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[This is Bob Asman. I had been an NBC employee for 32 years]
[when I finally retired in 1993. And I have a long and happy association with NBC and,]
[especially since GE took it over, with GE. But I was fortunate enough to be in the]
[Washington bureau at a time when the bureau was growing and they needed a full-time]
[special-events producer here in Washington. And so I became that entity, and in doing so]
[I had a marvelous time meeting heads of state and traveling with presidents from ]
[John F. Kennedy right through to President Clinton. I traveled with them on overseas trips]
[and so on and did other special events. And my association with President Reagan was largely]
[because it just happened to be NBC's turn when we were doing a television pool; that is, ]
[situations where only one network could cover an event or a speech or any major event,]
[we rotated. And CBS, NBC, and CNN, and ABC rotated that pool responsibility. ]
[It just so happened that we were the pool for a couple of President Reagan's ]
[Oval Office addresses, and one in particular stands out]
[and it's the one that I wrote to you about. It was his last speech to the nation as ]
[President of the United States before he left office. Because it was ]
[sort of a special occasion, we asked the Secret Service if it would be okay if we]
[brought some champagne in and after the speech offered a toast to ]
[the outgoing President. And the Secret Service agreed with the proviso that they would]
[provide the champagne from the White House supply and just replace ours with theirs. ]
[I think that was a security issue. But in any case, the speech went fine, ]
[and following the speech I said, "Mr. President, if you don't mind, ]
[we would like to raise our glasses in a toast to you as this was kind of your farewell]
[to the Oval Office in terms of television appearance. ]
[And he chuckled and said, "Well, of course. Be happy to." So we popped the corks and]
[poured the champagne, and it was just our crew, about 6 people--technicians,]
[cameraman, lighting director, audio man--actually two camera people--and]
[a production manager and myself, and I think our bureau chief was along on that one. ]
[But in any case, after the speech was over and we were off the air, we stood ]
[around, drank champagne, and President Reagan could not have been more kind]
[and gentlemanly and professional and friendly and honest [laughter]. He had all those]
[wonderful traits and, most of all, a sense of humor and a great recollection of his time]
[doing other things, like his time in Hollywood. But in any case, we had a very ]
[relaxed and wonderful experience talking to him following the speech. ]
