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R-O-N-A-L-D  R-E-A-G-A-N!   

The New York Times takes note of an exciting new collaboration high above Semi Valley: the Reagan Presidential Library and the corporate heirs of Mickey Mouse, joining to celebrate their mutual need for fresh meat.

The paper makes much of the odd-couple shoe-horning of Disney into an august “Presidential Library,” but the Reagan people in particular are practiced hands at odd lash-ups.  They’ve devoted much of their energy over the last several years to building a vast airplane hanger, making Nancy Reagan’s old dresses into a tax deduction, while losing more documents than any of their peers.  All the libraries face declining attendence and have tried to morph into vaguely pop history palaces.

The lets call it limited engagement of Reagan and Disney takes up much of the article, but in fact there were links. Disneyland’s opening was c0-hosted by Reagan.   Reagan’s sinister CIA Director, Bill Casey, was Counsel for CapCities, which swallowed ABC during Reagan’s reign and was a principal component as Michael Eisner rebuilt Disney.

 And Reagan cut a lot of ribbons for them.

 

The Times speculates about Disney’s motives:

 “Exhibitions of memorabilia have long been one of Disney’s tools for furthering its corporate interests. A few years ago, the company teamed with the Pompidou Center for a display of animation art as part of a campaign to persuade the French to embrace Disneyland Paris.”

As long as we’re going there, how’s EuroDisney working out?   Twenty years on the park remains mired in debt. On the plus side,    French Communists egged then Disney head Michael Eisner to protest EuroDisney’s launch, perhaps the only decent thing the Party did since the Anti=Nazi Resistance.