In honor of Reagan's birthday--James Garner & Bette Davis on St. Ronnie

[WI_DEM]

Oh, Ronnie, Ronnie, isn’t he wonderful? Listen, I was vice-president of the Screen Actors Guild when he was its president, and we used to tell him what to say. He can talk around a subject better than anyone in the world. He’s never had an original thought that I know of, and we go back a hell of a lot of years. Do you realize I could have been your president?--James Garner (From James Garner: A Biography)

"Everybody called him 'Little Ronnie Reagan the boy scout' at the studio and we didn't think he was terribly bright. For instance, in DARK VICTORY he is playing a gay man and he never really understood that. I will grant that he did give one good performance in his career--in KING'S ROW. He did love to talk, though. He would go on and on and would eventually bore everyone. Jane Wyman divorced him because he was a bore."--Bette Davis

[TacticalPeek]

1. Thanks, I needed that to make this day fully a Friday.

:kick:

[HowHasItComeToThis]

54. ALL THE REPUB PREXIES HAVE BEEN FRAUDS AND SHAM ARTISTS

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[glarius]

2. I remember when he first came to Canada as president....

He was met on Parliament Hill by some demonstrators. One of the demonstrators said something about acid rain and he said "acid rain was caused by trees!"....No kidding!

[LuvNewcastle]

3. The Great Communicator

In love with the sound of his own voice

A vacuous and insipid speech reader

[wizstars]

35. "The Great Prevaricator".....

...is more like it.

[janet118]

4. Gawd . . . I WISH James Garner had run for president

He certainly made better movies than Reagan and he could have used the last season of Rockford Files to introduce himself as candidate material - maybe David Chase could have written a couple of cool episodes where Rockford solves a case about corrupt city official and decides to run for office with Angel as his campaign manager. . . sorry, I'm way too into the Rockford Files.

"Hey? Whad's so insincere 'bout suckin' up?" - Eugene Conigliaro on Rockford Files

[Systematic Chaos]

5. Everything, down to the intros and theme music, is GREAT about the Rockford Files.

And I say this as somebody who started watching the show with my oldest brother before I was even in school yet (born in 1969).

Once I was old enough to truly understand it, I'd catch it in syndication as often as possible.

[WI_DEM]

8. what I liked about Rockford Files is that they didn't try to do a glamorized version

of the private eye like a lot of those shows did.

[PassingFair]

26. What I loved about the Rockford Files was Jim Rockford!

HAAWWWTTT!

[eShirl]

16. absolutely agree

[librechik]

12. Me three! he would have been a vast improvement over Bonzo n/t

[Pharaoh]

51. nice crop circle

wonder what it means?

[eShirl]

15. "I played Maverick. Maverick was a role of mine. And YOU, sir, are NO maverick!"

[bullwinkle428]

20. I was a HUGE fan of the "Rockford Files" when it was on the air - I was

around 11-12 years old at the time it became a hit. It wasn't until I got much older did I appreciate what a great series it truly was! Most everything on the air these days can't hold a candle to a show like that...

[livetohike]

22. Me too. I love James Garner - have loved him since

his Maverick days and I was pretty young then :-). He would have made a much better President than Reagan, that's for sure.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. He did (and so did Jack Lemmon)

and Dan Aykroyd - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117119/

[road2000]

43. Absolutely.

A deserving comedy that's largely unknown, it also made points about homelessness and gay achievement. I'd take Garner any day as president.

[niyad]

57. loved that movie, and was very much a rockford fan.

[pa28]

31. Had to laugh. I've been watching "The Rockford Files" on Hulu.

James Garner is a Democrat and he might have been a great one if he'd found his way into politics.

BTW if Angel had been in charge of Campaign funds every penny would have been misappropriated in shady ponzi schemes and crooked real estate deals. I'd pick Beth.

[janet118]

37. Much better choice . . . Beth is great

But the episode would be way funnier if Angel ran the campaign.

[pa28]

40. True. No episode there.

No way you could have a could have a car chase involving a suitcase full of cash and Angel trying to weasel out of responsibility with Beth running the program. There is no episode without a car chase.

