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Reagan: The Hollywood Years | 
 enlarge | Author: Marc Eliot
Publisher: Harmony
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $6.40
You Save: $19.55 (75%)
New (37) Used (19) from $4.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 154127
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0307405125
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43028092
EAN: 9780307405128
ASIN: 0307405125
Publication Date: September 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Ronald Reagan was one of the most powerful and popular American presidents. The key to understanding his political success and the remarkable likability and effortless charisma that made it possible is hidden in his early years as a Hollywood movie star.
Other biographers and Reagan in his two memoirs have skimmed over the thirty years he spent as an actor, union activist, and ladies’ man. Now, for the first time, in this highly entertaining and provocative new work, acclaimed film critic and historian Marc Eliot reveals the truth of those formative years and presents a far different and infinitely more detailed portrait of Reagan than ever before.
Based on original research and never-before-published interviews, documents, and other materials, Eliot sheds new light on Reagan’s film and television work opposite some of the most talented women of the time, including Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, and Ginger Rogers; his starlet-strewn bachelor days when his name was linked with Lana Turner and Susan Hayward; his first, rocky marriage to actress Jane Wyman and his career-making second marriage to Nancy Davis; his controversial eight years as the president of the Screen Actors Guild; his friendships with Jimmy Stewart and William Holden; his place in the “Irish Mafia” alongside Pat O’Brien, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Errol Flynn; and the crucial role of super-agent Lew Wasserman, who was instrumental in developing the persona that would prove essential to Reagan’s future as a world leader.
Set against the glamorous and often combative background of Hollywood’s celebrated Golden Age, Eliot’s biography provides an exceptionally nuanced examination of the man and uncovers the startling origins of the legend.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
A "B" book for a "B" actor December 1, 2008
Let's face it, Ronald Reagan was never one of Hollywood's prime actors. Laid side by side, his "B" movies far outpace those that might be on the "A" scale. The same might be said for this book. As with the movies, it's the plot and the format that weaken the tale.
Marc Eliot's book has its credibility short-comings (as amply attested to by other reviewers). It does, however, contain some interesting tidbits about RR and if nothing else, identifies him as a man of character--especially in explaining the "Red Scare" as it invaded movieland. On the other hand, Eliot uses so many acronyms and leads you thru such a maize of unknown characters that he leaves you with the impression he is trying to impress you about him, not Reagan.
My biggest disappointment about the book is that just as it seems to get into a flowing pattern, the author disrupts the information with new tidbits that has you shaking your head and asking the perverbial, "Is this really necessary?" As a result, the book become a ho-hum read.
As an insider who has written a number of interesting and readable books, I expected much more from Marc Eliot with this one. I was disappointed. The Hollywood of the 1940s and 50s, a great supporting cast, a US President-to-be...what more could you ask for? A better-written book.
 Bad from the start October 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I will not repeat the findings of other reviewers and repeat all the erroneous statements in the book. Let me just say no matter if you love Reagan or loath him, you should not waste your time on this book. It goes out of its way to attack Reagan and it deals in half-truths and innuendo. There are better books out there, this is not worth the effort. Its obvious the author has a political agenda.
Reagan: the Hollywood Years October 20, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I wonder just how much research this author did. While I didn't read it, I did peruse it in a bookstore recently. In the pictures I found an error in identification. There was one of the 1946 Academy Awards with Reagan, Jane Wyman (his wife), Ray Milland (actor) and Billy Wilder the director. However, the author identified Mr. Wilder as Lew Ayers. Unbelievable!
A Shoddy Job October 19, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The author claims he "pursued my PhD in film history" at Columbia University, where a film with Ronald Reagan was never shown. First, instead of just pursuing the PhD he should have finished it, and secondly, just because Columbia never showed him a film with Ronald Reagan doesn't mean he never should have watched one on his own. After reading this poorly researched book on Reagan's Hollywood years I am convinced the author never watched any of the classic films to which he refers. If I had paid for this book instead of receiving it as a gift, I would be furious for wasting my money. There are so many inaccuracies as to make all of the author's assertions suspect.
Previous reviewers have pointed out quite a few of the factual problems with the book, so I will just add a few observations.
The most elementary mistake for a film "scholar" to make is the graphic one where he not only misidentifies Billy Wilder as Lew Ayres in a photo from the Academy Awards party at which Wilder's classic "Lost Weekend" won Best Picture of 1946, but the also claims that Reagan looks "tense" because Wyman (standing next to Wilder and co star Ray Milland) is having an affair with the misidentified Lew Ayres. Talk about embarrassing. The author is reading something into a picture which can't be further from the truth since Ayres is nowhere to be seen at the table. This creates tremendous doubt that any of the author's analyses of the events of Reagan's star years can be valid.
We know Eliot never saw Wyman in "The Yearling," because no one could forget Claude Jarman Jr's astounding performance as Jody a young boy who becomes attached to a deer which creates further hardship in the lives of his hardscrabble family. Maybe Eliot thinks every character named Jody must be girl, so he didn't have to waste his time screening the film. We also know he never saw the "Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer, a classic farce written by Sidney Sheldon. Eliot argues that Cary Grant successfully romanced Shirley Temple in "Bachelor," while the stiff, no-talent Reagan couldn't pull off this feat in "That Hagen Girl." Baloney! Teenaged Shirley Temple presented problems for older leading men, as she should have. No one wants to see the icon of American girlhood defiled by an older man. In "Bachelor," Grant is pursuing Myrna Loy, who Eliot states is Temple's mother in the film. Actually, Loy is Temple's older sister who happens to be a judge. Grant is sentenced to pretend he is dating Temple who has a high school crush on Grant. At no time does Grant successfully romance Temple in the film, nor does he try to. Although Eliot implies "That Hagen Girl" helped ruin the careers of both Temple and Reagan, both went on to make more films with Temple growing bored in her adult career, and Reagan continuing frustrated as a B movie actor. An interesting point of comparison exists betwen Temple and Reagan as both went on to successful careers in diplomacy and politics respectively. Eliot doesn't even seem to notice. As for Eliot ridiculing Reagan's good taste in not wanting to marry Temple in the end of "That Hagen Girl," no other leading man took on that chore. Shirley's films in the forties cast her opposite her husband, John Agar, and other young actors while she appeared in those same films with Henry Fonda, John Wayne and other older leading men as their daughters, or nieces, or friends of her family.
Finally, Eliot concludes without even trying to analyze how Reagan's Hollywood career contributed to his success as the statesman who singlehandedly defeated the Soviet empire without firing a shot. Given his failings as an author maybe it is just as well. The sad thing is he has other books out on Grant, and James Stewart. One can only imagine the falsehoods in those books, but I am not going to waste my time to find them.
Inaccuracies Abound September 29, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The small inaccuracies pile up one upon another until the reader is compelled to conclude that either Mr. Eliot did not do much worthwhile research or was in such a hurry to publish that he did not care whether the reader might know the difference between fact and inaccuracy. To a film buff, the gaffs are, at first, comical, and then annoying. Several instances: at one point he actually identifies Billy Wilder as Lew Ayres in a photo caption...did he ever look at a photo of Ayres? Or Wilder? And Jimmy Stewart was not an eligible bachelor but already married to Gloria when Ronald and Nancy were married. Further, "The Yearling" is not about a little girl but a little boy, for goodness sake. Brings into question his opinions (which occur throughout the book) on people and events.
Mr. Eliot really does not like his subjects and seems to go out of his way to place them in an unfavorable and insulting light. Don't bother to purchase the book. In our troubled economic times, save your money instead.
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