Aurora Starchild
Many don’t remember that Ronald Reagan once launched a massive Hollywood strike for industry workers’ fair pay. The result was a ton of negative publicity for Ronald and his wife Nancy Reagan. John Wayne was on their side and used to make heartfelt phone calls to the couple every morning to get them through the hard times.
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Ronald Reagan Worked in the Film Industry Before Politics
Years before Ronald Reagan served as the 40th President of the United States, he was heavily invested in Hollywood. The film actor-turned-politician used to be president of the Screen Actors Guild. He started on the board of directors, then was vice president, eventually leading the organization by 1947 until 1952.
During that time, there was a clash of interests in the film industry. Actors weren’t receiving residuals for their work when it was aired on TV. But producers were trying to cut costs as their own incomes were plummeting. Less Americans were going to movie theaters, opting instead to watch films from home, which meant less money at the box office. The financial tension eventually led SAG members to vote Reagan back as their president in 1959 so he could help fight for their cause.
Reagan Organized Hollywood’s First Strike in 1960
On March 7, 1960, Ronald Reagan organized Hollywood’s first official strike. The strike continued for five weeks until an agreement was reached. It was that agreement that led to today’s practice of issuing residual payments to actors when they appear on TV. On hindsight, that’s a win for the workforce. But for Ronald and Nancy Reagan, those five weeks were a nightmare. He was being blamed for walkouts and no one knew if the fight would resolve. It was a gutsy move on his part, shrouded in unknowing.
While headlines raked Ronald Reagan across the coals for the strike, there were many who had his back. Western icon John Wayne was one of those people.
John Wayne Became Good Friends with Ronald and Nancy Reagan Over the Years
The Reagan Foundation posthumously published a video about Ronald Reagan’s views on John Wayne over the years. The two actors developed a close relationship, starting long before Reagan became a political figure. Up until his death in 1979, John Wayne aka The Duke became a symbol for many of Reagan’s values as his films (many from the 40s and 50s) became a kind of propaganda. The two men got each other, and Reagan even once said he would have his late friend Wayne serve in his dream cabinet.
“John Wayne as Secretary of State. Clint Eastwood in Defense. Jack Benny as Secretary of Treasury. And Groucho Marx at Education,” Reagan joked. “But even Presidents can’t have everything.”
But what is a friend if they don’t stand by your side when you’re down and help lift you up. That’s exactly what John Wayne did.
“Duke Wayne was very often at political gatherings and so forth, and most supportive of me. And I was very grateful to him for it,” Reagan recalled in 1988. “You could count on him.”
He said that during the SAG strike, he was waking up to awful newspaper headlines every day.
John Wayne Reached Out to the Reagans Every Day for 5 Weeks
“I came home one day, and Nancy told me that she’d had a phone call that morning after I left and it was John Wayne,” said the former President. “And John also was reading the papers… she’d never met him. John said, ‘I just thought you’d want to hear a friendly voice about this time.’ And then told her how supportive he was, and so forth, of what I was doing.”
The Duke didn’t just do that once. He kept calling every day to remind Nancy that Ronald was doing the right thing.
“And he did that every morning when the press was hustling,” Reagan shared. “She could count on a call from John Wayne just to cheer her up.”
“This commentary will be a few moments of remembering a friend,” Reagan said in a recording from 1979. John Wayne had recently passed away of cancer. The former late president noted that Wayne bravely offered to be experimented on for cancer studies at the time, up until his death.
“It’s still difficult for me to realize that John Wayne is no longer here. If you don’t mind, I’d like to share some memories with you. Many people in these last few weeks have asked, ‘What was he really like?’ Well, he was just about what you saw on the screen. He stood up for what he believed was right, he placed a high premium on honor, and he had a rare sensitivity. Nancy and I can bear witness to that.”
Ronald Reagan passed away from pneumonia and Alzheimer’s-related complications in 2004. He was 93 years old.
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