Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [158]
Reagan bought the Malibu Canyon property, a wild stretch of oak-covered hills a half-hour’s drive inland from the Pacific Coast Highway, and the run-down old farmhouse on it, for about $85,000 in March 1951. It was almost completely surrounded by a 2,500-acre reserve where 20th Century Fox filmed its Westerns. Nino Pepitone, his partner in the much smaller Northridge horse farm, which had been sold for an undisclosed sum, continued to train Reagan’s thoroughbreds at Malibu. Curiously, Reagan kept the name Yearling Row. But, at Maureen’s suggestion, the first foal born at the new ranch, “a gorgeous dapple filly,” was named Nancy D.158
Not surprisingly, Jane and Nancy saw each other as rivals. Michael Reagan wrote that even in those early days the two women said “derogatory”
things about each other—and, as children of broken marriages often do, he would agree with both of them.159 According to Nancy Reagan, Jane “convinced” Ronnie that he shouldn’t remarry before she did, “because it wouldn’t be good for the children.”160 Someone close to the Reagans told me that when Jane realized Ronnie was getting serious about Nancy she Ronnie and Nancy in Hollywood: 1949–1952
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made one last play to get him back, telling him she’d like to start over again.
But it was too late.
In the February 1951 issue of Modern Screen, Louella Parsons wrote,
“Not long ago, I went to a dinner party at [Jane’s] home and Maureen came in to cut her birthday cake. Her mother and father stood by her side, polite to each other and respectful—so different from those gay kids who went barnstorming with me. I turned away so they couldn’t see the tears in my eyes. Since then, when I see Janie, she seems self-sufficient, independent, and oh, so gay. But I know that not long ago she said to someone, ‘What’s the matter with me? I can’t seem to pick up the pieces of my life again. Will I ever find happiness ahead?’”161
Ronnie naively believed that the two women could get along, and even took Nancy to the premiere of Jane’s film The Blue Veil, in September 1951. Jane’s date was the Hollywood lawyer Gregg Bautzer, a slick playboy who had previously romanced Lana Turner, Merle Oberon, Sonja Henie, and Ginger Rogers. Although Jane had hopes of marrying him, by the end of the year he had resumed his long-term, up-and-down relationship with Joan Crawford.162
Meanwhile, Ronnie took Nancy to meet his mother. The Disciples of Christ lay missionary and the Chicago Gold Coast princess would seem to have had little in common, but Nelle approved of Nancy’s sedate style and earnest personality. According to Nancy, Nelle “very quickly sized up the situation” between Ronnie and her. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
Nelle asked Nancy, who admitted she was. “I thought so,” said Nelle.163
Nancy introduced Ronnie to Edith and Loyal “over the telephone; I called my parents every Sunday, and Ronnie would get on and say hello.”164
On one of his trips to the East Coast he met Edith when he changed trains in Chicago. She brought Colleen Moore Hargrave and Lillian Gish along to look him over. Both of them had shared her concern that Nancy, at thirty, was in danger of never marrying. Colleen declared that Reagan reminded her of Loyal, which Edith saw as a good sign, given Nancy’s adoration of her stepfather. “It will take,” Gish reportedly predicted.165
Still, two years after they had met and a year after they started going steady, Reagan needed more time. Or maybe he was waiting for an auspi-cious alignment of the stars.
At some point during their extended courtship, Nancy began accompanying Ronnie to the sign-of-the-month parties given by Carroll Righter, 2 5 6
Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House Hollywood’s reigning astrologer. These parties, attended by everyone from such old-time divas as Marlene Dietrich to young sophisticates like Lauren Bacall, were famous for their decor: a baby lion greeted guests at the Leo party, the swimming pool