When Character Was King by: Peggy Noonan

Ronald Reagan’s life wasn’t the greatest growing up. He had some extreme difficulties with his parents and his childhood. His family wasn’t categorized in a social class; they didn’t own anything like a farm, store, bank or industry. Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in Illinois, in a town called Tampico, in a one-bedroom rental over a bank building. His mother named him Ronald, but he didn’t like it so he asked people to start calling him what his father called him, Dutch. His father called him that because on the day he was born, his dad ran up the stairs, looked at him and said that he looked like a fat little Dutchman. He had an older brother named Neil who was two years older than
The Great Depression hit when he was eighteen. His dad lost another job and his mom got work as a seamstress. They moved too places that didn’t have any bedrooms for the children. His dad got laid off from a new job on Christmas Eve, and soon became a traveling salesman. His mom had to borrow money from Ronald for food for the family.
Ronald enjoyed acting, loved watching movies and actually wanted to become an actor, but never wanted to tell anyone. He loved broadcasting, which Chicago had. He was twenty-two years old and his life was completely coming together. He was making seventy-five dollars a week, which was a lot of money to them in that time period. Ronald got the job as a sports announcer at World of Chiropractic and then went on to WHO, which was a very popular NBC station. He moved to Hollywood in 1937. He was twenty-six years old and starring in his first movie called Love Is on the Air. He played a radio announcer. He had the worst stage fright of his life, but somehow got over it because other movies followed and the Warner Bros. renewed his contract and gave him a raise. Ronald brought his parents to California and brought them the first house they’d ever owned. He came up with the plan of his dad taking care of his mail and other demands of his career. He became his assistant. Ronald soon fell in love with actress Jane Wyman. They met on the set of the comedy, Brother Rat. She