Hollywood to President: Ronald Reagan Library

"I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life." ~ Ronald Wison Reagan

A Little History

Ronald Reagan was the President that symbolized the average American boy making it to the White House. After majoring in economics and sociology in college, he began his career as a sports broadcaster for a local radio station. He then joined the Army where he was approached by a Warner Bros. agent thus starting his acting career. During WWII he was called for active duty where he was assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit, and made over 400 training films. He returned to Hollywood where he continued making films for the next 20 years. He then becomes the Governor of California, which eventually led to his running for President. As President he held two consecutive terms.

Accomplishments and highlights of his career:

• Strengthened the nation’s economy by reducing inflation, increasing employment and cutting taxes
• He was instrumental in appointing the first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor
• Started a war against drugs
• His economic policies started in 1981 are known as Reaganomics
• Increased defense spending and built up the military
• Encouraged new defense technology
• His presidency is often known as Reagan Revolution as it caused political re-alignment
• Many attribute the fall of the Iron Curtain to Reagan led to the end of the Cold War

Our Experience

I think the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library has become one of my favorite Presidential Libraries, as well as my colleagues after listening to them talk about it! We arrived and had a 2 hour Professional Development. It was one of the most interesting PD’s, and we were given binders and CD’s full of materials and information to use in classrooms. We had an awesome instructor named Mira Cohen, the director of education at the library! 

We were then treated to a “Jelly Bean” tour! If you know anything about Reagan, you know he loved jelly beans. We each received an iPod, headphones, and were placed with a docent. The iPod had an app on it that when given the code by the docent we would put it. This code would be a series of colors and we would touch the jelly beans of those colors to get a question about an exhibit or to watch a movie on the iPod and then answer. You earned jelly beans for answering which then created a picture of Reagan.

Air Force One #2700 is housed at the museum. When it was retired, Reagan had the more miles on it than any other President.  We were allowed to tour it but not take pictures inside. The wing that holds Air Force One has Texas ties! T. Boone Pickens was the financial support of this wing.

When they built the oval office replica in the museum, Reagan visited and said there was something wrong with it. Sure enough it was 3 feet too short, so they had to dig out the floor area to get it to the necessary size.

Reagan’s burial spot is really a crypt. There are 4 sidewalk panels that are slightly newer looking than the others.  These cover the door that leads to the crypt.

The grounds surrounding the Reagan library are spectacular as is the view from there too. It was pretty foggy when we first arrived that morning, but began clearing as we left. The gardens were funded by Merv Griffin, actor and close friend of the President.