In the fall of 1964 people suddenly began to talk about Ronald Reagan. "Did you see him on TV?" they said. "Did you hear that speech in Los Angeles?... He was tremendous... he makes sense." Was this an overnight transition from Ronald Reagan, the suave Hollywood star, to Ronald Reagan, impassioned defender of our American heritage? Not really. The qualities revealed in Ronald Reagan's political speeches in the 1964 campaign, and earlier in talks on tour for General Electric, had been a long time in the making. They went back to an Illinois childhood and a fiery Irish father who, when assured by a hotel clerk that he would be comfortable "because we don't allow Jews here," drew himself up and announced: "I'm a Catholic, and if it comes to the point where you won't take Jews, you won't have me either." He spent the night in his car in the snow. This refusal to remain silent, to go along with prevailing policy, to avoid the difficult or unpleasant was handed down in undiluted form to son Ronald. In Where's the Rest of Me? he tells with disarming candor what happened to him on the way up. The title of his book is the classic line from King's Row that marked the peak of his film career and established the credo of a life as it is lived by a most unusual man.
In the fall of 1964 people suddenly began to talk about Ronald Reagan. "Did you see him on TV?" they said. "Did you hear that speech in Los Angeles?... He was tremendous... he makes sense." Was this an overnight transition from Ronald Reagan, the suave Hollywood star, to Ronald Reagan, impassioned defender of our American heritage? Not really. The qualities revealed in Ronald Reagan's political speeches in the 1964 campaign, and earlier in talks on tour for General Electric, had been a long time in the making. They went back to an Illinois childhood and a fiery Irish father who, when assured by a hotel clerk that he would be comfortable "because we don't allow Jews here," drew himself up and announced: "I'm a Catholic, and if it comes to the point where you won't take Jews, you won't have me either." He spent the night in his car in the snow. This refusal to remain silent, to go along with prevailing policy, to avoid the difficult or unpleasant was handed down in undiluted form to son Ronald. In Where's the Rest of Me? he tells with disarming candor what happened to him on the way up. The title of his book is the classic line from King's Row that marked the peak of his film career and established the credo of a life as it is lived by a most unusual man.
