Work Wanted

Reagan's son gets in line

As President Ronald Reagan reminded the nation once again in his TV speech last week, his own family has been touched by unemployment: he was out of work in the Depression year of 1932, and his father once lost his job on Christmas Eve. He might have added a far more modern story, except that it is less than poignant. Ronald Prescott Reagan, 24, the President's youngest son, is now strolling each week into an unemployment-compensation office in New York City, with a Secret Service escort, to sign up for a $125 check. His career looks more promising than ever: he has been promoted to the main Jeffrey Ballet company from a secondary troupe and will resume dancing at the end of October for $333 a week. But the whole company is now on a four-week layoff between seasons. Says Joan Greenspan, an executive of the American Guild of Musical Artists: "Ron is doing what every New York dancer does between engagements."

Ron telephoned his father and Nancy to inform them of his plans. "They offered to help him financially," says Sheila Tate, the First Lady's press secretary. But, she says, Ron told them that "he wanted to get through it on his own."