The President's Ladies:Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis

Jane Wyman (née Sarah Jane Mayfield) and Nancy Davis (née Anne Frances Robbins) were both Hollywood actresses who played prominent roles in the Eighties—Wyman as Angela Channing in Falcon Crest for nine seasons and Reagan as first lady in the White House for eight years. They both were also married to a B-list actor at Warner Bros. named Ronald Reagan. Dick (English, Farleigh Dickinson Univ.) has written dozens of titles on movies, including biographies of Rosalind Russell, Loretta Young, and Claudette Colbert. Wyman was the subject of two biographies in the 1980s; Davis has been written about in numerous works. The author's research included viewing many of Wyman's and Davis's films and shows and reviewing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives rather than sourcing interviews, examining the pair just through their acting careers. Wyman's is better known: 50 years that included a well-deserved Oscar for her performance in 1947's Johnny Belinda. Davis's work has been mostly forgotten because of her life in politics. The author knows his material well, but because the book focuses on detailing the women's films rather than their personalities, it can be slow going.