Seth Kaller, Inc.

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RONALD REAGAN. Autograph Letter Signed, to Sam New York, N.Y. c. 1953. 2 pp., 5¾ x 7½ in. on The Plaza Hotel letterhead.

Inventory #23281       SOLD — please inquire about other items

Complete Transcript

Dear Sam

            Just a quick line about the script between TV rehearsals. You have a good story here and it should make a good picture but I feel it is too much of the thing I personally must break away from at least for a while. My career started to slip into a “boy next door”, “nice fellow” type of thing and I still have some of those unreleased including one in which I play a lawyer. For that reason I honestly must say no. I’m d—n grateful to you for giving me a crack at it and sorry it wouldn’t work out.

                                    Thanks again

                                                Ronnie Reagan

                               P.S. Will get the script to you

Historical Background

Reagan’s first television appearance was in 1950 on the Nash Airflyte Theater, but his reference to multiple “TV rehearsals” probably dates this letter to sometime in 1953 or 1954 when Reagan was filming multiple episodes for the Medallion Theatre, the Lux Video Theatre, The Ford Television Theatre, and the Schlitz Playhouse, among others. Reagan had indeed been typecast as the “boy next door” since at least the mid 1930s, in particular the musical film Naughty But Nice.