Off the Wall : Chunk of the Berlin Barrier Unveiled at Reagan Library

Folks, you may have caught the act during its long-running engagement, 28 years in Berlin, and now it’s here, in Ventura County.

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s say “Ich bin ein Venturer,” and give a big Simi Valley welcome to a big performer; the concrete you love to hate--the Berlin Wall!

Thursday, in a sunny outdoor ceremony that blended patriotism and razzmatazz--a German oompah band direct from San Diego and Mel Torme singing the national anthem--a 9 1/2-foot-high section of the Berlin Wall was unveiled at the Reagan Presidential Library in the Ventura County city, where the workmen wear caps that read “Building One for the Gipper.”

It’s too big for a coffee table, and too small to restrain any freedom-loving person in Simi Valley, let alone East Berlin. But it will fit right into the archives, ephemera and landmarks of the Reagan presidency.

Not quite three years ago, Reagan visited West Berlin and, in front of the Brandenburg Gate, demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” On Thursday, Reagan, dwarfed by the 6,338-pound piece, said his 1987 phrasemaking “wasn’t merely a polite suggestion.”

The donated section is one of only seven complete wall panels in the United States. Such intact sections sell from $60,000 for a plain one to $125,000 for elaborately painted or graffitied specimens.

This one, more pristine than the much-graffitied stretches of the wall, shows only a red butterfly hovering above flowers on a blue-green background, artwork that “obviously couldn’t be more than a year old,” said Joseph Sciamarelli, president of the Berlin Wall Commemorative Group, the exclusive U.S. distributor for the wall.

The Reagan library “originally contacted the government of East Germany and asked how they could secure a section of the wall for the library,” Sciamarelli said. He and his group decided “we didn’t want Ronald Reagan to have to make a purchase of the wall, with his commitment and what he had done.” So with fast-food magnate Carl Karcher to help with the buying and shipping costs, the wall came west, gratis.

“It’s very positive for the President to have a section of the Berlin Wall,” said Sciamarelli. And, from a strictly business point of view, it’s “good public relations” to “let people know the wall is available and it is an item that is for sale.”

For the 1,000-plus invited locals, and old Reagan associates like MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman, Reagan’s former agent, Thursday’s unveiling afforded them not only a look at Reagan and the wall, but it was the first chance to see what had been going on at the hilltop library building site.

After the spit-and-polish of Reagan’s presidency, the dedication had the easygoing mood of a block party. Nancy Reagan hoisted a yellow and orange paper sun parasol that wouldn’t stay open, and once threatened to collapse around her head.

The accordionist with the Bavarian Beer Garden band wore shades with his lederhosen . A few folks showed up in shorts and flip-flops. The contingent from the UCLA marching band blared out favorites like the theme from “Hawaii Five-O,” and a Marine in the color guard muttered, “I could use a beer right now.”

The 38-minute ceremony, emceed by Johnny Grant, the so-called “Mayor of Hollywood,” began with the band playing the movie fanfare from 20th Century Fox to welcome Reagan, a former Warner Bros. star. Also present were officials from East and West Germany, and a young woman who escaped from East Germany before the wall was brought down.

The former President’s own remarks were classic “easy listening” Reagan, stirring oratory now free of the political constraints of policy-making: The wall “shattered dreams and crushed hopes. It made us angry . . . it seemed for a time to be impenetrable,” but when it came down, “that night, all freedom-loving people in the world were Berliners.”

“We accept it with solemn remembrances of the past and the resolution of what happened must never happen again. . . . Let our children and grandchildren come here and see this wall and reflect on what it meant to history. Let them understand that only vigilance and strength will deter tyranny.”

Tyranny was certainly on Ray Mulokas’ mind. The Lithuanian-American, his wife, daughter and a friend wore black crepe paper armbands to the unveiling.

“We weren’t here to demonstrate, not to take away the good done by Ronald Reagan,” he said. But “we hope we can celebrate with the East Germans one day.”

For Simi Valley student Jason Oliver, 15, one of the designated escorts who got “ this close” to Reagan, it was on-the-job training for when he is president, in 2016, he figures. He has dedicated himself to that goal “since I was 6 years old. That’s been my life, except for like going to Disneyland.”

Locals snapped one another’s picture in front of the fragment of wall. Boy Scouts collected the discarded Pepsi cups that were blowing away.

And German bandsman Joe Dyke loaded up his musical gear for the drive back to San Diego.

Sure, he liked it, he said. “Show business is my whole life.”