If it's the "clothes that make the man," then former actor and U.S. president Ronald Reagan was a pretty suave guy.
One of his suits, from the much-hyped 1942 movie, "Kings Row," is on display at the Brick District Playhouse. It was purchased by members of the Callaway Chamber of Commerce from Sotheby's Auction House in New York City decades ago, and now has a home in the lobby of the newly restored playhouse in Fulton.
"It's been at the chamber for many years; it was previously at the courthouse," Debbie LaRue, member of the Playhouse board of directors, said. "Dale LaRue was involved when they purchased it."
The wool ensemble and tie (printed with tiny camels) was purchased in 1980 by the chamber, then known as the Kingdom of Callaway Chamber of Commerce. Dale LaRue was president then.
"Kings Row supposedly took place in Fulton," he said of the melodramatic book by Henry Bellamann and then Warner Brothers movie starring Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings and Reagan.
Dale LaRue said he learned about Reagan's suit coming up for auction at the famous auction house. It came with documentation that it was an actual Reagan costume from the movie.
"There was a group of us and we decided to purchase that suit," he said. "We had $2,400. We bought it for $2,000. I didn't realize at that time there was a sales fee tacked on. It came in at $2,400 exactly."
The suit arrived and Dale LaRue was there for the opening of the boxes.
"I was surprised - there was the suit, and another coat with a shirt and tie ... and then a vest," he said. "We didn't have a place to display it."
A gentleman from the Missouri School of the Deaf created a glassed-windowed oak cabinet, part of the display moved to the playhouse late last week with other related items.
"Don Fletcher - he put together that old movie camera," Dale LaRue said.
There's also a broadsheet movie poster from the film and other items. The new set-up is in the lobby between the bistro that fronts the building and the theater itself.
At one point, Reagan was reunited with the suit.
"I know when Reagan came to Westminster, the display was moved out there," Dale LaRue said. "Somewhere there's a picture of him and Bob Cummings looking at it."
He said he thought Reagan had commented about how small the suit looked.
"He was a good-sized gentleman," Dale LaRue said.
Anyone with questions about Ronald Reagan might find their answers with LaRue.
"I'm kind of a Reagan collector," he said. "I got to see him four times, and I did get to speak with Nancy Reagan."
In the film, Reagan's character, Drake McHugh, has both legs amputated by a sadistic surgeon, played by Charles Coburn. When he comes to, following the operation, he gasps in shock, disbelief, and horror, "Where's the rest of me?" Reagan used that line as the title of his 1965 autobiography.
Reagan and most film critics considered "Kings Row" his best film. Reagan called the film a "slightly sordid but moving yarn" that "made me a star."