Nancy Reagan
The Core Reason
March 5, 2023
World War 2
March 5, 2023Was Nancy Reagan Really Hollywood’s “Blow Job Queen”? The Actual Story Is More Interesting.
Heather Schwedel: As someone who had just written a book about her, it must have been a little exhilarating to see that Nancy Reagan was trending. However, what were your thoughts when you realised what it was about?
Karen Tumulty: That reminded me that there are times when one must simply turn away from Twitter.
Nancy Reagan “was renowned to give the finest blowjob in town” when she was a young actress in her twenties, according to a 1998 Village Voice story citing a 1991 book by Kitty Kelley, a well-known author of salacious biographies.
Do you consider Kelley to be a reliable source?
In my own history of Nancy Reagan, I make extensive use of Kelley’s work, citing her a number of times when she introduced fresh information that fit with my eventual study 30 years later. Yet, I do not necessarily derive the same conclusions from the same information.
How was the book by Kitty Kelley received when it was first published?
What, in your opinion, was lacking from the discussion? The actual tale is significantly more intriguing.
Spencer Tracy, who at the time was regarded as one of Hollywood’s most bankable and beloved actors, appears to have been the person who assisted her the most in the beginning of her career.
He had been a family friend of Nancy’s mother from their early days on stage shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. Spencer Tracy was aided by Nancy Reagan’s adoptive parents on multiple occasions, including when he required a private hospital to recover from his alcoholism.
Intriguingly, her screen exam was constructed in such a way that it appeared nearly impossible for her to fail.
She herself would concede that she benefited from a great deal of nepotism throughout her whole career in show business. She is very candid about this, stating, “I don’t believe I would have secured a single stage job without my mother’s friends.”
Then, we observe that shortly after her arrival in Hollywood, she appears to initiate a connection with Benjamin Thau, the chief of casting at MGM.
This man was somewhat notorious for asking sexual favours from actresses in exchange for roles.
This is what, 70 years later, we would refer to as part of the #MeToo movement, but in the late 1940s,
Even before Hollywood, her love life was somewhat chaotic. In the book, I tell the tales of the
boyfriend who was killed by a train and the engagement that ended when she realised her fiancé is gay.
I believe she and Ronald Reagan
found incredible support and stability in one another. She becomes rather evasive regarding the nature of her relationship with Benny Thau. She stated, “I was never his lover” in response to Bob Colacello’s probing questions, who had written an excellent biography of the Reagans.
Indeed, he developed a fancy to me.” But Colacello doesn’t let up.
He continues to press her, and she becomes more direct andforthright: “I was not his. He would have desired to marry me. I did not desire to wed him.”
He was an odd little fellow. He gambled heavily. I believe he squandered away all of his money.
I ultimately convinced him that the answer was negative. And that was the end” Really, she’s leaving a lot of space for assumptions here.
Eventually, she finds new pals at the studio, but her film career is ultimately unremarkable and short.
It is therefore ironic that the studio rejected Marilyn Monroe in order to sign Nancy Davis. It wasn’t just Marilyn Monroe; in your book, you discuss her encounters with Clark Gable, George Cukor, and Lana Turner
That Twitter would suddenly become so practically puritanical over reports about events that occurred over seven decades ago reveals more about Twitter than Nancy Reagan.
G.I.T.C
It was an enormous, enormous bestseller, and it did generate quite a stir. In some ways, it almost accomplished the impossible by making Nancy Reagan a sympathetic person.
I believe I cite the New York Times in my book to make this point. Let me locate the quotation; here it is.
An editorial in The New York Times criticising the book stated:
The irony is that the more Americans desired to believe positive things about their 40th president and the more Teflon they gave him, the more they appeared inclined to believe the worst about his wife.
Lightning rods have had it better than former First Lady Nancy Reagan. Okay, so she most likely deserved more than a few jolts.
Nonetheless, nobody genuinely deserved this. So extreme was the response to the book that the New York Times deemed it essential to defend Nancy Reagan, a somebody they would not ordinarily protect?
Indeed, in an editorial. This does not constitute a defence in the book review. The rumour concerned Nancy Reagan’s reputation during her Hollywood days and how she landed a contract with MGM, a topic you address extensively in your book
it was taken for granted. Nancy Reagan admitted that she was pregnant at the time of her
marriage to Ronald Reagan. Hence, the possibility that a single woman in her late 20s in Hollywood was sexually active does not surprise me.
As noted in the book, Nancy Reagan was not the first woman to acquire a national celebrity and then discover that men who knew her in the past are spreading rumours about her alleged availability.
I simply believe that the actual stories are more intricate, complex, and interesting than the lurid rumours that have spread since then.
When reading about Benjamin Thau in your book, he sounds essentially like a predator. Yes, indeed.
And if you read the memoirs of other women who were rising in Hollywood at the same time, such as Marilyn Monroe, you’ll find that this was an integral part of the act.
Moreover,
Me Too was not invented until 2017. I find it surprising that Nancy Reagan disclosed her pregnancy at the time of her marriage. Did she truly admit it voluntarily? In her first memoir — she has written two — she basically lies about a large number of details, including her age.
Yet, in her second book, which she released after leaving the White House, she offers the following brief aside: “Patti was born abruptly,” followed by “Go ahead and count.” Does she ever address rumours regarding her romantic life?
She was familiar with everyone.
Her mother was a master
networker, and she inherited both her mother’s abilities and
connections, which would come in quite handy when Reagan launched his own political career. Some of Nancy Reagan’s unfavourable reputation appears to have lasted, and those who dislike her politics were happy to take this as an opportunity to criticise her.
She was a very controversial first lady, especially during her
husband’s first year in office. I believe her approval ratings were the lowest of any first lady in recent history. She was an absolute magnet for criticism.
Her husband was so well-liked that even many of his opponents refrained from attacking him. Early in the book, I write, “If he wasknown as the Teflon president, then she may have been the Velcro first lady.” She was a flawed woman with her own troubles.
She wielded an influence in the Reagan White House that, in my opinion, was underappreciated at the time, as they are thoroughly detailed in the book
.
iliasro
Was born on the Bajora planet is the ninth planet after the sun it will take 8 light years to reach my planet which means you never going to make it with today's technology. I moved to earth due to ecological problems on my planet. Thought earth will be a better place but to my surprise, it is not. The stupidity those people have is unbelievable and that inspire me to write a couple of books on humanity and their stupidity. After years of travelling around the planet, I decided to live in this town which is across the sea from the mainland. Here the level of stupidity is higher and that is good because I sell more books
