Movie Nights with the Reagans : A Memoir

Former special advisor and press secretary to President Ronald Reagan shares an intimate, behind the-scenes look inside the Reagan presidency-told through the movie they watched together during weekends at Camp David. Over the course of eight years, Mark Weinberg traveled to the legendary presidential retreat at Camp David nearly every weekend with Ronald and Nancy Reagan. He was one of a few select members invited into Aspen Lodge when the First Family gathered for "movie nights," showing contemporary and classic films on Fridays and Saturdays. Movies brought them together in times of triumph, such as the aftermath of Reagan's 1984 landslide, and after moments of tragedy, like the explosion of the Challenger and the shooting of the president and press secretary Jim Brady. Weinberg offers a nostalgic journey through the 1980s, and his unparalleled access shows a rare personal glimpse of the Reagans-two former Hollywood stars who were simultaneously transforming the Republican Party, the American economy, and the course of the Cold War. Book jacket.