Crusade for Freedom rallies and raised money for the organization in its bid to free the “captive peoples.” “More than any other performer,” writes author Peter Schweizer, “Reagan embraced the cause and spread the word.”34
In an attempt to bolster additional Hollywood support for the movement, Reagan passed a resolution in SAG to encourage other actors to get involved in the Crusade. For Reagan, the policy of liberating Eastern Europe from Soviet control was not simply just another political issue; it was an imperative. He used much of his industry clout to encourage support for the cause, taping a short film for civic groups, churches, and schools to bolster support at the grassroots level and beyond.
Shortly thereafter, Reagan enlisted in another crusade, when he began giving speeches in rallies before Dr. Fred Schwarz’s Christian Anti-Communist Crusade.35 This crusading group, as its name suggested, devoted special attention to the institutionalized atheism and endemic religious hatred that inspired the USSR and Communist movement.
Generally speaking, Reagan was becoming a seasoned veteran of antiCommunist campaigns. He continued crusading in Hollywood, always looking to protect the industry from subversion. “By the early 1950s,” wrote author John Meroney, referring to Reagan’s efforts at SAG in particular, “the back of the Communist Party in Hollywood” was “essentially broken.”36 No less than Jack Warner said Reagan “turned out to be a tower of strength, not only for the actors but the whole industry.”37 More than one Hollywood associate described him as a “fearless foe.”38
An eye-opening testimony to this effectiveness was the April 10, 1951 HUAC statement by Sterling Hayden. Hayden admitted he had been a Communist but left the party after the direction he saw Communism take under Stalin. He said that joining the party was the “stupidest, most ignorant thing I have ever done” and explained how Hollywood Communists tried to organize all of the entertainment industry’s labor unions under one giant union controlled by the party. When asked by HUAC what stopped them, Hayden said assuredly: “They ran into a one- man battalion named Ronald Reagan.”39
A large part of Reagan’s success in his fight stemmed from the fact that he studied the tactics of the enemy. One such tactic was the “diamond formation” seating strategy employed by just four conspiratorial Communists to manipulate a crowd during a speech. One of the four would sit in the back of the room in the middle of the row, while another Communist would be to his left near the wall in the middle of the room. Yet another would be just opposite to his right, and the fourth would be up front in the middle of the first couple of rows. Each of the four heckled and asked abrasive questions from their strategic vantage point, and this simple method quickly became a highly valuable tool for rattling the speaker and suggesting a strong presence of dissenters.40 This was down and dirty hardball politics. Perhaps, then, it was no coincidence that at this time Reagan often invoked words like “victory” and “fight” in his rhetoric.
As a further indication of how the confrontation pervaded his thoughts, Reagan infused anti-Communist statements into SAG pronouncements that had nothing to do with Marxism. An example was a declaration at his final meeting as president of the guild on November 9, 1952. Under Reagan’s tutelage, SAG called upon motion picture producers and the entertainment industry in general to provide greater employment for African-American actors; the statement was critical of recent “well-intentioned but ill-directed” efforts to avoid casting black artists in stereotypical black roles, which, said SAG, had caused “inadvertent harm” by creating a sudden dearth in available roles for black actors. And yet, Reagan’s SAG could not help but link its declaration to the battle against Moscow. “In a critical world period, when the democratic credo is under fire from our Communist foes,” declared SAG, “it becomes increasingly important that the expanding role of our Negro citizens in the community of this nation be adequately portrayed in the entertainment art.”41
WITH PROCLAMATIONS SUCH AS THIS, REAGAN HAD TAKEN HIS fight to the front lines of his SAG presidency. Announcing his agenda to both the entertainment industry and the nation, Reagan’s name as an actor was becoming synonymous with his efforts to curb the spread of Communism at home and abroad. By the time his tenure at SAG ended in 1952, Reagan had overseen the union through some of its most dangerous moments, ensuring that the integrity of the institution remained sound and that the Communists failed to gain a foothold in America’s most influential medium.
Having accomplished certain goals in Hollywood, it was now time for him to shift his focus to a burgeoning new industry, a young but promising field that gave him the opportunity to speak to groups that were previously out of reach. With his film career floundering, his attention would turn to a medium that gave him access to the hearts and minds of millions of Americans around the country, a medium that placed him straight into their living rooms.
3. The TV Crusade: 1950 to mid-1960s
BY THE EARLY 1950S, RONALD REAGAN’S POLITICAL INTERESTS were flourishing, but these interests were beginning to take their toll on his wife Jane Wyman. In her divorce papers, she cited his obsession with politics as a primary factor in their separation. It was a divorce that Reagan had not wanted and one that disturbed him greatly. To Reagan, marriage was an institution that should last forever and his inability to find permanence in his bond with Wyman became a source of major failure for him.
Further complicating matters was the fact that while politics were his passion, at this stage they did not pay him anything. Despite his considerable earnings of the last few years, he still needed to earn a salary, and after his time at SAG came to an end, acting opportunities became more difficult to come by. The loss of his movie success threw him for a loop, and by all indications, this was the most difficult period of the Crusader’s life, a time when, for the first time, personal and professional failure seemed like a possibility.
While he was crushed by the breakup with Wyman, it was during this time that he met the woman that would forever change his life: Nancy Davis.
In 1952, the life of the forty-one-year old turned around when he married Nancy, who, more than anyone, supported him totally, including his political ambitions. She was head over heels for her husband. “Ronnie is my hero,” she glowed. “My life began when I got married. My life began with Ronnie.”1 She watched his back for him, distrusting seemingly nearly everyone he trusted, and, from his front, encouraged him. She was willing to follow him wherever it took to ensure that his career was once again fruitful.
Though his marital life was on the right track, he was still faced with the difficult reality of his career. In February 1954, unready to say goodbye to show business for good, Reagan turned to a stint in a Las Vegas vaudeville act, at the aptly named Last Frontier hotel, to provide him with the income he needed to keep his career afloat.2 Despite this apparent setback, Reagan remained resolute, telling his new bride that God had something greater in store. For Reagan, who had always felt that Providence had a plan for him, this was merely a brief stop on an otherwise upward trajectory.
Once again Reagan’s optimism was vindicated; he was not in Las Vegas for long. Soon after his move, CBS began considering Reagan as a host for its programming. While they originally wanted him to host the popular Omnibus, which up until that point had been hosted by the future Masterpiece Theatre host, Alistair Cooke, CBS executives found use for Reagan as host of the new show GE Theatre. Reagan struck CBS as quintessentially American and ideally suited for this emcee type role. It was a role that Reagan would come to know well over the next several years and it was a position that he would inhabit from September 1954 to August 1962.
Reagan was already well known from his movie days. This new position provided him with unprecedented exposure, making him (according to surveys) one of the most recognized names in all of America—up there with President Eisenhower. By the mid-1950s, two-thirds of American homes already owned at least one TV set, and millions of families sat perched in front of “the tube” for hours on end, terrifying the movie industry—which was losing clients at the theater. That was fine with Reagan, who was positioned perfectly for the shift; he rode the wave. Moreover, there were very few channels on the dial in 1954. The typical American could not turn on the TV on a given evening without seeing Ronald Reagan’s face in the living room.
Adding to Reagan’s notoriety, GE Theatre was a smash. The show took off, eclipsing I Love Lucy only
