American Notes WHITE HOUSE

Overcoming his actor's vanity, Ronald Reagan reluctantly started using a hearing aid in 1983 to correct an impairment suffered some 40 years earlier, when a pistol was fired close to his right ear during a filming session. To balance his hearing, the President later put a second device in his left ear. Last week Reagan, 77, began sporting new hearing aids that come with a half- & inch-thick, credit-card-size remote control.

The tiny devices, which fit completely inside the President's ear canals, contain sophisticated circuitry that allows Reagan to control their volume and eliminate telephone feedback by pressing buttons on the remote unit. The $1,900 mini-aids have an improved "noise suppression" feature that can filter out annoying background distractions -- like shouted questions from the press corps.