The Reagans I Remember
by Janice Leber, June 8, 2004 

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

That's all it took! He just said the words and bingo bango, the wall came down.

WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THAT 25 YEARS EARLIER?!?

I sure hope the hero worship dies down once he's buried, because Reagan was a downright dangerous president. He was not a god. I don't even feel that he was that Great a Communicator, frankly. He was just a guy who managed to parlay a few drops of "charm" (?) into an impressive political career.

I once was actually in the same room with Ronald Wilson Reagan.

It was 1976, he was running for president, and he came home to a triumphant celebration at a mall in Santa Monica. Security was tight. I had an anti-Reagan button on my purse, and folks who saw it flashed me real dirty looks. And Ronald Reagan was a Secret-Service speck in the distance.

Years earlier my mom had seen Reagan up close, when he stood on the steps of the capital building in Sacramento (where Mom worked), announcing he was running for Governor. Only a handful of reporters were there with microphones. Mom scoffed at the notion that this "lousy actor" even had a ghost of a chance, and pushed past him huffily.

Mom always had keen political instincts.

I was disgusted that Ronald Reagan could have been elected president. And then, the very first thing he did was take Carter's solar panels off the roof of the White House. Conservative? What's to conserve?

By the end of Reagan's presidency, I had kind of melted into a sub-culture of Berkeley people who performed political satire aimed at Reagan's policies. Reagan impersonators abounded in this little clique. There was Rhodney, who had a higher-pitched, golly gee, sing-songy delivery. Rhodney's strength was the content: He could rattle off facts and figures about Reagan policies better than The Great Communicator himself.

There was Dave, whose Reagan was a little more subtle and low-key. His wit was more sly. There were others, people we worked with and people we saw on TV, and they all did Reagan. And everybody's Reagan impersonation started with one word:

"Well..."

That was the signature Reagan word, the word that impelled impersonators into the Reagan brain, a very small place indeed.

I had my own personal Reagan impersonator. I had the great joy of working with Wally Fields, a guy with an amazing ability to duplicate voices. He did a dead-on Reagan impersonation that enabled us to put any words whatsoever into Reagan's voice. We had great fun with that on the radio.

Walter used to sit in our living room trying out voices, just making noises with random words -- and we would roar with laughter as he sounded things out. We laughed so hard, he actually caused us physical pain.

Walter was, in fact, so gifted, that one day he began doing impersonations of all the different Reagan impersonators.

He said, "Well..." We shouted, "Rhodney!"

He said, "Well..." "Phil Hartman!"

He said, "Well..." We knew that was Dave.

Walter and I had a lot of fun skewering Ronald Reagan, especially around Star Wars. I got to play a hysterical Nancy, and when the Bushes came to take over the White House, I locked myself in the bathroom. Barbara Bush finally coaxed me out. Walter played Bar.

Those were good times. It would never have been possible without the ludicrous policies of the Reagan administration. For that, at least and at most, I owe Ron and Nancy a debt of gratitude.

Thanks for the laughs, Gipper. Happy trails to you.

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