Charlie Brown's Christmas Miracle by Michael Keane

Author:Michael Keane [KEANE, MICHAEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Center Street
Published: 2023-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

So, I went to him and asked him, and he said, “No way I don’t want to do anything, I don’t want to do anything.” But I kept after him and got turned down for over a period of a few weeks. Finally, it got to the place where I was going to have to do something. Then I got the brilliant idea, “Why don’t I go to his agent? Because his agent doesn’t make anything off of him if he isn’t working.”

Neil Reagan approached William “Bill” Meiklejohn, his brother’s agent. Meiklejohn had originally taken the younger brother to Warner Bros. and secured the contract that had brought him out to California from Iowa. Meiklejohn had sold his agency to MCA, but he left after several years to once again launch his own firm, but he was not finding much success. Neil Reagan explained to the agent how his brother had rejected his prior entreaties regarding the Death Valley Days hosting job. “Well, leave it to me,” Meiklejohn responded.4

A few days later Neil Reagan entered the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, where he ate lunch every day. The ad agency executive had a booth that was permanently reserved for him in a prime location as guests entered the restaurant. Behind his booth were caricatures of famous actors and Hollywood power brokers, including one of Neil Reagan himself.i The ad exec entered, recognized friends, and was conversing with them when he heard his brother’s familiar voice over his shoulder. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have to be here this noon, dressed up with a tie on.” Feigning ignorance, Neil responded, “What do you mean, because of me?” The actor replied that he was having lunch with Bill Meiklejohn. “Well, good,” said Neil. “I hope he has something for you.”

After lunch with his agent, the actor exited the restaurant without stopping by his brother’s booth. Meiklejohn, however, did stop by. “Go ahead and write the contract up and send it out to him. He’ll sign it,” he said. The ad agent’s plan to corral his reluctant brother had worked perfectly. Two or three days later Neil was sitting in his booth at the Brown Derby when Ronald appeared and immediately began needling him about what kind of trouble he had gotten him into with the Death Valley Days contract. The two brothers were extremely close but never physically demonstrative or capable of expressing deep emotions with one another, and Neil recognized that the actor’s faux whining was his way of expressing his appreciation for his assistance in landing him a new job.

Neil Reagan had another motivation for securing his brother a high-visibility position. He knew it would keep Ronald in the public eye, which would be helpful if the actor decided to run for governor in 1966.

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