Long before he ran for office, Ronald Reagan served as the host of the weekly TV series, General Electric Theater. As part of GE’s sponsorship of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration — which is a two-year-long commemoration of President Reagan’s 100th birthday on February 6, 2011 — GE donated 208 restored episodes to the Ronald Reagan Foundation. Many of the episodes which were thought to be lost — and some that were damaged — were recently uncovered in GE/NBC Universal’s archives and restored for the renovated GE Theater exhibit at the Reagan Museum. As we count down the six months to the 100th birthday of President Reagan, we will be sharing some of those thought to be lost episodes on our centennial website. The first episode, The Legend that Walks Like a Man, was written by Budd Schulberg and presents actors Ernest Borgnine and Zsa Zsa Gabor (we hope she feels better soon). The episode follows the return of the legendary director Matty Moran to the Hollywood Film industry. But when he is faced with filming a scene with an old love, Sari Sanine, tempers fly. Watch the clip below and check out the complete episode on www.ge.com/reagan.
Learn more in these GE Reports stories:
* “Six degrees of GE: Our random links to luminaries”
* “Reagan & GE: Holography caps a ‘Progress Report’”
* “Leaps in the lab: From Reagan’s TV to digital x-rays”
* “Coast to coast with 250,000 employees: Reagan at GE”
* “The Reagan centennial: A legacy of progress”
* See more of Reagan’s spots by clicking the GE Theater tab in the upper menu
* Read GE’s Centennial announcement
* Learn more about the centennial at www.reagancentennial.com
* Watch a rebroadcast of Jeff Immelt’s speech at the Reagan Library
* Read Reagan essays on our website by Thomas W. Evans, Peggy Noonan, Andrea Mitchell, Tom Brokaw, Rudy Giuliani, Pat Buchanan, author Eric Dezenhall and GE retirees who worked with Reagan.
