Ronald and Nancy Reagan's wedding, March 4, 1952. The newlyweds are joined by Brenda Marshall and William Holden. (From the USC Digital Library's Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection.)
Beginning early next year, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum will exhibit a script from the USC Cinematic Arts Library. The screenplay, from the 1951 Nancy Reagan film Night Into Morning, is part of a newly-renovated permanent gallery about the former first lady, slated to open February 6, 2011.
In the film, written by Karl Tunberg and Leonard Spigelgass and directed by Fletcher Markle, Reagan (then Nancy Davis) plays Katherine Mead, a secretary for a university English department who consoles a professor suffering from personal tragedy.
Reagan recently identified the movie as her favorite from her acting career. When the Reagan Library needed to locate a copy of the script, they found it at the USC Cinematic Arts Library, which houses a rich archive of film scripts, production documents, and other rare artifacts from decades of filmmaking. As the former First Lady wrote in a letter to Steve Hanson, Director of the Cinematic Arts Library:
The renovation of the Reagan Library Museum has offered us the opportunity to display some new materials, most of which are already part of the library collection. So when I was asked which of the movies I performed in was my favorite, I didn't realize my answer would put into motion a search that would involve so many people outside of the Reagan Library staff. I appreciate the time you and your own staff spent to locate the script and also to make the extra copy for me.
According to Andrew Wulf, Chief Curator at the Reagan Library and Museum, the script is on long-term loan and will be displayed indefinitely in the new exhibition. The museum is currently undergoing renovations in preparation for the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration. (February 6 will mark the 100th anniversary of the president's birth.)
The Reagan Library and Museum, which remains open during renovations, is located in Simi Valley, California. For visitor information, see the Reagan Library website.