History is written by the victors, so it is said. But sometimes, certain events can reveal ones true place and importance in history, despite how many historians write their PHD thesis about an historical figure. Recently, a partnership between the Ronald Reagan museum and Mickey Mouse, tore away at the veils of prejudice that historians often wear, and revealed the perfect metaphor to describe a presidency that many would say was well below the standards of Mickey Mouse.
Forever cemented into the flow of time, the relationship between Ronald Reagan's presidency and the House the Mouse built, should be the image that comes to the minds of all school children as they try to understand the presidency of the 40th president of the United States.
Excerpts below the fold:
Disney lends it's star power to Ronald Reagan.
But the other afternoon, hundreds of people lined up outside the door waiting to view a most unlikely addition to this presidential library: Mickey Mouse.
Some unconfirmed reports claimed there was a great deal of confusion about which was Mickey.
the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and the Walt Disney Company have joined together to open a sprawling, nine-month exhibition drawn from the Disney archives.
There were great concerns over the mingling of the Presidential Documents and the Disney Archives since many historians feared it would be next to impossible to distinguish between the two and restore them to their original places.
There are 12,000 square feet of cartoon sketches, costumes, storyboards and all manners of props. There is even a precise reproduction of Walt Disney’s office, which holds its own with the precise reproduction of the Reagan Oval Office up another hall.
Johnny Depp’s bright orange wig from “Alice in Wonderland” across the lawn from where Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, is buried? Mickey and Minnie Mouse singing “Happy Birthday” to Nancy Reagan, 91, when she showed up for the opening ceremony this month and presenting her with a jar of jelly beans?
There was no indication if the stuffed chimpanzee remains of Ronald Reagans co-star in the hit B movie, "Bedtime for Bonzo", would also be put on display.
On July 7, the first Saturday the new exhibition was open, gift shop revenues were five times as high as usual;
It is rumored that on July 9, huge salary increases were announced for the Gift shop owners, which immediately forced the gift shop to run massive deficits and bring the Gift shop to the brink of bankruptcy. Disney officials claimed that Mickey Mouse could not survive on the severe drop in revenues and proclaimed this "Starve the Beast" approach was not acceptable.
Now, I certainly don't want to denigrate the memory of such an important historical figure, by implying something negative just because of the company he keeps. But we all know he had a wonderful sense of humor, and self-deprecating humor was a hallmark at the peak of his entertainment career. So I am confident that if he were around today, Mickey would simply smile and take no offense to this diary.