AHC: Earlier “Actor” President

[ghbhbhghgyygyy56777777]

So we’re all aware that Ronald Reagan first had a public image of being an actor before being mainly publicly associated with politics by becoming Governor of California (though he had obviously been involved in political organizations all throughout his career)

The challenge here is to have the earliest possible President following the same path of first being publicly well associated with “Hollywood”/the film industry.

Obviously an “easy” way to do this is to move Reagan earlier. You could push Reagan back to 1976 or even to 1968 while still staying within the realm of plausibility. Another scenario close enough to this that’s pretty popular on the forum is Walt Disney, although obviously we all know actually getting him involved with politics is a stench at best. The only other actor I can see that followed a “similar” career path was Rex Bell (obviously in a much more limited capacity as a LG) and *maybe* Joe Flynn (although he was only known on as a stage actor when he ran, losing his campaign for a seat in the Ohio Senate is what pushed him to film acting).

 

[rick007]

Isn't there a quote somewhere that goes "No Jimmy Stewart as Governor, Ronald Reagan as best friend" or something along those lines?

 

[Llewwyy]

How about Charlton Heston? He protested against McCarthy, marched with Dr. King and was president of the screen actors guild. I think he became Republican to support Reagan. So he would be a Democrat.

 

[Etruscan-enthusiast35]

Shirley Temple maybe? She made an unsuccessful bid to become a representative in California's 11th congressional district in 1967. She also made a bid for congress the same year. She later became ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. Granted I'm not sure how willing people would've been willing to vote for a female president in say the 70s, but it's an option.

 

[David T]

An old post of mine on President John Davis Lodge:

***

On several occasions, we have mentioned the possibility of Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. becoming President, but what about his brother John Davis Lodge?

POD: Robert Taft wins the GOP presidential nomination in 1952. (He came close enough to defeating Eisenhower to make this plausible. Anyway, if necessary, you can have Ike decide not to run, or die in an accident, etc. In that event, Taft will certainly be the favorite to win the GOP nomination.) Taft realizes that to win in November he will have to conciliate the Eastern Establishment wing of the GOP. So he chooses a member of one of that wing's most prominent families--Connecticut Governor John Davis Lodge.
Why John Davis instead of Henry Cabot? Because Taft very much wants a GOP majority in the Senate, and that may be hard to get without the GOP retaining HCL's Massachusetts seat. True, HCL faces a tough battle against John F. Kennedy, but at least HCL as incumbent has a reasonable chance, which probably no other Massachusetts GOP Senate candidate would have against JFK in 1952. Besides, precisely because JDL is somewhat less well-known than his brother, he will offend Taft's core supporters less.
It is likely, though not certain, that Taft goes on to defeat Stevenson in November. Yes, Taft lacks Ike's charisma, and yes, his (somewhat exaggerated) reputation as an isolationist and opponent of some popular government programs will hurt him. But dissatisfaction with the Democrats over Korea, Communism, and Corruption is probably enough to elect Taft, though by nothing like Ike's OTL margin of victory.

Let us assume that President Taft dies of cancer (as Senator Taft did in OTL) in 1953, and Vice President John Davis Lodge becomes President. Note that this answers a challenge we have sometimes discussed: finding a pre-Reagan actor who could have become President. For John Davis Lodge was not only a lawyer and politician but an actor: he "became affiliated with the motion-picture industry and the theater 1933-1942, appearing in movies such as Little Women, The Scarlet Empress, and The Little Colonel." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Davis_Lodge

See also the selected filmography at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0517099/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Incidentally, JDL's wife was the Italian dancer/actress Francesca Braggiotti. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_Braggiotti I suppose that in the 1950's some people might still frown on a foreign-born (and presumably Catholic?) First Lady, especially one who had been a dancer and actress. (Gerald Ford, running for Congress in 1948, worried that his upcoming marriage to a former Martha Graham dancer might scandalize Dutch Calvinist voters in Grand Rapids.) But on the whole, I think she'll be a political plus for her husband, especially among Italian-Americans. She certainly seems to have been a popular First Lady in Connecticut. (To quote the IMDB biography of Lodge, "His wife, Francesca, proved to be the most active First Lady in Connecticut history, opening the governor's mansion to the public. She served as a patron of the arts, promoting concerts and theater and serving as a founding member of the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut." Incidentally, she campaigned in Massachusetts in 1952 for her brother-in-law's Senate re-election. He didn't quite win, of course, but presumably she helped him at least a little bit among Italian-American voters. And back in 1948 she had been part of a drive to get Italian-Americans to write their relatives in Italy to urge them not to vote for the Communist/Nenni Socialist left-wing bloc. So she had considerable political experience.)

 

[Polish Eagle]

One possible 'easy' way to do this would be to take one of the many actors who served in WWII and have them pivot to politics immediately after the war rather than back to Hollywood. President Clark Gable, perhaps? Spends more time in air combat over Europe, becomes a firm devotee of the importance of air power to maintaining America's edge in future wars, and goes into politics to oppose post-war reductions in USAAF/USAF spending. Becomes a Congressman in the 1950s, and thus in position for a Presidential bid in the 1960s (assuming he lives longer than OTL). A similar trajectory could also apply to Jimmy Stewart.

 

[David T]

I also once suggested Rex Bell:

***

This is one of the less-talked-about names when we discus actors (other than Ronald Reagan of course) who might have become POTUS.

Cowboy star, husband of Clara Bow, Republican Lieutenant Governor of Nevada, 1954-62, he died of a heart attack while campaigning for Governor in 1962. He was only 58, so if his heart was in better condition, and if he won the governorship, I could see him on the GOP ticket in 1968. (In OTL Governor Grant Sawyer (D) easily won re-election in 1962 against Republican candidate Oran K. Gragson. But Bell might have been a much stronger candidate than Gragson, as is indicated by the fact that he was the only statewide Republican officeholder in Nevada to survive "the 1958 election sweep of major state offices by the Democratic party." http://www.b-westerns.com/rexbell4.htm That 1962 was not necessarily a guaranteed-Democratic year in Nevada is suggested by Paul Laxalt's winning the lieutenant governorship that year. https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=71093)

Let's say that Nixon chooses Bell as his running mate in 1968. True, Nevada doesn't have many electoral votes, but (1) it was a very close state in 1960, and in a close election, every state may count, (2) Bell could be seen as a less controversial version of Reagan, and one less likely to make waves and establish an independent power base as vice-president than Reagan would, and (3) Nixon may feel that Bell who "wore western clothes and cowboy boots during his two terms as Lieutenant Governor"
http://www.b-westerns.com/rexbell4.htm and would presumably continue to do so as Governor) can help in the West in general, not just Nevada. (BTW, Clara Bow will have died in 1965, so Bell is free to re-marry.)

Then, of course, assuming that Watergate goes as scheduled and Bell stays free of any Agnew-like scandals, Bell becomes President in 1974, at the age of 70. What is his presidency like, and does he run for a full term in 1976?

 

[connorCD]

I remember hearing that FDR tried to presuade his friend, the beloved Orson Welles, to pursue the Winsconsin seat for senator in 1946, but he never went through with it and instead we got Senator Joseph McCarthy. If Welles had run for the seat and won, it is possible he could end up as a presidential candidate at some point, but I'm unsure whether or not he'd actually be able to achieve a seat at the oval office.

 

[marktaha]

Will Rogers? Brief favourite son in 1932. If George Murphy had started earlier..