If Jane Wyman had been First Lady

If she was anything like Angela, she'd have been hilarious.

She would have ruled the country like she did the town in Pollyanna. She was a BITCH.

She was a Democrat and not a manipulative social climber like Nancy. Ronald Reagan never would have become a corporate shill or considered public office if he remained with Jane Wyman.

She would've encouraged us to say "YES" to drugs...

R3, not that Wikipedia is always right, but it says she was a registered Republican and that she voted for Reagan both times.

That's really hard to say. If she had stayed married to Reagan, she would have left the business with all the gays the same time he left. Less exposure to gay friends could have made her less sympathetic, just like Nancy. Also: Wasn't she a strong Catholic as well? I think what speaks for her was her sense of pragmatism - as far as I know her just from reading about her. She seemed to be very matter of fact, so she may have become less ideological as Ron and Nancy.

She divorced him for emotional cruelty. Had they stayed married she might have died before 1980.

Jane was a conservative cunt. She vetoed a storyline on Falcon Crest where Jane Badler's character was supposed to be a lesbian with a girlfriend.

Saw her once on my very first job as a busboy in a small chef owned restaurant in Montecito. It was the first week I started there and my mom who worked in the neighborhood as well deiced to check me out on the job an noticed her. There were some other celebrities as well. I had no clue who she was. Most of the clients were old rich ladies and I was 19 so I couldn't care less at the time.

Could, Couldn't whatever.

Beated me to it, r8

Jane would have started a bangs frenzy.

What if Bonzo had been First Chimp?

Hey, I will NOT be a bastard. You can't cancel me. I BRAVELY, like Meghan, said mean things about my family!

She would have called out for staff with that commanding screech that had Chao Li running in immediately, snapping her fingers like Leona Helmsley.

Maybe we would have gotten to see Barbara Stanwyck as Angela, as if you look at the pilot, she's a bit more of an outdoorsman than Angela was on the series.

She would have threatened to make Barbara Bush the oatmeal queen of the district of Columbia.

Maybe she would have changed that turtle-head hair style she kept for over 60 years.

I never owned knee pads and I knew ketchup belonged on french fries. And no to drugs—except Mary! Jane.

I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen her in anything, aside from the Douglas Sirk stuff. I know she won an Oscar but she was kind of a lower level star.

Jane was initially just another standard contract player at Warner Brothers, in blonde wigs playing either feisty young women or dizzy dames, and then "The Lost Weekend" came along. Warner Brothers didn't take her seriously until then, and "LW" and her Oscar nominated role in "The Yearling" were on loan. She got her Oscar for a Warner Brothers film, and ended her contract two years later, freelancing in comedies, musicals (surprisingly good) and of course the tearjerkers which were huge moneymakers.

I don't think she was a huge box office star, but after an auspicious start, was a surprise to become successful and very respected. In that sense, she's like Lucy, because her career beginnings didn't mark her as a star, so the fact that she became so successful probably surprised even her. I'm sure she was a better mother than Nancy. I believe she has a gay grandson too.

What was with those bangs? I've seen a few pictures where her hair's swept back and she had a perfectly nice forehead.

[quote]R18 I don't think she was a huge box office star, but after an auspicious start, was a surprise to become successful and very respected.

I know when she left Warners Bette Davis got a dig in at co-contractee Joan Crawford by saying her own star dressing room should go to “the next queen of the lot, Miss Jane Wyman.” (Or something to that effect.)

[quote]Jane would have started a bangs frenzy.

"Started," R11?

R19, You have a problem with bangs, dearie?

In this scene, Jane plays the departing First Lady, and Ana Alicia plays Barbara Bush. The drama starts at 2:03.

Why has "The Blue Veil" remained hidden for decades?

The Blue Veil(1951)

Jane Wyman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Joan Blondell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

DL icon Vivian Vance also has a supporting role.

OP, There would be no Patti or Ron, Jr.

Ronny would have had to find his very own Monica Lewinsky without Nancy there to give him her famous hummers.

R18: Unlike Lucy, she never tried to do things that were beyond her skills. She may have had a better peak than Lucy, but she wound up on tv in the 50s with all the other B-picture types (like Ronnie).

Reagan would never have been a governor, let alone a president, had he not gotten divorced from Jane & married Nancy.

I have a bit of gossip here ...

My neighbor in Santa Monica was a closeted Catholic eldergay who had worked in the movie business. He and Jane Wyman became friends through the local Catholic church and he would fuss over her constantly (think Mickey and Valerie in The Comeback).

When Kitty Kelley's biography of Nancy Reagan came out Jane was DYING to read it but couldn't be seen buying it, in her mind. So this queen drove her to Crown Books on Wilshire Boulevard, parked in the alley, and went in to buy it. She was already reading it by the time he pulled back into traffic.

They went to lunch at her house and thumbed through the index to get all the juicy bits. She HATED Nancy.

Jane Wyman just radiates bitchery, I never could stand her.

Bumpin' Jane!

Ron Reagan, (Jr) not afraid of burning in hell.

She was apparently a worse mother than Joan Crawford-a nasty bitch.

And she fought with a lot of people on the set on Falcon Crest.

Nancy made sure during her lifetime there was absolutely no mention of her at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, even though Jane and Ronnie had two children. I'm not sure if that's still the case.

RR was attracted to one type of woman, all right.

R33 is full of shit.

That old crow from falcon crest?

We would currently have world peace.

Chao Li would never have voted for Jane!

Jane never would have let Ronnie get shot. She would have noticed Hinkley before even the Secret Service and tackled him.

[quote]: Unlike Lucy, she never tried to do things that were beyond her skills. She may have had a better peak than Lucy, but she wound up on tv in the 50s with all the other B-picture types (like Ronnie).

She wasn't a B-picture type after the mid-1940s. She on an Oscar in 1948 for Johnny Belinda, and made several big hits in the 50s. Here Comes The Groom (directed by Frank Capra, co-starring Bing Crosby), for ex. It even produced an Oscar-winning hit single, In The Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, with Bing and Jane. She got another Oscar nom for Magnificent Obsession. Also starred in Miracle In The Rain, Lucy Gallant, and All That Heaven Allows. Her TV anthology series was 1955-58 and pretty common for stars of the era (Loretta Young, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Joseph Cotten).

*won an Oscar

Other films of the 50s included The Glass Menagerie, Three Guys Named Mike (w/Van Johnsons and Howard Keel), Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright, Just For You (also with Bing), So Big, and Let's Do It Again with Ray Milland.

She'd have kept that big strapping girl Maureen Reagan locked in the attic tower.

Cesar Romero would have had James Watt's job!

I remember an episode of Falcon Crest where she tripped or somehow foiled an assassin trying to waste Richard Channing. I want to say it was a later season and they were out by the pool.

The 1981 assassination attempt would have looked very, very different, as R39 suggests.

[quote]She on an Oscar in 1948 for Johnny Belinda

I don't have the book handy, but I pretty much remember what Ignatius Reilly's mother said about the movie in 'A Confederacy of Dunces':

"Aw, she was so sweet as the dummy who got herself raped. I'll never forget the look on that poor dummy's face when she got raped."

Who gives a fuck? We still would've had the Susan Sullivan pivot, which is all that really matters in the end.