As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Ronald Reagan awarded the best picture Oscar at the 1947 Academy Awards. As clips of the best picture nominees rolled, Reagan declared that the footage represented "the glories of our past, the memories of our present, and the inspiration of our future."

Had he bothered to glance up from his cue cards, Reagan might have noticed that, due to a series of technical glitches, the clips were shown backward, upside down, and on the ceiling!

[As a young lifeguard at a riverside beach near Dixon, Illinois, young Ronald Reagan rescued 77 people from drowning.]