Landslide (57 page)

1
  
“I want you to talk him into playing that role”
Siegel,
Siegel Film
, 240.

2
  
Horses are like people
Ibid., 241.

3
  
“the boss …”
Ibid., 242.

4
  
“You’ll steal the show”
Ibid., 250.

5
  
Years later, Siegel would recall the announcer’s words
Ibid., 250–1.

6
  
Kennedy … was a Marxist with a pretty face
Dallek,
Right Moment
, 38.

7
  
Walter Cronkite didn’t help matters
Perlstein,
Before the Storm
, 248.

8
  
A mob was forming
Ibid., 247.

9
  
“Well, your parents will probably be happy!”
Davis,
Way I See It
, 82.

10
  
“Lee had a theory about drinking”
Siegel,
Siegel Film
, 248.

11
  
“An actor likes a death scene”
The Killers
, directed by Don Siegel, 1964, Criterion Collection DVD Commentary by Clu Gulager.

12
  
“The story begins with a closeup”
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 3.

13
  
“His heroes … were always heroes”
Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 17.

14
  
“You know why I had such fun at it?”
Edwards,
Early Reagan
, 64.

15
  
“All of this commenced to create in me a personality”
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 38.

16
  
“I discovered that night”
Ibid., 28–29.

17
  
“You were always aware when he came into a room”
Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 43. (emphasis added)

18
  
“I like to swim, hike and sleep”
Ronald Reagan, “How to Make Yourself Important,”
Photoplay
, August 1942, quoted in Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 59.

19
  
“the guy who didn’t get the girl”
Cannon,
Ronnie and Jesse
, 29.

20
  
“I
always
got the girl”
Ibid., 33.

21
  
“The Reagans’ home life”
Cannon,
Reagan
, 61.

22
  
“appears to have accepted the studio propaganda”
Ibid., 62.

23
  
when they were with him
Morris,
Dutch
, 128.

24
  
Reagan earned genuine critical acclaim
Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 57.

25
  
he was assigned to the Army Air Force’s First Motion Picture Unit
Ibid., 57.

26
  
“Ronald Reagan is having his picture taken”
Nancy Reagan,
My Turn
, 126.

27
  
“coaxing me to take a breath”
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 195.

28
  
“Don’t ask Ronnie what time it is”
Edwards,
Early Reagan
, 229.

29
  
in her petition
Deaver,
Behind the Scenes
, 110; Edwards,
Early Reagan
, 355.

30
  
“I couldn’t stand to watch that damn ‘King’s Row’ one more time,”
Kelley,
Nancy Reagan
, 61.

31
  
“Lew is the love of my life”
Edwards,
Early Reagan
, 354.

32
  
“The trouble is”
Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 72.

33
  
“Ronald Reagan always received top billing”
Deaver,
Nancy
, 6.

34
  
“My life … didn’t really begin”
Nancy Reagan,
My Turn
, 93.

35
  
For a wedding gift
Edwards,
Early Reagan
, 431.

36
  
Ronnie especially treasured a birthday gift
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 291.

37
  
“Jane had said publicly that she was bored”
Nancy Reagan,
My Turn
, 100.

38
  
Edmund Morris … asked him to recall his mindset
Morris,
Dutch
, 266.

39
  
“I am seen by more people in one week”
Ibid., 304.

40
  
Many children of the baby boom
See Noonan,
When Character Was King
, 80–81, for descriptions of watching Reagan on
GE Theater
.

41
  
by 1958, a survey would determine
Morris,
Dutch
, 305.

42
  
the routine was punishing
Morris,
Dutch
, 305; Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 257.

43
  
the show was getting beaten in the ratings by
Bonanza
Nancy Reagan,
My Turn
, 129.

44
  
By his own account
Reagan: American Life
, 138.

45
  
“years … of relative calm”
Nancy Reagan,
I Love You, Ronnie
, 75.

