II.

Early Life

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois, the younger of two sons of Nelle and John Reagan. His father was a traveling shoe salesman. Reagan was strongly influenced by his mother, who taught him to read at an early age. Most of his childhood was spent in Dixon, Illinois, a small town about 155 km (96 mi) west of Chicago.

Reagan won a scholarship to study at Eureka College, a small Disciples of Christ college near Peoria, Illinois. He majored in economics, and he was president of the student body, a member of the football team, and captain of the swimming team. He was also drawn toward acting, but upon graduation in 1932 the only job available related to show business was as a local radio sportscaster. In 1936 he became a sportscaster for station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa.

In 1937 Reagan went to Hollywood and began an acting career that spanned more than 25 years. He played in more than 50 films, including Knute Rockne-All American (1940), King’s Row (1942), and Bedtime for Bonzo (1951). He soon became active in the Screen Actors Guild (the union for film actors) and was elected six times as its president. He married actress Jane Wyman and they had two children: Maureen and Michael, an adopted son. After eight years, the marriage ended in divorce. In 1952 Reagan married another actress, Nancy Davis, daughter of an Illinois neurosurgeon. They had two children, Patricia and Ronald.

Reagan’s first political activities were associated with his responsibilities as a union leader. As union president, Reagan tried to remove suspected Communists from the movie industry. When the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities began an investigation in 1947 on the influence of Communists in the film industry, Reagan took a strong anti-Communist stand testifying before the committee.

In 1954 Reagan agreed to work with the General Electric Company to host a 30-minute television series and to make promotional tours speaking to General Electric employees around the country. Reagan spoke to large audiences, promoting the free-enterprise system. Despite his tendency to vote for Republican candidates for president (Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and for Richard M. Nixon in 1960), Reagan was a registered Democrat until 1962.

Reagan emerged on the national political scene in 1964 when he made an impassioned television speech supporting the Republican presidential candidate, United States senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona. Although Goldwater lost the election, Reagan’s speech brought in money and praise from Republicans around the country.

A group of Republicans in California persuaded a receptive Reagan to run for governor of California in 1966. Reagan appealed to traditional Republican voters as well as to working-class Democrats. He defeated Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, Sr., the incumbent Democrat, by almost a million votes.