<<<After SF, Reagan was billeted at Fort Roach, meaning that he lived there. He did get passes to see his wife and child but was not living with them. That is far away from your lie that he slept with her each night and concocted a bogus story to steal glory from actual combatants. >>>
I've done a little more research, and see that while during the week, Reagan was, indeed, "billeted" at at the studio "dubbed" "Fort Roach," "Fort Roach" was a few miles down the road from his wife and child, and he spent each weekend with them.
From Wm.E. Pemberton, Exit With Honor:
"The army assigned him to the First Motion Picture Unit at the Hal Roach Studio in Culver City, which allowed him to return to his nearby home each weekend."
So... what we have, it looks like, is that the RR whom you portray (and Reagan himself does) as being deprived of "making love to his wife," when Friday night rolled around, just scooted on down the road a piece to assuage the hardship of the love-deprived intervening hours.
I'll bet he had nooners, too, if he couldn't make it to the weekend! Heck, that's what one does, isn't it, if one is so inclined around lunchtime and one's partner down the road is, too?
(In 1942, during the filming of This is the Army at his old studio, Reagan went home every night.)
Here's an interesting para from Pemberton confirming the Wills account you dismiss, and explaining something of what his state of self-perception may have been when he portrayed himself as love-deprive "in common with..." :
"Reagan and Wyman became propaganda commodities themselves... Hollywood's "perfect couple" became part of the war effort, with Reagan portrayed as patriotically giving up his career to serve his country, while Wyman... stoically endured her fear that her loved one was in danger. During the war... fan magazine coverage, by writers loyally overlooking the fact that Reagan was working a few miles from home, was virtually unmatched in film history."
I can see how easy it was for him to continue the myth of having given up his career to serve his country to, as you put it, "steal the glory from actual combatants." He saw himself portrayed month after month after month, in the movie mags, as a soldier separated, "in common with" millions of others, painfully, tragically, separated, from long-suffering Jane and little Maureen. And with that uneasy grasp on the truth we know about, from George Schultz and many others, he was surely convinced, in his way, to give him the benefit of the doubt, that it would be a great relief to, after a long separation (sometimes 5 days can seem an eternity!) from his wife, to finally be able to take her in his lonely arms again.
There was at least one period of separation when they lived in Culver City-- when Jane was on her combination trip to promote a bond drive and her latest film, Dough Girls. Maybe that made a lasting impression on him.
Here's an interesting note from your cited book, Early Reagan:
...Reagan was soon transferred to the air force, which had begun a First Motion Picture Unit at the old Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, newly dubbed "Fort Roach." Although he would be billeted for most of the week at Fort Roach, he would be able to see Jane and Maureen frequently. 'I would regret one price I had to pay for this assignment: no more boots and breaches.'"
What he missed was the horseback riding privileges he'd enjoyed during his brief time at Fort Mason.
I'd like to say here that the man is old and sick, and that he undoubtedly did his duty to America as he understood it, imperfectly, perhaps, but -- in his own way -- with sincerity. He isn't dead, so the past tense feels odd sometimes, which I should acknowledge; and I should say that I have the same sympathy for him now that I have for any sufferer from the slings and arrows of illness and debility. And that these feelings coexist in me with the extremely negative feelings I have about the younger, healthier Reagan. |
