Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [290]
“Ronnie’s schedule was unbelievable,” Marion Jorgensen continued.
“Earle and I used to travel quite a bit, going from one of his plants to another. And we never got on a plane back in those days that Ronnie wasn’t there with Mike Deaver, going somewhere to speak. Nancy was always all Reagan vs. Carter: 1977–1980
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alone—oh, it was terrible. But Ronnie never gave up, and she was such a good wife. I remember there was a big fire in Pacific Palisades and she was frightened, so we went out there and got her. She came here and stayed the night.”19
Reagan had resumed his radio commentaries and newspaper column in September 1976, and by Deaver’s reckoning he “could do 20 speeches a month for the next year, and that would add up to $100,000 a month in speaking fees. But he won’t do that many of course.” Nofziger found it annoying that Deaver & Hannaford would bill the standard $5,000 fee to the campaigns of candidates Reagan was supposed to be helping. According to The New York Times, Reagan expected his income to be about $750,000 in 1977.20
Traveling with Reagan was an ongoing education in stagecraft for Deaver. “The meticulous care I learned to take in staging an event down to checking the mark—where the performer stands—and camera positions, I picked up from Reagan. He would come out of a ballroom after making a speech and say, ‘Mike, don’t ever let them turn down the house lights again. It causes me to lose my eye contact.’ Another of his rules was not to set up the first row of tables or seats more than eight feet away from him. He wanted to be able to look at the faces. Once, I tried to convince him he didn’t have to sit through every dinner, he could just go in and make his speech. He said, ‘No, you’d be surprised how much I learn about my audience, watching them during the meal and the early part of the program.’ ” Above all, Deaver said, Reagan “did not want to do things that were out of character. You might say to him, ‘Why don’t you take off your jacket and sling it over your shoulder?’ He would say, ‘No, I don’t do that with my jacket.’ ”21
For Reagan a show was a show, as it had been for his mother, whether it was a Disciples of Christ reading or a Republican stump speech, whether it was performed in a county jail or at the Cocoanut Grove. Giving dinner speeches, however, he would turn into his father, the great big Irish raconteur with an endless store of jokes and tales. But unlike Jack, Ronnie didn’t need alcohol to turn on the charm, and Nancy always saw to it that he kept his drinking to a single vodka and orange juice or a glass of wine with meals.
On February 14, 1977, he gave Nancy a letter addressed to “St.
Valentine”:
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Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House I’m writing to you about a beautiful young lady who has been in this household for 25 years now—come March 4th. I have a request to make of you but before doing so feel you should know more about her. For one thing she has 2 hearts—her own and mine. I’m not complaining. I gave her mine willingly and like it right where it is. Her name is Nancy but for some time now I’ve called her Mommie and I don’t believe I could change. My request of you is—could you on this day whisper in her ear that someone loves her very much and more and more each day? Also tell her, this
“someone” would run down like a dollar clock without her so she must always stay where she is.22
For their silver anniversary three weeks later, Ronnie gave Nancy a canoe