Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [161]
This relationship seems easygoing but conceals a tremendous thirst for power. Hidden beneath an amiable exterior is a core that no one who mistakes these two for an easy touch will quickly forget. Although Cancer is a water sign and Aquarius air, their relationship is ruled by earth and fire, here connoting smoldering desire and ambition. These volcanic seethings may cause tremendous frustration if not vented, but Cancer II–Aquarius II couples often have the patience and foresight to wait until they are called. Part of this pair’s power lies in their popularity. Lovers, friends and mates in this combination may be in high demand in their social circle. Their charisma, often of the charming and light variety, is a kind of hook with which they can snag the hearts of their admirers. The process need not be at all unpleasant, and in fact a good time is often had by all in the long run.186
The couple themselves seemed to realize how perfectly suited they were.
By then they had even chosen “their song”—George Gershwin’s “Our Love Is Here to Stay.”
C H A P T E R E L E V E N
PACIFIC PALISADES
1952–1958
Nancy’s marriage paralleled her mother’s exactly. You had two men—got them on the rebound. They were lucky men. Very, very lucky.
Richard Davis to author, May 30, 2003
THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH IN THE VALLEY, A DISCIPLES OF CHRIST OUT-post on the southern fringe of the San Fernando Valley, is everything its name suggests: small, simple, picturesque. A rose-covered white picket fence frames the church’s neatly trimmed lawn, and the dark brown clap-board structure is topped by a squared-off steeple bearing a plain white wooden cross. Another unadorned wooden cross stands in the center of the altar: a bare table with the words “In Remembrance of Me” carved along its front edge. The walls are knotty pine, except for the one behind the altar, which is draped in red velveteen. There are only nine rows of pews, and the center aisle is just three feet wide. This is where Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married on Tuesday, March 4, 1952, at five o’clock in the afternoon. He was forty-one, she was thirty.
The only attendants were the couple’s witnesses, Bill and Ardis Holden.
When I asked Nancy Reagan why the wedding was so small, she answered,
“That was the way we wanted it.”1 Tellingly, the woman who had waited nearly a decade to be a bride had convinced herself that her groom’s wishes were her own. “Came our wedding day,” Reagan wrote in his autobiography, “and not one protest from Nancy over the fact that I cheated her out of the ceremony every girl deserves.” Clearly referring to his resentment of the press’s intrusive coverage of his breakup with Jane Wyman, he continues, “I can only confess that at the time to even contemplate facing reporters and flashbulbs made me break out in a cold sweat.”2
2 6 0
Pacific Palisades: 1952–1958
2 6 1
Instead of a wedding gown, Nancy wore a smart gray wool suit with white collar and cuffs from I. Magnin—“I was so disappointed that Amelia [Gray] didn’t have anything for me”3—and the single strand of pearls her parents had given her for her debutante party. Her dark hair was brushed back high off her forehead and crowned with a chic white-flowered hat and veil. Ronnie presented her with a bouquet of white tulips and orange blossoms when he picked her up at her apartment, where her German housekeeper, Frieda, had helped her dress. The brief nuptial service was performed by the Reverend John H. Wells, and Nancy was “so excited” that she “went through the ceremony in a daze” and had no memory of saying “I do.”4
If Ardis hadn’t arranged for a photographer to meet the newlyweds at the Holdens’ house a few miles away, there would be no visual record of the historic event. Ardis had also ordered a three-tiered wedding cake, and in the photograph of Ronnie and Nancy cutting it, they both look truly content. From the Holdens’, they drove to Ann Straus’s house in Beverly Hills, where the MGM publicist helped them prepare the press release announcing their wedding.