Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [216]
This merger of millionaires was not altogether cordial at first. Justin Dart, in particular, was seen as a Johnny-come-lately, who now wanted to run the show. As Frances Bergen said, “Justin was the original bull in the china shop. He had an enormously strong presence and could antagonize people at times.” Bill Wilson remarked, “You can describe Justin in the one sentence that’s been said so many times about him: Sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.”134 Another insider explained,
“Justin thought Reagan didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.
That’s exactly what he said. Then he and Leonard Firestone wanted to get on the bandwagon when Reagan won the primary—and there was lots of tension and anger about that. I remember Freeman Gosden had to get them all together at Eldorado to patch things up.”
Still, Tuttle was happy to be working with his old fund-raising partner again. Nancy Reagan also found it reassuring to have the very rich and well-connected Dart on their side; she liked him precisely because he was The Kitchen Cabinet: 1963–1966
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so tough and effective. “The combination of Holmes and Justin, I tell you, that was a powerhouse,” Nancy Reagan told me with laugh. “They did raise a lot of money. And in completely different ways. Holmes was a little smoother about it, but, boy, was he persistent.”135
Nancy took an active interest in the fund-raising side of the campaign and kept track of who gave what. When Lee Annenberg donated $1,000
but Walter refrained, she wondered why, and he wrote a letter explaining that as a resident of Pennsylvania and a newspaper publisher he didn’t think it was appropriate for him to be directly involved.136 The Deutsches staged a melodramatic scene shortly after Reagan won the primary.
“When Ronnie first ran for governor, I was a registered Democrat,” Ardie recounted. “And I said to Harriet, ‘I better tell Ronnie.’ So the Reagans came over here for dinner, and I said, ‘Ronnie, I have to tell you something. I can’t vote for you. I’m not telling you because I’m such a great guy, but I don’t want those vultures—Holmes and Justin—coming at me.’ I said, ‘Of course I won’t vote for Brown. I wouldn’t vote against you. And if I were in your position, it would break up a friendship.’ Ronnie got up, walked around the table, put his hands on my shoulders, and said, ‘Nothing’s going to break up our friendship. Vote for whoever you want.’ Nancy and Harriet were crying—well, they were teary-eyed anyway.”137
“Ronnie was wonderful,” said Harriet Deutsch. “And so was Nancy.”
But perhaps her friend was not as pleased as Harriet seemed to think. For whatever reason, Harriet was not included in the small lunch Betsy Bloomingdale gave at home for Nancy’s forty-fifth birthday—officially her forty-third.138
As the pace of the campaign intensified after Labor Day, Stu Spencer told Nancy that it would be helpful if she did some campaigning on her own. “I was shy in those days,” she later wrote, “and terrified that I’d have to give a speech. I have often been asked why I felt that way, given all the years I had spent in theater and in film. But to me the difference is enormous. When I was acting, I wasn’t being myself—I was playing a role that had been created for me. But giving a political speech is completely different. You can’t hide behind a made up character, and I was far too private a person to enjoy playing myself.” She finally agreed, with the proviso that she wouldn’t make speeches, just take questions. As she put it, “This was a big step from simply standing up and taking a bow, but I was surprised that in fact I came to enjoy it.”139
Spencer and Nancy had grown quite close by then, and he would