'Portrait of Ronald Reagan as Centaur' by Komar Melamid, 1981,
from Reagan: American Icon, by Robert Metzger (Bucknell University, $45, $29.95, pp. 144) THIS is the catalogue for an exhibition of pictures and posters of Ronald Reagan, who has 'caught the pulse of serious American artists as no other president has done since the early 19th century'. Serious artists — Copley, Stuart, Eakins — have indeed depicted presidents but, on the evidence of this collection of caricatures and kitsch portraits, not any more. The film posters are of greater interest and especially the essay about the President's former incarnation as a Hollywood B- movie star. We learn how Perc Westmore of Warner Brothers fashioned the Ronald Reagan look, moving the middle 'part' to the left then, presciently, to the right, where it has remained. Perc also intro- duced 'a large pompadour, or pouf, which seemed to increase in size with the years', and had the suspiciously 'Mediterranean' black locks tinted 'a light, all-American auburn'.
But the amiability which was to carry him to a full presidential term worked against Ronald Reagan on the screen, and of his 53 films only 10 were deemed worthy of the expense of colour. By 1954 he was performing in a night-club at the Last Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas, sharing the bill with The Honey Brothers, the Adorabelles and a chorus of semi-nude girls. 'In the "Beer Garten" routine, he wore an apron advertising Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, don- ned a straw hat, sported a cane, and danced and sang, using a heavy, guttural German accent.' This is the image Amer- ican artists still seem to have of him, though we all know who had the last laugh.
John McEwen
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