Features 1999 |
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During a recent interview on "60 Minutes" about his Ronald Reagan biography, "Dutch", author Edmond Morris commented that Reagan loved being a lifeguard as a young man. He was credited with 77 saves at the public beach where he was stationed along a river in Illinois. "This left him with a lifelong desire to save people", said Morris.
In the book, Morris describes another rescue made years later on July 4, 1967. Reagan and Nancy were givng a staff garden party by their pool when a little Afro-American girl tumbled into the pool and quietly sank. Morris's comment about Reagan's desire to "save people" reminded me of an incident in the early 50's involving Reagan when I was a trainee in the Advertising & Sales Promotion department of General Electric in Schenectady (eventually moving to Melrose in 1965 and working for GE in Lynn). I guess you could say it was a "spiritual rescue" by the future President. Back then, the GE Theater was part of our department's public relations responsibilities. Especially, the public appearances of the show's host and GE spokesman, Ronald Reagan. Besides his on-air responsibilities, Reagan traveled 16 weeks a year (by train or car, he wouldn't fly) addressing countless employee and community groups. One day, one of our associates with the G.E. Theater told us how, while on the road, Reagan had received a letter at his hotel from a tearful mother from the small town where he was visiting describing her problem son who had become very despondent about life and increasingly hard to handle. Reagan had been the boy's idol ever since his days as the star of Wagon Train. On Saturday, his day off, Reagan decided to call on the boy. A scheme was devised to make the visit seem more logical. Reagan decided to pick every other house on the block, introduce himself and an associate with a clipboard, saying he was conducting his own opinion poll on the GE Theater. When the incredulous mother saw him at the front door, she invited Reagan in and introduced him to her son. Reagan began by telling the boy how movie fights were staged, demonstrating pulled punches with his GE partners. After more Hollywood insider stuff, he turned serious and inspirational, becoming both a father and a father confessor. The mother and son ended up crying and urging him not to go. He promised to stay in touch. And he did. Reagan was "on the road" for GE for eight years. Years later, Ed Langley, the GE public relations man who helped arrange the tours wrote, "The key to unlocking Ronald Reagan lies in the haystack of those eight grinding years of overwork at GE where he was battered, molded, toughened by being pressed against the people. It must stand as the greatest accidental political training program ever. It changed him." But, it never changed the lifeguard in him. December 3, 1999
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