Some photographers take snapshots of famous people while others create entire stories with a single frame. During Ronald Reagan's eight years in the White House in the 1980s, the News-Press turned to such a storytelling photographer, Steve Malone. A humble man who has a reputation for making it to a crime scene often well before the authorities show up ― and bringing back the photos to prove it ― he also has amassed a collection of images chronicling the nearly 365 days the late president and his wife, Nancy, spent at Rancho del Cielo, west of Santa Barbara. With the nation set to inter its 40th president today, Mr. Malone, 54, shared his memories of what it was like to be on news photography's front line whenever Rawhide and Rainbow, Secret Service code names for the president and first lady, came to town. "It was a childhood desire to meet or photograph a president, so when the opportunity came up I wasn't so much tapped to do it," said Mr. Malone. "I took advantage of it fully." Today the ranch belongs to the Young America's Foundation as a lasting tribute to the Reagans. Mr. Malone has donated some of the mementos and papers he collected over the years for inclusion in the Reagan Ranch Center collection, on State Street. Little has changed at the ranch since the early days, and Mr. Malone has been back on numerous occasions. "It is just like it was in July 1980, when he first opened it to the public. It's really a moving experience." Often his assignments entailed grabbing shots of the president coming or going from the ranch. But on numerous occasions Mr. Malone, who celebrates 32 years with the News-Press this month, was one of the few photographers granted access to the ranch. That's where the memorable images were made.
"I got a call from Air Force One. They said, 'Steve, you want to come out to the ranch?' Well, it turns out the photo opportunity was behind the barn, and it was the president stamping his Social Security number on his tractor, in case it got stolen," Mr. Malone said. That was long before anyone worried about identity theft. The goal of the "photo op" was to encourage people in the agriculture industry to mark their equipment to ward against thievery. Like every press day at the ranch, Mr. Reagan's aides were concerned that his dogs would somehow upstage their owner. That day was no different. "I shot a picture of the dogs jumping all over (press secretary) Marlin Fitzwater, and they were afraid that that picture would get in the paper instead of the one they wanted," said Mr. Malone. "I got severely scolded." Mr. Fitzwater, who also served as press secretary for the first President Bush, called later and asked for a copy of that photo. "I gave him a big print, and when my family went back to the White House for a tour, we went to Marlin Fitzwater's office and it was hanging over his desk in the West Wing," said Mr. Malone. "I have a picture of my kids sitting beneath the picture that I took of Marlin Fitzwater. That made me feel good." Another day at the ranch proved to be memorable for decidedly different reasons ― and left the photographer with a "glitch" in his secret file. "The president would always ride his horse at 10 a.m. Well, one day I was up there with a long lens," Mr. Malone said, his arms outstretched. "It looked like a bazooka or a rocket launcher." He took the lens and a tripod and tried to find a location away from everyone where he could capture the president and Mrs. Reagan as they rode through an area the Secret Service dubbed Secret Meadow. "I put the lens in the fork of an oak tree to balance it, because it was too heavy to get a good shot if you held it in your hand, and then I heard on the scanner that there was a 'hostile on the hill,'" he said. That's Secret Service talk for a threat.
The Reagans were ordered to stop their ride under the one tree in the middle of the meadow, and next thing Mr. Malone saw was a jeep full of agents. "They said I looked suspicious, I looked like a loner," he recalled. After checking his credentials and realizing he was no threat, the agents said carry on. But now, whenever Mr. Malone visits the White House, his name pops up during Secret Service background checks. "Scanner chatter," the constant crackle of the police radio, also helped Mr. Malone get the jump on the president on those rare occasions when he ventured out in public during his 41 visits to the ranch. "He and Nancy went to church three times here, twice at the Presbyterian church in Solvang and once at the Presbyterian church at Constance and State Street in Santa Barbara," Mr. Malone said. "We listened to the scanner 24 hours a day, and we picked up on him going to Easter service in Solvang. The reporter and I pulled into the parking lot just as the first service was letting out. "As we were walking up to the pastor, a Secret Service agent walked up and said, 'Could you put your camera away because we want the people to leave before we announce the president was coming for the second service,'" Mr. Malone said. He agreed and eventually got the shot he wanted. One that got away took place in 1970, when Mr. Malone was attending the Brooks Institute of Photography. Mr. Reagan was California's governor, and Isla Vista was burning under the weight of students protesting the Establishment. It was Feb. 27. Mr. Reagan arrived in Santa Barbara to vilify rioters who a day earlier torched a Bank of America branch, a retaliatory act following a speech by William Kunstler, the lawyer for the Chicago Seven, and the police beating of a student. Edwin Meese was the governor's chief of staff. He came face to face with Mr. Malone, who was doing freelance work for the News-Press, on the grounds of the Biltmore Hotel where Mr. Reagan was staying. "He said, 'The governor's inside that cottage by himself having lunch, would you like to go inside?' I was really timid then, so I said, 'I'll just photograph him when he comes out,'" Mr. Malone said sheepishly. That timidness was nowhere to be found decades later when the Reagans, several years of presidency behind them, welcomed to the ranch another first family of sorts, former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa. It was during the visit that Mr. Malone produced one of his favorite images.
"A small group of us went up. There were no reporters allowed. They figured the photographers were less intrusive than reporters because they didn't ask questions," said Mr. Malone. "We were up there four or five hours, and I shot several hundred pictures." They followed Mrs. Gorbachev as she tried to walk in gravel and dirt in high heels. They followed Mr. Gorbachev as he marveled at the engineering of a pond, not to mention the working gas pump. As a welcome gift, the Reagans gave their guests Stetson cowboy hats. "The image of both men leaning up against the fence in their Western wear was the image most editors wanted," Mr. Malone said. Two weeks later, the Western wear police noted that Mr. Gorbachev's hat was on backward. It dawned on Mr. Malone that at one point during the day, the men ducked into a building for a chat and Mr. Reagan showed his guest how the hat should be worn. "Ronald Reagan didn't want to correct him in public," said Mr. Malone. That's saying a lot, given it was President Reagan who publicly lashed out at his one-time enemy with those famous words, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" But on this quiet day, on top of the world, Mr. Reagan was not so persuasive. For as soon as he instructed Mr. Gorbachev on the proper way to wear that hat, Mrs. Gorbachev set it the way she thought looked best. Mr. Malone wouldn't know it until later, but there is a story in that single image. It involves a man from a backward system and a leader of the free world who tried to set him right. |
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