Ronald Reagan’s Early Film Career

Ronald Reagan’s Early Film Career
Ronald Reagan in a poster for one of his movies. MovieStillDb
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Ronald Reagan was born above a bakery in a small Midwestern town in 1911. The son of an alcoholic shoe salesman, Reagan had an inauspicious start for the man who would go on to defeat communism. Despite hardships, he dreamed of becoming a movie star, an ambition fueled by the few times he could afford to see a movie.

He harbored this dream while working as a lifeguard. When he was 21, he landed a job as a college football sportscaster at a radio station in Davenport, Iowa. He then moved up to broadcasting in Des Moines, where he became known for his coverage of Chicago Cubs games. The National Sports Media Association would eventually honor Reagan for his contributions to this field, inducting him into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1990.

A Screen Test

Reagan’s big break came in 1937. He was in California covering the Cubs’ spring training and took a day off to pursue his dream. That Monday morning, he headed to the Warner Brothers’ studio for a screen test, but he had terrible stage fright. It didn’t help that the stylist doing his makeup made fun of his haircut.
Andrew Benson Brown
Andrew Benson Brown
Author
Andrew Benson Brown is a Missouri-based poet, journalist, and writing coach. He is an editor at Bard Owl Publishing and Communications and the author of “Legends of Liberty,” an epic poem about the American Revolution. For more information, visit Apollogist.wordpress.com.