46
  
Dean Miller traveled to Yearling Row
Dean Miller,
Here’s Hollywood
, directed by Gene Law, 1961.

47
  
“Ronnie’s easygoing manner is deceiving”
Nancy Reagan,
My Turn
, 114.

48
  
Edmund Morris spoke to Brower’s widow
Morris,
Dutch
, 321.

49
  
Reagan denied Mrs. Brower’s account
Ibid. In
Where’s the Rest of Me?
Reagan acknowledges that he received a phone call from an advertising executive at GE asking him how he would feel about limiting his speeches to a discussion of GE products, about which he writes, “I told this gentleman that if the speeches were an issue I could see no solution short of severing our relationship.… Twenty-four hours later the
GE Theater
was canceled. I don’t know—maybe eight years was long enough.” Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 273.

50
  
“Like any actor”
Ibid., 322; Ronald Reagan,
Sunset
, October 1961.

51
  
For the rest of his life
Reagan,
American Life
, 138.

52
  
“A lot of people who went to see
The Killers
” Ibid., 381.

53
  
The theme of evil is there from the very beginning of the film
The Killers
, directed by Don Siegel (1964, Los Angeles, Universal).

54
  
“Everybody dies in it”
Davis,
Way I See It
, 99.

55
  
“Just kiss me, you fool!”
The Killers
, directed by Don Siegel, 1964.

56
  
President Johnson “has been, shall we say, a little bit in the background today”
CBS, November 23, 1963.

57
  
An FBI agent … had been amazed to find
Reports of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 1964, 202.

58
  
“He’s been shot”
Tom Petit, NBC, November 24, 1963.

59
  
“The chase ends in a theater”
Ibid.

1
  
Black Jack
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 490, 596.

2
  
“like a Roman Queen, a stone statue”
Smith,
Grace and Power
, 455.

3
  
“Jacqueline Kennedy has given”
“Magic Majesty of Mrs. Kennedy,”
London Evening Standard
, November 25, 1963; Semple,
Four Days in November
, 485.

4
  
In one extravagant gesture
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 211.

5
  
“Never before has Texas beef found a market”
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 211.

6
  
“too flip”
Ibid.

7
  
“totally doomed child”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 406.

8
  
“burned alive”
Ibid.

9
  
“I consider that my life is over”
Bradlee,
A Good Life
, 262.

10
  
“Is there anything
we
can do for
you
?”
McCullough,
Truman
, 342.

11
  
“what an awful way for you to come in”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 538.

12
  
A black lace mantilla
Graham,
Katharine Graham’s Washington
, 539.

13
  
“of the country grieving”
Bradlee,
Conversations with Kennedy
, 244.

14
  
“We’ve got to start being—not to be cold-blooded”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Jack Brooks, November 24, 1963.

15
  
“It was quite clear”
Shesol,
Mutual Contempt
, 120.

16
  
Then Adlai Stevenson, the UN ambassador, rose to read a lengthy statement
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 476.

17
  
“a few paragraphs on how nice Lyndon Johnson was”
Shesol,
Mutual Contempt
, 120.

18
  
“A nice little statement”
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 627.

19
  
“I can’t sit still”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and John McCormack, November 23, 1963.

20
  
The assassination … had struck him harder than the death of his own father
Alsop,
I’ve Seen the Best of It
, 464.

21
  
“the show must go on”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 470.

22
  
the Kennedy Administration bankrolled an expansion
Karnow,
Vietnam
, 284.

23
  
“I am not going to lose Vietnam”
Wicker,
JFK and LBJ
, 205.

24
  
“I wonder if you will get me a little synopsis”
Beschloss,
Taking Charge
, 23.

25
  
“What would you think of the possibility”
Sorensen,
Counselor
, 379; Manchester,
Death of a President
, 481.

26
  
“my heart is not in it”
Schlesinger,
Journals
, 206.

27
  
“Yes, Mr. President”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 412.

28
  
“I carried
my
president”
Ibid., 172.

