According to a 1947 FBI report, Reagan told the government that he wanted Congress to declare the Communist Party illegal and designate which organizations were Communist fronts. By the time the House committee resumed investigating Hollywood in 1951, Reagan staunchly supported its effort, even concluding that blacklisting was important.
He worked to prepare a voluntary loyalty pledge for members of the industry, but also sought to help any performer who wished to repudiate former Communist ties.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday July 01, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 65 words Type of Material: Correction
Reagan in Hollywood -- A June 6 article in Section A about Ronald Reagan's Hollywood years referred to the House Un-American Activities Committee as "newly formed" in 1947. It was formed in 1938. The article also quoted Reagan in his book "Where's the Rest of Me?" as calling himself as a "hemophiliac liberal" in reference to his early politics. He called himself a "hemophilic liberal."
Ironically, he met his future wife, "East Side, West Side" co-star Nancy Davis, over her concerns about the very blacklists that Reagan himself helped perpetuate. Davis had been confused with another Nancy Davis, who had been linked to several Communist front groups. Reagan met with Davis to assuage her worries. They were married in 1952.
His career was foundering, though, the lowlight coming with 1951's chimp comedy, "Bedtime for Bonzo." While Reagan was fighting off Communists, others in Hollywood were at war with television, a then-fledgling medium whose production rules had yet to be clearly established.
Movie actors wanted to be paid when their films were rebroadcast on TV. But Reagan's SAG was unable to win contract language covering payments for TV broadcasts of movies made before 1960. In what actor Ed Asner later termed "the great giveaway," SAG abandoned the residual payments demand after an unsuccessful strike.
Another divisive matter was whether talent agents could produce TV shows. In one of its most controversial acts, SAG in 1952 granted the talent agency MCA (where Reagan then had a contract) an exclusive waiver that would allow it to engage in television production and still represent performers.
Under its new power to produce TV shows, MCA put on "General Electric Theater," which was hosted by Reagan. In a single week, the show was seen by as many people as had viewed all of his movies put together.
To promote the show, Reagan visited more than 100 G.E. plants, sometimes making more than a dozen speeches a day.
"The experience taught Reagan the economies of campaigning, which would become valuable to him when he became a political candidate," Cannon wrote in "Reagan." "He learned how to conserve his voice and how to fill his martini glass with water until the last reception of the day."
But instead of talking about Hollywood, he soon was making speeches about current events. Within just a few years, he was no longer speaking to appliance makers but addressing the state he now governed.
His journey from actor to showbiz union leader to TV host to politician was complete.
"People didn't ask him about toasters, and, gradually, his talks became more political," Nancy Reagan wrote in "I Love You, Ronnie," a collection of her husband's letters. "He learned a lot by listening to the hundreds of people he saw."
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Reagan in Hollywood
Ronald Reagan appeared in more than 50 films over two decades in California before gradually turning to politics. His best-known role was as George Gipp, "the Gipper," in "Knute Rockne All American."
1937 "Love Is on the Air" "Submarine D-1" (bit deleted from final print)
1938 "Sergeant Murphy" "Swing Your Lady" "Hollywood Hotel" "Accidents Will Happen" "Cowboy From Brooklyn" "Boy Meets Girl" "Girls on Probation" "Brother Rat" "Going Places"
1939 "Secret Service of the Air" "Dark Victory" "Code of the Secret Service" "Naughty But Nice" "Hell's Kitchen" "The Angels Wash Their Faces" "Smashing the Money Ring"
1940 "Brother Rat and a Baby" "An Angel From Texas" "Murder in the Air" "Knute Rockne All American" "Tugboat Annie Sails Again" "Santa Fe Trail"
1941 "The Bad Man" "Million Dollar Baby" "Nine Lives Are Not Enough" "International Squadron"
1942 "Kings Row" "Juke Girl" "Desperate Journey"
1943 "This Is the Army"
1947 "Stallion Road" "That Hagen Girl" "The Voice of the Turtle"
1949 "John Loves Mary" "Night Unto Night" "The Girl From Jones Beach" "The Hasty Heart"
1950 "Louisa"
1951 "Storm Warning" "Bedtime for Bonzo" "The Last Outpost"
1952 "Hong Kong" "The Winning Team" "She's Working Her Way Through College"
1953 "Tropic Zone" "Law and Order"
1954 "Prisoner of War" "Cattle Queen of Montana"
1955 "Tennessee's Partner"
1957 "Hellcats of the Navy"
1964 "The Killers"
Sources: Compiled from AP reports; movie posters from the collection of Brian Ann Zoccola and Irv Letofsky
