Did his embrace of partisan politics cause friction among his celebrity friends?
Eliot: He was a liberal Democrat until the mid ’50s and he didn’t become a Republican until after JFK was elected and Bobby Kennedy launched an investigation into Universal for racketeering. Reagan switched to the Republicans out of fury over what he saw as a personal attack on Wasserman and Hollywood. But until then he wasn’t like others, like Sam Wood, Walt Disney, John Wayne. He wasn’t a right-wing extremist. He was middle of the road, leaning left a little bit. Newsmax: You consider John Wayne, Walt Disney and Sam Wood right-wing extremists? Eliot: I don’t know if I’d use the word “extremists” but they were all virulently anti-union, and founders of the Motion Picture Alliance. Newsmax: Would Reagan get much Hollywood support today if he were running for president? Eliot: He’d be more popular now than when he left Hollywood because the pension fund, which was the big item that drove him from Hollywood, turned out to be the best pension fund in entertainment. Actors thought the fund
