication is not attached.

CHAPTER FOUR

“You know… lost my soul”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 103.

“I had seen… wanted to meet”: ibid., 78–79.

“a small, slender young lady… made you look back”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 235.

“I don’t know… something close to it”: Nancy Reagan with Libby, Nancy, 111.

“Even I could see she was dazzled by Mr. Reagan”: Jill Schary Robinson to author, email, November 30, 2018.

Ronnie’s name was at the top: Kelley, Nancy Reagan, 77–78.

“Subtlety has never… powers of belief”: Morris, Dutch, 280.

“For the first month… nightclub in Los Angeles”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 8.

$750 a month in nightclubs: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 233.

“at least sixteen”… who she was: Morris, Dutch, 281–82.

“This story, I know… something very important”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 236–37.

“a small universe… rest of my life”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life—The Autobiography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), loc. 264 of 12608, Kindle.

“Well, if you have a book, you always have a friend”: Edwin Meese III, interview by author, Washington, DC, October 5, 2016.

“What Ronald Reagan… gentler to the eyes”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 13.

“unexpected vacations”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, loc. 240 of 12608, Kindle.

“But someplace along the line… will always remember”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 7–8.

“a little tornado of goodness”: Peggy Noonan, When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan (New York: Penguin Books, 2001), 20, paperback.

“Nelle never saw anything evil… how he is”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 90.

“a fat Dutchman”: Details of his birth come from Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 5, and Morris, Dutch, 14–16.

“On Mother”: Morris, Dutch, 30.

“In some ways… reserving it for myself”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, loc. 338 of 12608, Kindle.

“The best part… allowed to dream”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 11–15.

“For almost six years… much in love”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, loc. 484 of 12608, Kindle.

“He had an inability… fact and fancy”: Morris, Dutch, 121–22.

“Even Nixon held services in the White House”: “Margaret Cleaver Gordon,” Eureka College online, accessed September 21, 2020, http://ww1.eureka.edu/emp/jrodrig/march2007/march15.htm.

“Mugs was generally… everything she said”: Morris, Dutch, 68–69.

She was president… James Waddell Gordon Jr.: Information provided to the author by Eureka College.

“insisted to Morris that she returned the ring personally”: Morris, Dutch, 709n.

“Margaret’s decision… no longer had anyone to love”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, loc. 1011 of 12608, Kindle.

“He has a pleasant, boyish appearance and an attractive film personality”: “New Films,” Boston Globe, December 17, 1937, 25.

“Treat for Ladies in Ronald Reagan”: Dorothy Masters, “Treat for Ladies in Ronald Reagan,” New York Daily News, October 14, 1937, 57.

During his first year… eight pictures in eleven months: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 77.

“the most satisfying gift of my life”: ibid., 9.

Ronald Reagan’s old clothes: Stephanie Chavez, “Olive View Fund-Raiser—Hospital Lauds Early Volunteer: ‘Ma’ Reagan,” Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1986, pt. 2, 7.

“Ronald has finished… just so the boy gets along”: Nelle Reagan to friend, 1938, box 84, Personal Papers of Ronald and Nancy Davis, Dr. Loyal Davis, Mrs. Loyal Davis (Edith), Reagan Presidential Library.

“She was so experienced… a little earthbound for someone like Jane”: Lawrence J. Quirk, Jane Wyman: The Actress and the Woman (New York: Dembner Books, 1986), 42.

pumping Jane’s stomach: Morris, Dutch, 162.

“Jane always seemed so nervous… together”: Quirk, Jane Wyman, 45.

“I wonder if my Ronald… some sweet girl who is not in the movies”: Morris, Dutch, 164.

“I had become a semi-automaton… I decided to find the rest of me”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 6.

“By the time… (all of these postwar ambitions)”: ibid., 138.

“$3,500 a week”: ibid., 140.

Maureen had to learn a few