Future President Ronald Reagan made his big screen debut in Love Is on the Air (1937). The simple storyline features Reagan as radio crime reporter Andy McCaine, who ruffles the wrong feathers with a certain exposé; it seems his show's sponsors are in cahoots with gangsters. Andy is demoted to doing children's radio, but nonetheless finds a way to solve a murder. The hour-long film was essentially an update of 1934's Hi, Nellie, which was set in the newspaper world and starred Paul Muni and Glenda Farrell. It's been said that Warner B-movie producer Bryan Foy had previously filmed the same story at least six times. But that Reagan's arrival on the lot, with his background in radio, gave Foy an idea for a new spin.

Ronald Reagan got his start acting in college but when he signed with Warner Bros. in 1937, all of his professional experience was in radio. He began as a sportscaster in Iowa announcing the Chicago Cubs games. While on the road with the Cubs in California, he landed a screen test at Warners and was subsequently signed to a seven-year contract. It was unusual for an unknown to be plucked off the radio and signed to a contract at one of Hollywood's biggest studios but Reagan had even better luck - he scored the lead in his first picture. It was an entrée into the entertainment industry almost as storied as his later political career.

Reagan did receive a slight makeover in his transition from radio to the silver screen. He worked with a dialogue coach, was given a haircut and some sleeker clothes. He was also treated to a shirt fitting by James Cagney's personal shirt maker. Evidently the cameraman on Love Is on the Air complained that Reagan's neck appeared too short on film (it was a problem for Cagney as well). The shirt maker was called in to create a deep V collar style for him. Reagan reportedly wore this same style of shirt for the rest of his life.

For his work in Love Is on the Air, Reagan received $200 a week. The film took just three weeks to shoot and it received generally positive reviews. The Hollywood Reporter was especially generous in its praise, saying, "Love Is on the Air presents a new leading man, Ronald Reagan, who is a natural, giving one of the best first picture performances Hollywood has offered in many a day." Clearly the studio intended take full advantage of Reagan's winning appeal and by the end of 1939, he had already appeared in eighteen films. Among them were Brother Rat (1938), Secret Service of the Air (1939) and Dark Victory (1939). Reagan, who struck up a friendship with producer Bryan Foy from the start, later joked that Foy created B-movies just to keep him on salary.

Joining Reagan in Love Is on the Air was June Travis, who also had a Chicago sports connection; her father was vice president of the White Sox. Reputedly, Travis was discovered at a White Sox game by a Paramount executive. She made her film debut at Warners in Stranded (1935) which starred Kay Francis and George Brent. Over the next four years, Travis appeared in twenty-nine films – all of them B-movies. Some of her more popular titles include: the Cagney-Pat O'Brien aviation drama Ceiling Zero; the Joe E. Brown comedy Earthworm Tractors; and the Perry Mason mystery The Case of the Black Cat (all released in 1936). Travis retired from movies in 1939 to get married. She would return to the big screen just twice: first, to play a fairly prominent role in the Bette Davis Hollywood drama The Star (1952) and then, to make her last film appearance in the grade-Z sci-fi travesty, Monster a Go-Go (1965).

Love Is on the Air represents the mid-point of Travis' 31-film career and she very likely helped ease Reagan's transition from the world of sports into moviemaking. Certainly Reagan's first Hollywood film experience seems to have been a positive one. He later remarked, "right from the start, down amongst the 'B' pictures...I was sure that I was in the right business for me."

Producer: Bryan Foy, Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner
Director: Nick Grinde
Screenplay: Roy Chanslor, Morton Grant, George Bricker, Pat C. Flick
Cinematography: James Van Trees
Film Editing: Doug Gould
Art Direction: Max Parker
Cast: Ronald Reagan (Andy McCaine), June Travis (Jo Hopkins), Eddie Acuff (Dunk Glover), Ben Welden (Nicey Ferguson), Robert Barrat (J.D. Harrington), Addison Richards (E.E. Nichols).
BW-59m.

by Stephanie Thames