Ronnie and Nancy, Their Path to the White House, Signed to Dennis Hopper
[Signed Presentation to Dennis Hopper] Colacello, Bob. Ronnie & Nancy, Their Path to the White House—1911 to 1980. First Edition. 2004. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is inscribed, “Los Angeles 2004, To Dennis Hopper—who understands, I think, the road from Warhol to Reagan—and beyond, Bob Colacello.”
If there is a journalist who understands “the road from Warhol to Reagan” it is Bob Colacello. He was famously one of Warhol’s right-hand men in the 1970s and early 1980s. He was also a favorite of Nancy Reagan’s, having become friendly when his secretary was Doria Reagan, the wife of Ron Jr. Mrs. Reagan came to trust Colacello, which gave him access many were denied. In this book, he does not violate that trust, but he does thread the needle, offering a fair appraisal of the charismatic first couple and their lives and times. He seeks to make sense of the deep chasm between the Reagan’s socially tolerant personal lives and the bible-thumping values they espoused on the campaign trail. The inscription to this copy is intriguing. It references Dennis Hopper’s transition from 1960s counterculture icon to Hollywood conservative. The implication in Colacello’s inscription seems to be that when a pendulum swings too far in one direction (Warhol), there is bound to be a correction (Reagan). This, however, was not Colacello’s last interaction with Hopper. There was a coda that speaks to the “and beyond” in the inscription. Colacello interviewed Hopper for Vanity Fair in 2010, just a few months before the actor’s death. In the interview, Hopper discusses his 2008 support for Barack Obama, lamenting, “Just think how conservative this country has become. It’s like the 60s never happened.”
“Please don’t make me sound like some kind of master backstage manipulator. Everything I did, I did for Ronnie.”
--Nancy Reagan, to Bob Colacello