29
  
“the impact of Kennedy’s death was evident everywhere”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 175.

30
  
“Suddenly they were outsiders”
Ibid.

31
  
“littered with male widows”
Alsop,
Best I’ve Seen of It
, 464.

32
  
“We’ll never laugh again”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 506.

33
  
“is of a different generation”
Semple,
Four Days in November
, 245.

34
  
Lunching with Daniel Moynihan
For what became known as the “Harvard Lunch” see Manchester,
Death of a President
, 474 and Shesol,
Mutual Contempt
, 143.

35
  
he “could stay here forever”
Smith,
Grace and Power
, 445.

36
  
A favorite poem
Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, 98.

37
  
Except the Lord keep the city
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 57.

38
  
“All sorts of people are remembering”
Smith,
Grace and Power
, 446.

39
  
“one of the really beautiful places on earth”
Reeves,
President Kennedy
, 654.

40
  
“Don’t worry, Lyndon”
Ibid., 119.

41
  
Soon there would be plans to rename
“Land of Kennedy,”
Time
, December 13, 1963; Manchester,
Death of a President
, 671.

42
  
“God lives and the Government at Washington still stands”
Semple,
Four Days
, 88.

43
  
The next day
Ibid., 306–7.

44
  
“a youthful Lincoln”
Richard Cardinal Cushing, “Eulogy to John F. Kennedy” (speech, Boston, MA, November 24, 1963). Vital Speeches of the Day 1963, vol. 30, Issue 4, 100.

45
  
“the second president we’ve lost”
Semple,
Four Days
, 90.

46
  
“so concerned about being President”
Carson, ed.,
Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
, 150.

47
  
A memo that Sorensen prepared
Reeves,
President Kennedy
, 277; Sorensen memo to Kennedy, “Notes for Congressional Session,” January 17, 1962.

48
  
“There won’t be a library”
Reeves,
President Kennedy
, 654.

49
  
“Those brass hats have one great advantage”
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
, 217.

50
  
“Gradually expanding federal government”
Perlstein,
Before the Storm
, 13.

51
  
“All this will not be finished”
John F. Kennedy, “Inaugural Address” (speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 1961),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1961, 2.

52
  
“He had so little time”
Schlesinger,
Thousand Days
, 1030.

53
  
“Everything I had ever learned”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 178.

54
  
“So you liked Galbraith?”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Ted Sorensen, November 23, 1963.

55
  
I who cannot fill his shoes
Sorensen,
Counselor
, 382.

56
  
“This is a fine speech”
Schlesinger,
White House Ghosts
, 148.

57
  
“All I have”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Speech Before Joint Session of Congress” (speech, Washington, DC, November 27, 1963),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963–64, vol. I, 8.

58
  
“pale, somber and inscrutable”
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
, 628.

59
  
Trying to be sympathetic
Sorensen,
Counselor
, 380.

60
  
The crowd … had interrupted him
Beschloss,
Taking Charge
, 45; Telephone
conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., November 27, 1963.

61
  
“We cannot bring him back”
Jack Paar Show
, NBC, November 29, 1963.

62
  
“You can’t stop the living from living”
“The People: The Mood of the Land,”
Time
, December 20, 1963.

63
  
Holiday sales in the first week of December
Ibid.

64
  
“Do you know what chair you’re sitting in”
Kennedy,
Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy
, 85.

65
  
Over and over he repeated
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 588.

66
  
Theodore White was in the chair at his dentist’s office
White,
In Search of History
, 672-3.

67
  
“without tears”
Ibid, 674.

68
  
“Then Jack turned back so neatly”
Ibid., 676.

69
  
“There’s one thing I wanted to say”
Ibid., 678.

70
  
“There will be other great presidents”
Theodore White, “Epilogue,”
Life
, December 13, 1963, 159.

71
  
“And all she could think”
“The Enduring Legacy of Jacqueline Kennedy,”
Washington Post
, November 19, 2013.