I find this photo of Ronald Reagan bizarre in so many ways! As a child I always found it strange that he went from being a matinee idol to being President of the United States, and now I find a photo of him in a swimsuit as a lifeguard. Real life can truly be stranger than fiction…This photo was taken in Lowell Park, Illinois, 1927.
Source and copyright: This file is in the public domain, because All the photographs from the Reagan Library Archives are in the public domain and may be credited “Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library.”
I remember seeing that photo when I toured Reagan’s boyhood home in Dixon, Illinois. The tour guide said Reagan supposedly saved a record number of drowning women — but they wondered how many were exaggerating the danger just to be in his arms.
ha – I love that idea! I find it strange to think that the elderly man who was President when I was growing up in the 80s was such a heart throb!