:toast:

[janet118]

55. True - best chases in television

The one with the rock star's bus was one of my all time faves.

[PatSeg]

62. I just watched "Pioneers of Television" on PBS

last night (crime shows) and Rockford Files was one of the shows featured. Garner did his own driving stunts. Thinking it was too dangerous for the actor, they replaced him with stunt drivers, but none of them could equal Garner, so they let him go back to driving.

[underpants]

56. He always struck as an actual tough guy

I remember him telling a story on Carson about a guy giving him a hard time, "so I beat his ass"

[LeftinOH]

6. Slightly off-topic.. but King's Row is good -and Reagan's pretty good in it, too.

[WI_DEM]

7. Bette conceded that as well.

[janet118]

10. Actually, here is an interesting movie with Reagan from 1951

Storm Warning

Marsha Mitchell (Ginger Rogers), a traveling dress model, stops in a southern town to see her sister who has married a Ku Klux Klansman. Marsha sees the KKK commit a murder and helps District Attorney Burt Rainey (Ronald Reagan) in bringing the criminals to justice.

[Raine]

29. Yes, that was a good movie

I've seen it several times. It used to shown on the late late show before that particular network sold off all it's movies.

[Doctor_J]

33. Also good in "The Killers"

Movie's got everything. John Cassavetes, Clu Gulagher, Lee Marvin. And Angie Dickinson gets punched out by Clu, and Reagan gets gunned down by Marvin.

[HughBeaumont]

9. And this was only the beginning . . .

"President Reagan has substituted a mindless militarism for a foreign policy, rattling arms from El Salvador to Saudi Arabia, frightening our friends from Japan to West Germany. He proposes a 50 percent increase in ‘defense expenditures.’ Much of it will be dissipated in the self-defeating spiral of an open-ended nuclear-arms race that poses a greater threat to our own internal and external security than all the Communist propaganda that ever emanated from Moscow. Already, the cost of Reagan policies is devastating to our country in economic strength, in diplomatic influence, in national security, in moral stature." -- John B. Oakes, former senior editor, New York Times, November 1, 1981.

[jwirr]

11. He is exactly what his handlers wanted him to be. DUMB. The gop

picks the dumb ones so they can manipulate them.

[mopinko]

27. +1

puppets

[rasputin1952]

49. Precisely...it's as if the GOP makes a beeline to the veggie bin...

every time they need a candidate.

[yesphan]

13. Way to go James

My home town boy ! I'm going to go out and buy your book.

[UTUSN]

14. K&R #30 n/t

[annabanana]

17. Partial list of his "accomplisments"

(copied from thread from '04)

Reagan:

-Destroyed the Fairness Act

-Exacerbated the AIDS crisis

-Supported death squads in El Salvador

-Sold weapons to Iran

-Started the crack epidemic (how many deaths do you think came of this? How many inner-city blacks had their lives RUINED forever, all hope of a future dashed to pieces?)

-Cemented the militaristic bent the country has been chasing down ever since.

-Made trickle down economics rule the conservative roost, teaming that policy with bloated military budgets glutted with graft. These policies represent the most direct kind of theft from the American people possible.

This is only a brief list. A fouler administration I would wager has never been seen, though perhaps perspective will prove Bush II's was fouler. Reagan has a record of death and suffering that is second to none. Only fools and those persuaded by a cult of personality would argue that his impact hasn't been extremely severe, and instrumental in allowing presidencies like Bush II's to happen.

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. + a million

[wizstars]

36. I am saving my money for a trip to California to piss on his grave...

it will fulfill a lifelong dream.

"Goin' to California with an achin'...in my, uh, bladder..." :evilgrin:

[Altoid_Cyclist]

45. Try not to get caught like Ozzy did at the Alamo.

It would still be worth it though!!!

[jdadd]

46. I stopped in Dixon Illinois, to take a shit.....

One time while traveling.....I saw the sign on the Interstate proclaiming boyhood home of St Ronnie. I thought,I've gotta shit......Why not?

[Sherman A1]

44. Could you post the whole list or a link?

It would be great! I lived through those years and they were not very pleasant.

