Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, passed away on June 5, 2004. He was born in Dixon*, Illinois in 1911. He served two terms as Governor of California and two terms as President of the United States. Reagan often corresponded with different people around the world. He shared his time using his pen with many people who would never have had an opportunity or chance to physically meet him and say hello.
Some forty years ago I had an opportunity to [meet] Ronald Reagan when he filled in as host for Death Valley Days shortly after Stanley Andrews, the “Old Ranger,” decided to retire from the program. Barry Stabler wanted Reagan was host for Death Valley Days. Reagan had been the very popular host of the General Electric Theater. Stabler had twenty-six Death Valley Days episodes to film but he wasn’t sure if Reagan could fulfill this task. Reagan had been asked to run for Governor of California at the time.
Apache Land was a very busy movie locale between 1962-1969. Barry Stabler continued shooting his Death Valley Days episodes at Apache Land. Ronald Reagan became a regular on Death Valley Days. It was during his work at Apache Land that I briefly met Ronald Reagan one morning on the set.
Madison Productions, Barry Stabler’s company, moved into Apache Land on June 6, 1966 to do the series. The Apache Land staff was looking for extras for Sadler’s company. Candidates who wanted to work were asked to wear Western clothes that would be appropriate seventy-five years ago when they showed up at the casting office. Horses were being leased and rented for these episodes of Death Valley Days. There was one particular film shoot [where] a few extra horses were needed. The horses were leased from Dallas Adair as I recall. I happened to be visiting at the U Ranch early one morning when there was a call for a couple more horses. I rode down to Apache Land with the cowboy working at the ranch. Once at the movie set we dropped off the horses. While on the set I got to meet Ronald Reagan briefly and talk about the horses and the old ranch. We returned to the old Quarter Circle U Ranch.
The next thing I knew Reagan had been elected Governor of California, then President of the United States in 1980. Late in December 1981, Jim Swanson and I published a book titled Superstition Mountain: A Ride Through Time. Somehow Jim and I thought bringing up the names of the United States presidents that had visited this area would make interesting reading in our book. We thought of Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan. We planned to print a special leather-bound gold-embossed copy of our book for the President of the United States with the Great Seal of Arizona on it. We eventually had the book printed on linen paper and in a slipcover. Fourteen of these books were printed, and one copy was sent to President Reagan.
Arizona’s Attorney General Robert K. Corbin, a friend of mine, carried President Reagan’s copy of our book to Washington D.C. around Christmastime 1981. When Corbin returned from Washington D.C. he told us the President would respond to the book. On April 14, 1981 I received an envelope simply marked “THE WHITE HOUSE.” The letter was addressed to Tom Kollenborn. The letter read as follows:
Dear Mr. Kollenborn:I’m certainly glad you asked Bob Corbin to bring the handsome copy of your book, Superstition Mountain, for me when he came to Washington. This handsome Collector’s Edition on Apache Junction and some of its interesting residents is a delightful remembrance of your friendship and will also help me relieve many happy days filming the Death Valley series. Many thanks for sharing your work with me. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness.With my best wishes,Sincerely,Ronald Reagan
President Reagan acknowledged Corbin bringing the book to him and he did recall our brief meeting almost twenty years earlier at Apache Land. I would have never dreamed he would become President of the United States on that hot dusty movie set lot that day at Apache Land. I would say, “you never know who you are going to meet and where they will end up.”
As we rode into Apache Land that day we didn’t even know they were shooting Death Valley Days. At the time I was more excited about meeting Barry Sadler, the author and singer of “The Green Berets,” a very popular song out of the Vietnam War.
Ronald Reagan is gone now. He lived a very productive life and had a very devoted wife. History will undoubtedly remember him as the man who ended the Cold War and defeated Communism. I had grown up with the Cold War and the threat of worldwide Communism.
I remembered the McCarthy days and the Committee on Un-American Activities. He remembered the Senator’s attack on Hollywood producers and stars. I find it interesting that Ronald Reagan emerged from this to become President of the United States. When I received this letter it was truly one of the highlights of my life.
* Library note: Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois.
