Nate and Alisha Traveller, from Utah, were mightily impressed with the Gipper’s plane. ”It’s awesome,” said Alisha. ”You can certainly see who he was and how he did things.” Nate added: ”We watched his funeral on television and were touched. That’s my seven-month-old daughter: her name’s Reagan.”
The Travellers, on holiday in California, were among the first visitors to see Air Force One, the gleaming blue, white and silver Boeing 707 newly installed inside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The plane, which served six other presidents as well as Reagan, has the air of a museum relic from a folksier, more easy-going age.
The cowboy actor-president must have rubbed shoulders and probably backsides with aides, journalists and cabin crew as he passed through the plane, barely wider than the average sports utility vehicle.
It leaves little space for the separation of powers so beloved of today’s control-obsessed politicians.
”Back then I guess there was much more proximity between the press and the politicians,” said Cody Allen, who had made the trip from Santa Monica. ”He was a gregarious individual and he probably relished the contact and being centre-stage on the plane. He was an actor, after all.”
The actor’s props were on display in Air Force One: a programme for a presidential trip to China lay on a desk, the presidential crockery and metal cutlery were ready in the galley, and the president’s jacket hung on the back of a chair.
On a table inside the grandly named state room, a small cabin by today’s executive travel standards, a jar of Jelly Belly sweets had pride of place. Jelly Belly also features among the donors to the $32-million gallery and exhibit. The president’s passion for the multicoloured confectionery, so legend has it, saved the company from bankruptcy.
Scattered throughout the cabin were reminders of a time when politics went at a slower pace. A bulky photocopier and an even larger electric typewriter recalled some long-forgotten technological age. A TV set stood above a video recorder bearing the message: ”Not authorised for viewing classified tapes.”
In the gift shop, there was a recording of Henry Kissinger, recalling the good old days on Air Force One. ”There were not very many profound conversations going on,” said the former secretary of state and bon viveur.
But despite his recollections, some serious business did happen aboard Spirit of ’76, as the plane was also known. During its three decades in service, it flew Richard Nixon back to California after he resigned as president, it took Jimmy Carter to Germany to meet the hostages from Iran, and it flew Reagan to Berlin where he famously said: ”Tear down this wall, Mr Gorbachev.”
”I think it’s magnificent, even though I’m a Democrat,” said Marjorie Luxemberg from Newport Beach. ”I’m an American and this is part of our history. He was an unusual person who started out poor and became president. It was too bad [Reagan] divorced Jane Wyman and became a Republican.”
In the gift shop John Marlin, from Hemet in California, had found something to make his day. ”Will you look at this,” he exclaimed, raising a $3,95 Reagan Library Air Force One shot glass up to the light. ”Made in China! Can you believe that? I gotta have this.”
Next door, one of the library’s other new features attracted several curious customers. The Ronald Reagan Pub, previously known as O’Farrell’s of Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, in Ireland, made famous when Ronnie and Nancy popped in for a drink in 1984, had been shipped to California — beer taps, bottles of whiskey and all. ”John Kennedy has an airport, Johnson has a space centre, but Ronald Reagan proudly has a pub,” Reagan wrote to the proprietor in 1994. ”Now that’s got flair.” – Guardian Unlimited Â