[66 dmhlt]

52. ... But he was so Charismatic!

Really not spamming, but this cartoon so eloquently reveals the true strengths and FAILINGS of Ronnie Raygun

[niyad]

58. fired the air traffic controllers. how many crashes could have been avoided, raygun?

[xchrom]

18. 'Jane Wyman divorced him because he was a bore."--Bette Davis

:rofl: :applause: :rofl:

[immoderate]

19. Garner and Davis are two credible people. Reagan? Bwaahaha!

Garner because of the roles he played. After Cary Grant, he is the model of coolness. But he modeled a sense of fairness, justice, tolerance and rationality. He was always for the peaceful solution, and he fought with his mind. First as Maverick, and then the road worn, but softened Rockford. He was generous in that series, allowing other artists to rock out while he played the foil.

Bette Davis was smart and outspoken and I'm glad to have seen interviews with her. She is a treasure like Dorothy Parker or Kat Hepburn.

Both, of course are Democrats.

--imm

[Octafish]

21. Reagan administration was "one big Christmas party for the rich."

-- Tip O'Neill.

[tblue37]

23. When my mother briefly dated Ronald Reagan back in 1936,

my grandmother was concerned. She told me, "Ronnie was a nice boy, but he wasn't very bright." Grandma wanted smart grandchildren, so she was very happy that it didn't go beyond a few dates. (At the time he was just a local sportscaster called "Dutch," and Mom was a pretty blonde 17-year-old waitress at the diner he frequented.)

[diane in sf]

25. great story!

[Jawja]

28. I love Bette Davis!!

[CBGLuthier]

32. I liked Reagan in The Killers

He was the evil criminal mastermind and Lee Marvin kills him good. Always liked that Lee Marvin. Hell of a guy.

[Major Hogwash]

34. He fucked the country up and smiled about it, like he didn't have a care in the world.

I don't think he should have been re-elected.
I also think that he was going senile by 1984, and this country would have been 10 times better off with either Carter in 1981 or Mondale in 1985.

And I will go to my grave thinking that way!!

[catchnrelease]

38. Not a popular guy with actors

Ages ago (late '80's) at the place where I worked, we had volunteers train/work with us for several weeks at a time. One nice young guy was assigned to me, and after a while in conversation we ended up talking about Ronnie. It turned out that this volunteer was a son of the actor that played the Professor in Gillians' Island (Russell Johnson). He said that Reagan's name was not allowed to be spoken in their home because of how RR had screwed actors over when he was the head of SAG! I don't remember the details, but it had to do with RR negotiating away the actors rights to residuals. Because of that the actors got nothing, even when their shows were played over and over all these subsequent years. The volunteer had NOTHING good to say about Reagan.

[Darth_Kitten]

53. I remember reading something from Russell Johnson...

definitely no fan of Reagan's. Johnson SERVED his country and Reagan did not, that was the general "giste" of the piece.

[calimary]

39. LOVE IT!!!! I had heard the Bette Davis quote before but not James Garner's.

Hilarious!!!

Should be shared far and wide!

[Canuckistanian]

41. Or how about a quote from his own wife?

"He doesn't overthink things"

[Behind the Aegis]

42. LOL @ James Garner's comments.

I have met him. A very nice man. Also, a very BIG man; of course, I was only 7, but I do remember he was very tall and had huge hands.

[Hubert Flottz]

47. I just took a Ronald Reagan and flushed it ASAP.

[BrklynLiberal]

48. k n r

[rasputin1952]

50. I always liked James Garner...

he played an affable character, and appears to be so in real life as well.

Silly as it seems, I still get chuckles watching "support Your Local Sheriff" and "Support Your Local Gunfighter"; I thought it was great the way he just outsmarted the "bad" guys...:D

There's a lot to be said for Suzanne Pleshette's line after the explosion in the mine, "fire in the hole" and she and Garner fade to a kiss...;)

[santamargarita]

59. Some assholes celebrate Hitler's birthday too

:puke:

[Divernan]

60. My fave political campaign button: "JANE WYMAN WAS RIGHT!"

[Fire1]

61. Hurl!

:puke: