Reagan and Spielberg

[monster_magnet]

I'm not really that interested in UFOs but just wanted to know if there is any truth in the following claim told to me by a friend. He is neither reliable nor unreliable in these matters but was surprised i'd never heard about it.

Accoding to him during a special screening of ET Ronald Reagan whispered to Steven Speilberg and said that "he [Spielberg] would never know how close he was to the truth".

On hearing about the production of ET Mr Speilberg and the Model Makers were urged to change the design of the aliens as those in Close Encounters were 'too close for comfort'.

Probably tripe, would like to know either way tho.

 

[evilsprout]

Not got much to add, but remember hearing that too. Sounds a bit of a UL to me though.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe Ronnie wasn't actually referring to the alien, but the fact that the Government had the powers to seal your house up in a giant condom and then take you and your family away without any resort to legal council.

 

[monster_magnet]

Isn't that what happens if you don't pay your council tax

 

[evilsprout]

Completely OT, I saw a poster ad in Sheffield city centre, with a photo of a burly, tatooed "white trash" style fella in a vest, and the caption:

"I've got kids, they won't throw us out for non-payment of rent"

Oh yes we will!

(My wording might be slightly different!).

Basically the council were saying "Yes, we are bastards. Pay up".

 

[Anonymous]

Basically the council were saying "Yes, we are bastards. Pay up".

This is not the place to get into this, I know, but speaking as an ex(as of yesterday) housing officer, its more a question of 'your repairs etc are paid out of the rent collected, if you don't pay (or more likely, if you couldn't be arsed to sort out your Housing Benefit), why should we be made to look like muppets by letting you stay on?' In fact, to get evicted you really have to take the piss, I've had judges refuse to allow me to get rid of people who owe a couple of grand. Still manage to pay for satellite, better car than me, and holidays, but not the rent...........

As for Reagan - the guy was pretty confused even before he officially got Alzheimers. He was once quoted as saying that trees were a major source of pollution!

 

[evilsprout]

Yeah, good point about Reagan, 'mute. Not heard that pollution quote before... taking Bushbaby into account too, it maybe proves that all you need to be President is an IQ lower than your shoe size.

(And re council, aye I was being Devil's Advosprout to a certain degree, I hear what yr saying about evictions. The poster still seems like bad PR for Sheff city council tho!)

 

[Anonymous]

it maybe proves that all you need to be President is an IQ lower than your shoe size

Don't forget Gerald Ford, of whom it was famously said that he was 'too dumb to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time'.

 

[carole]

And someone else said that he looked like the guy in the horror movie who was the first to see the monster.

Carole

 

[Pete Younger]

He was once quoted as saying that trees were a major source of pollution!

Railtrack agree with him.

 

[Anonymous]

As for Reagan - the guy was pretty confused even before he officially got Alzheimers. He was once quoted as saying that trees were a major source of pollution!

He did on occasion have difficulty confusing fact and fiction. For example the infamous bomber pilot story...

In the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan repeatedly told a heartbreaking story of a World War II bomber pilot who ordered his crew to bail out after his plane had been seriously damaged by an enemy hit. His young belly gunner was wounded so seriously that he was unable to evacuate the bomber. Reagan could barely hold back his tears as he uttered the pilot's heroic response: "Never mind. We'll ride it down together." ...this story was an almost exact duplicate of a scene in the 1944 film "A Wing and a Prayer." Reagan had apparently retained the facts but forgotten their source (Schacter 1996, 287).

Assuming that the story starting the thread is true, it is possible that Reagan was dredging it up from some half remembered story. (Alternatively, he might just have been having a bit of a joke )

 

[Anonymous]

As for Reagan - the guy was pretty confused even before he officially got Alzheimers. He was once quoted as saying that trees were a major source of pollution!

Obviously! Trees drop leaves and needles all over the place and you have to employ extra Mexican labour to tidy them up. Allegedly.

 

[minordrag]

*purely for entertainment purposes*

Enjoy the man in his prime, blowing it.

 

[Justin_Anstey]

During a screening of the film E.T. at the White House in the summer of 1982, President Reagan is reported to have whispered to producer Steven Spielberg: 'There are probably only six people in this room who know how true this is.'

-Pg65, Timothy Good, 'Alien Liason, The Ultimate Secret', 1991.

(Information supplied to the author by Michael Luckman.)

Yes, yes, I do actually own a copy of this. I bought it before I discovered FT, honest.

Apparently, Reagan saw a couple of UFOs and told Norman Miller of the Wall Street Journal about them. I can't be bothered to typre it all out, so:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...d+reagan+ufo+norman+miller&btnG=Google+Search

Hold on, in the notes for that chapter is says:

"The Reagan sighting was first mentioned in 'Landslide: The Unmaking of the President', by Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, Collins, London, 1988, p. 402, and a follow-up report, based on interviews with Bill Paynter and Norman Miller, appeared in an article by Alan Smith and Ken Potter in the 'National Enquirer, 11 October 1988."

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like someone has made a minor alteration in the telling/context of the remark.
I also recall Reagan's speech to the UN about how a threat from outside of this world would quickly bring everyone together. People construed this as proof there was something going on behind the scenes
Slightly OT, I was reminded of the Reagan quote when I read it in the very first X Files spin-off book by Mrs. Jonathan Ross. There was also a curious tale of how actor Jackie Gleason was chummy with Richard Nixon whilst he was President, and was invited over to Hangar 18 after a game of cards (or whatever) to see their alien collection. Gleason was rumoured to be shook up by the whole affair and would never speak about it again. Weird story, never heard anywhere else (by me).

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like someone has made a minor alteration in the telling/context of the remark.
I also recall Reagan's speech to the UN about how a threat from outside of this world would quickly bring everyone together. People construed this as proof there was something going on behind the scenes
Slightly OT, I was reminded of the Reagan quote when I read it in the very first X Files spin-off book by Mrs. Jonathan Ross. There was also a curious tale of how actor Jackie Gleason was chummy with Richard Nixon whilst he was President, and was invited over to Hangar 18 after a game of cards (or whatever) to see their alien collection. Gleason was rumoured to be shook up by the whole affair and would never speak about it again. Weird story, never heard anywhere else (by me).

Jackie Gleason - was he the bloke who played Minnesoto Fats in The Hustler?

 

[Anonymous]

*Sneaks a peek at the IMDB*
Yeah.

I know him more as they guy who played the sheriff in the Smokey and the Bandit movies.

 

[Anonymous]

Slightly OT, I was reminded of the Reagan quote when I read it in the very first X Files spin-off book by Mrs. Jonathan Ross. There was also a curious tale of how actor Jackie Gleason was chummy with Richard Nixon whilst he was President, and was invited over to Hangar 18 after a game of cards (or whatever) to see their alien collection. Gleason was rumoured to be shook up by the whole affair and would never speak about it again. Weird story, never heard anywhere else (by me).

Just done some research and apparently it wasn't Hanger 18 or Area 51 but a place called Homestead Air Force Base in Florida (not somewhere I have heard connected with Alien Corpses/Artifacts before)

In her unpublished biography of the funnyman entitled "The Great One," Beverly, Gleason's second spouse, describes a bizarre trip Jackie took with the then President in 1973 to Homestead AFB in Florida to see what see says were bodies of four dead space aliens recovered by the Air Force.

The aliens were supposedly embalmed and displayed on operating tables and classified as top-secret material. Gleason and Nixon visited the base under extremely tight security, she says.

Extracted highlights from a full article on this page

There are a lot of sites out there that feature this snippet if you google for it. Apparently he was a keen UFOlogist but was "visibly shaken" when he returned from the trip.

Make of that what you will