Nancy Bio Does Boffo Business

Rob Matteson, owner of a West Hollywood gift shop, counts Nancy Reagan as one of his customers and considers her a “very nice person.” Yet moments after Kitty Kelley’s sensational new book about the former First Lady hit a local bookstore Monday, he snapped up two copies--one for himself and one for a friend.

Reports that the book claims that Mrs. Reagan had a longtime affair with Frank Sinatra helped whet his curiosity. “It’s fascinating,” he said as he exited Book Soup on Sunset Boulevard. “In this city, it could all be true.”

Within 15 minutes after “Nancy Reagan: An Unauthorized Biography” landed on the store’s counter, seven copies were gone. Three of the 603-page tomes were sold to an elegantly dressed Hollywood agent. “I think the whole town is talking about this book,” she said, declining to give her name.

On Monday, Ronald Reagan, who previously refused comment on the Kelley book, issued a statement saying in part:

“While I am accustomed to reports that stray from the truth, the flagrant and absurd falsehoods cited in a recently published book clearly exceed the bounds of decency. They are patently untrue--everything from the allegation of marijuana use to marital infidelity to my failure to be present at the birth of my daughter, Patti.”

Those allegations--and others about Mrs. Reagan’s role in the White House--received heavy media coverage over the weekend, sparking what Donna Passanante, spokeswoman for B. Dalton, described as an “unbelieveable” reaction.

“It’s flying out of the stores,” she said, noting that at the store in New York’s Rockefeller Center, 200 copies were sold in three hours.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my publishing career,” Jack McKeown, vice president of Simon & Schuster, the book’s publisher, told the Associated Press. “Since 9 a.m. we have already picked up 100,000 copy reorders.” He said 600,000 books already have been shipped.

Around Los Angeles’ Westside, which the Reagans call home, booksellers reported intense interest in the book, although most were still waiting for their copies to arrive.

“Yesterday was really crazy,” said Ed Conklin, manager of Dutton’s in Brentwood, who reported getting five calls an hour after a report about the book appeared on the front page of the New York Times.

“People ask, ‘Do you have it?’--like we know what ‘it’ is,” he said.

At the B. Dalton store in Westwood Village, manager John D. Hart had no sooner put the books on a display shelf when a customer grabbed one. But other people browsing seemed more blase, even though the $24.95 book was being offered at 25% off.

“I already sort of know what it says,” said a UCLA secretary after thumbing through a copy. “I always thought she (Reagan) was sort of like what this lady (Kelley) thinks she is.”

At Crown Books in Beverly Hills, salesman Bill Parker reported that every other call to the store was about Kelley’s book, which had yet to be delivered. But there were no plans to display it in the window, Parker said, adding, “This is a very Republican neighborhood.”

As she leafed through magazines at Crown, securities trader Susan Ristow said she was not disappointed that the Reagan book was not in stock. “I disapprove of it. I would never buy it. I wouldn’t read it,” she said.

By contrast, white-haired W. Denis Kendall, leaving Book Soup, was sporting the look of a man about to have a very good time as he carried a copy of the book under his arm along with the British tabloid, the Mirror.

“Anything’s believable in the world of Hollywood actors and actresses,” said Kendall, a member of the British Parliament in the 1940s who now lives on Doheny Drive. “There’s never smoke without a fire.”