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in politics you must tell us everything that has happened in your life, otherwise, you know . . .’ Then we told him what Roberts’s inside spy had reported, and it was at this point in the conversation when Nancy crossed the room to go out the front door. The instant we saw her, we became apprehensive and stopped talking. Reagan quickly sensed that we had come to bring up some sensitive matters, and he said, ‘Fellows, I can tell from the way you stopped talking when Nancy appeared that you have something on your mind. Now, what exactly do you have in mind?’ We replied by saying that we wanted to know if he ever had had any affairs with women, or something like that, that might be exploited by the opposition. He replied:

‘Look, since I have known Nancy I can assure you that there is nothing to any rumor of any kind of misbehavior on my part. You can be assured that there is nothing to worry about.’ ”145

On election night, the Reagans and some of their friends gathered at Earle and Marion Jorgensen’s place on Bel Air Road, which had a commanding view of Los Angeles. It would be the first of four election night buffets at the Jorgensens’ house, a low-slung, spread-out ranch decorated 3 5 0

Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House by Billy Haines with his signature mix of Coromandel screens, Chippendale furniture, and long sofas upholstered in bold prints.

“You know how that came about?” Marion Jorgensen explained. “I was speaking to Nancy on the telephone about three o’clock in the afternoon on election day. And she said, ‘I guess Holmes told you, we invited some of our friends to come down to the Biltmore Hotel at eight o’clock.’ And she said, ‘It’s awful being here.’ I said, ‘Well, what are you doing?’ ‘Nothing.’ I said, ‘Well, what are you going to do until you go?’ ‘Nothing.’ I said, ‘Look, it’s three o’clock. If I can get some of your friends, how about coming over to our house? I mean, very informal. Just come over about 5:30.’ And they did. That was the first one, the first governor’s election. I always had Ronnie’s favorite thing to eat—veal stew. Loved it. And fresh coconut cake.’”146

The General got it all together in less than three hours, managing to round up the Salvatoris, the Wilsons, the Wrathers, Bob and Ursula Taylor, Irene Dunne, and Lorena Nidorf, Louis B. Mayer’s widow, who was remarried, to Hollywood businessman Mike Nidorf.147 The Reagans heard the news of Ronnie’s victory over the radio on their way from the Jorgensens’ to the Biltmore. In the end Reagan carried all but three counties.

The final tally: Reagan, 3,742,913; Brown, 2,749,174.

The following night, Holmes and Virginia Tuttle gave a celebratory dinner at Perrino’s for the Kitchen Cabinet, Betty Adams recalled. The biggest bash was given by Billy Haines and Jimmie Shields a few weeks later, at their house in Brentwood. Candlelit tables covered in turquoise linen cloths and spilling over with flowers were set around the pool, and the jubilant Haines toasted the Governor-elect and his wife, who, like most of her friends, was wearing a Galanos gown.148

C H A P T E R F O U RT E E N

SACRAMENTO

1967–1968

This imaginative state that popularized freeways, supermarkets, swimming pools, drive-ins, backyard barbecues, the bare midriff, house trailers, Capri pants, hot rods, sports shirts, split-level houses and tract living has a former B-movie actor in the Governor’s chair at Sacramento.

Charlotte Curtis, The New York Times, June 2, 1968

That is not Ronald Reagan’s MO, ever, to go choose people, but instead, they gravitate to him. They would come to his attention only by getting there themselves. He would never go out and get them, or notice them and say, “Hey, come and follow me.” That’s not the way he operates. This is an idiosyncrasy. He never hires nor fires. He delegates and acquiesces.

Robert Walker, political adviser to

Governor Reagan, 1968–19741

I spent years defending his hair and her stare.

Nancy Reynolds, assistant press secretary to Governor and Mrs. Reagan, to author, April 2, 2003

“AFTER RONNIE WAS ELECTED, WE FLEW