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168

Ronald Reagan

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:4,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Ronald Reagan

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Auction Date:2010 Dec 08 @ 19:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Rare ALS as president signed “Dutch,” one page, 6.75 x 9, pale green White House letterhead, no date, but postmarked December 7, 1981. A letter to his longtime friend Lydia “Hup” MacArthur. In full: “It’s that time again–Christmas and you know I wish you & so does Nancy–the Merriest of Christmases & a Happy New Year! We’ll be spending ours in Wash.–Christmas that is–we get to Calif. for a couple of days over New Years. This is always a time for Warm & Happy memories of holidays past. I remember them in Des Moines and they grew more pleasant & treasured with the years. I don’t think in those days we could have predicted what I’d be doing now. Maybe it’s good we couldn’t. It would have spoiled the fun. Merry Christmas, Love, Dutch.” In clean, fine condition.

Lydia Hupfer “Hup” MacArthur was the widow of Pete MacArthur, program director of WOC in Davenport, Iowa. In 1932, MacArthur had given a then 21-year-old Reagan his first job as a sports announcer. They would remain friends until her passing at the age of 102 in 1995. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Reagan’s hand, and postmarked December 7, 1981. Also accompanied by photocopies of a UPI article Reagan wrote, a page from Time magazine’s January 5, 1981 Reagan Man of the Year issue mentioning Peter MacArthur, and a 1982 article about Hup MacArthur.

Reagan spent a portion of his first Christmas in the White House reminiscing about the past—days when the out-of-work actor jumped at the chance to work in radio after Pete MacArthur took Reagan under his wing. Reagan’s persistence paid off, as he spent four years at the station and gained a level of fame that would only grow over time

In this letter, as he sat in the White House nearly 50 years later, the pensive president recalls how he rose from unemployment during the Great Depression to become leader of the free world. ”I don’t think in those days we could have predicted what I’d be doing now. Maybe it’s good we couldn’t. It would have spoiled the fun,” he muses. Clearly, Reagan never forgot those days, ones relegated to “pleasant & treasured” memories. A rare offering of notable poignancy.
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