Like just about everybody else I have not seen the book (and probably won't bother) so, all I know is gossip I read. But the gossip I read said that somebody alleged that in 1938 one of Reagan's friends approached him about joining the CPUSA and that he was vaguely interested because so many of his friends were in, but that he did not pursue the matter.
He was not head of the Screen Actors' Guild until about ten years later, after WW II. Of course, then he became an FBI informer against his old friends and, after his divorce from Jane Wyman, went right wing after he got pissed over paying such high marginal income taxes and then married Nancy Davis, a third rate actress, who was the daughter of a membe of the John Birch Society. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Max Sawicky <sawicky at epinet.org> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Friday, October 01, 1999 8:41 AM Subject: Re: ex-Marxist apostates (was He's Got the Whole World In His Hands)
>I hadn't heard that tidbit, but the Right has launched a frantic
>campaign to discredit the author and book, which is an
>'authorized' biography. The weak spot they are targeting
>is the author's device of creating himself as a fictional
>character in the story -- making explicit what some
>historians do implicitly (i.e., embroidering for dramatic
>effect, or just making up shit.)
>
>I very much doubt the veracity of the anecdote. Reagan
>was head of the Screen Actors Guild. He may be the
>Asshole of the Universe but he was not stupid.
>
>mbs
>
>>
>> It is reported here that the new Reagan biography says that the Gipper
>> applied for Communist Party membership but was turned down on grounds of
>> being to stupid. Anyone confirm?
>>
>> --
>> Jim heartfield
>>
>
>