Ronald Reagan
Wow! The recent poll on RUSC, "I's election time! Which of our past Presidents would you bring back to life to be President today?", has a winner - by a very impressive margin! These were the final results:
Abraham Lincoln came in third place (13%), closely followed by Franklin D Roosevelt in second place (16%), and the winner, with the big orange slice of the pie, is Ronald Reagan with a whopping 43%!
It's great to talk about Ronald Reagan, as for many of us, his presidency was during our own living memory.
However, for myself it is not only his service as the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989) which holds my interest... It is because of his prior career as a popular Hollywood actor in his early years.
His story is an incredible one - which makes me yearn for one of the superb 'Cavalcade of America' adaptations, like we have for our earlier Presidents. What a show that would be - the little boy who hailed from a shabby apartment above a store in Tampico, who became a world leader - and had several successful careers in between!
Born on February 6th, 1911 to a poor family in Northern Illinois, he graduated from Eureka College in 1932 - the smallest college to graduate a president of the United States.
He then took a position at WHO radio as an announcer for the Chicago Cubs baseball games, and whilst traveling with them 1937, he took a screen test which led to a seven year contract with Warner Bros.
He subsequently appeared in nearly 20 films, but just as the movie considered to be his best, Kings Row, was released in 1942, he was called up for active duty.
In the post war era of the late 40s and early 50s, he starred in lots of old time radio shows, and we have many of these available on RUSC, of which I have listed a selection below:-
Widely considered to be the most influential president ever, Ronald Reagan is credited with making Americans feel good about themselves again. He turned around a faltering economy (after Carter), and made the US a world power. Not only did he leave his imprint on our beloved old time radio shows, he left his imprint on American politics, diplomacy, culture and economics through his effective communication, dedicated patriotism and pragmatic compromising.
It makes me wonder how hot the Presidential race would be right now, if he was still around. He sadly passed away on June 5, 2004, leaving behind his life long love and faithful wife of fifty two years, Nancy Reagan, who remained active in politics right up to her passing in March this year!
Happy listening my friends,
