The story behind the photo: This photo was taken in the White House on October 8, 1981. Two days before, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat -- who had famously made peace with Israel at Camp David with Jimmy Carter as the mediator -- was assassinated. Former Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter decided to fly to Cairo for the funeral two days later. They stopped at the White House where they held a press conference with President Reagan, and took this photo.
The story behind the photo signatures: I (Dale Van Atta) was a co-columnist with Jack Anderson of a nationally-syndicated daily news column in the Washington Post and more than 800 other newspapers. To put it in today's terms, we had 50 million hits a day -- because we had 50 million readers. In 1991, a Secret Service friend and source, for some reason, gave me four of these White House presidential photos, which were not generally available.
I thought I'd like to get them autographed and I found out that, a decade after the event, the presidents weren't signing the photo UNLESS the previous president had already signed it. It took one personal visit, one favor from a friend and a special deal with my lecture agent to accomplish this over a two-year period.
PRESIDENT NIXON: Nixon truly despised my partner and would not thus feel kindly toward me. As much as Woodward and Bernstein, Jack was at the forefront of Watergate reporting which infuriated Nixon no end. When he put together his infamous "Enemies List," Jack Anderson was at the top of it. How to get his autograph? I had become close to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (Photo #2), and he was very close to Nixon from decades back. I had backed Bob's 1988 run for the presidency with the column, so he was kindly disposed toward me. He agreed to ask his pal Dick for the signatures without revealing who they were for. A month after he sent them, Dole got one of them back. Apparently, Nixon or his staff decided to keep the other three photos.
PRESIDENT FORD: Ford was a friend of fairly long-standing whom I admired for his integrity. I was well-known to him and his staff. When I interviewed him in Vail in 1997 (Photos #3, #4 and #5), I asked if he remembered signing the four-president photos for me.
"Absolutely!" he replied. "It was the last of those I ever signed." Nixon never signed another one, and died three years after signing mine, hence none were ever forwarded to Ford after my photo. He was curious and impressed how I got Nixon's signature, because he well known Nixon's feelings about my partner. "Well done!" he said. "Very smartly done."
PRESIDENT CARTER: Because of a series of columns I reported and Jack wrote in the summer of 1980 about a contingency plan to invade Iran just before the election in order to free the hostages, Carter had a large grievance against Jack. He told friends at times that he felt those columns cost him the election. How to get his signature? My lecture agent, Jim Keppler of Keppler Associates, came up with the solution. He was also the lecture agent for former President Carter, and he agreed to get the signature in return for my obtaining Reagan's signature on a photo of himself (Keppler) with Reagan. The deal was sealed with a handshake.
PRESIDENT REAGAN: I met with President Reagan at his Century City office on May 15, 1992 (Photos #6 and #7). I was reporting on the aftermath of the Rodney King-related rioting in Los Angeles which had ended less than two weeks before. The day before I met with Reagan, I visited with a charismatic presidential candidate by the name of Bill Clinton, who had come campaigning to the devastated city. I had a good visit with Reagan, whom I had met with in Washington D.C. when he was president. He was hazy on some of those details, because the Alzheimer's Disease was beginning to wreak havoc on his memory. Still, he was gracious and obliging, and I had my four-president photo fully-signed -- at last.
Shortly after I returned home, I had it framed (Photo #8) in part to preserve it. It held a prominent place in my home office, away from any sun that might bleach it or otherwise cause it to fade. You can see (Photos #9 and #10) that the frame was completed and returned to me on June 18, a month after I met with Reagan. Because everyone likes different frames, I have pulled it out of that frame and am selling it, unframed.
The result is a four-president photo with quite a story attached to it!
On May-10-24 at 16:04:17 PDT, seller added the following information:FYI: I will be glad to provide a notarized affidavit as to how each signature was obtained. One (Reagan) was done in front of me, one (Carter) was done in front of my lecture agent, one (Ford) was confirmed by President Ford himself to me. The fourth (Nixon) was signed as a favor to his friend (Sen. Bob Dole). No president has ever used an auto pen or a secretary to sign these multi-president photos; they appreciate the historic process. I never needed to spend a couple hundred dollars to the JSA (James Spencer Authentication) folks to verify it, in part because I never planned to sell it. When I did decide last week to sell it, I so no point in letting it out of my sight for two weeks or paying $200+ to get a JSA certificate to prove what I already know.