How can I help you?
Well, I've got this early World War II
flying corps helmet, and inside it's
marked to Lieutenant R. Reagan.
OK.
Ronald Reagan, he was a big actor before he was president,
and during World War II, a lot of actors
wanted to go into combat.
And the army said no, no, no, you don't understand.
You're no longer a Hollywood star.
You'll do whatever we tell you to do,
and you're going to make training films.
So have you seen any film where he's wearing
something similar to this?
I did.
One that's on the internet, that you can see,
is "How To Recognize A Japanese Zero."
OK.
Well, first off, we don't know for sure if it was his.
If you can find correspondence from Reagan's staff,
giving the helmet to somebody in southern Pennsylvania
from whom I got it, it could be done.
Yeah, and I could also win a beauty pageant one day.
[laughter]
Normally in situations like this,
I would just tell you to kick rocks,
but this is Ronald Reagan, all right?
So how much do you want for it?
5,000.
OK.
I'll give you $2,000 bucks for it.
And this is literally a gamble.
I'd take three.
Would you take 25?
I'd have to go with three.
[sigh] You just turned me into a degenerate gambler.
All right.
So I'm going to California tomorrow.
For what?
I'm going to the Reagan ranch, believe it or not.
I'm going with you.
Why would you want to go?
I need to get out of the shop.
Where are you going?
The Reagan ranch.
Me and my dad are going.
That'll be fun.
You and Corey on a little family vacation,
Reagan ranching it up.
Corey and I are on our way to Santa Barbara,
and hopefully we can authenticate this Ronald Reagan
helmet I recently bought.
We're going to the Reagan ranch, which was President Reagan's
vacation home back in the day.
Now it's a historical site, so we're going to go down there,
and we're to speak with the curator.
How's it going?
Good.
Welcome to Rancho del Cielo.
Mike Reagan.
Yeah, and--
Rachel.
OK.
So this is what I called you guys about.
I took a big gamble and bought it, and now--
I guess you're like the casino, and you're
going to tell me if I won.
[laughter]
Well, I can definitely dig into it for you.
Yeah, it has Reagan stenciled right there.
Yeah.
Wow.
This looks great.
I'm hoping this was one of the ones
he wore in a training film.
Yeah.
We can definitely look into that, and see what we can find.
So what do we got here?
So Reagan was a part of one of the first film
units in the Army Air Force.
He filmed over 200 videos during his career,
and he appeared as a pilot in most of those.
So we found some videos of him in those training films,
and we can look at the film, and the helmet,
and compare them side by side.
OK.
The first clip is from a film called
"The Rear Gunner," in which Reagan appears as a pilot.
So in this clip, you can see the pilots actually
aren't wearing helmets.
Most of them are just wearing headsets,
and Reagan does appear earlier on
in the film, where he's wearing his official uniform,
but not with a pilot helmet on.
The one that I thought would be a really good option
was when he appeared in "Recognizing A
Japanese Zero," which is probably one of the more famous
of his films.
In here you can see him [inaudible] as a pilot,
and he is wearing a helmet, but it's
slightly different than the one we have here.
OK.
I think the chin strap's different.
Yeah, the chin strap is different,
and the buckle piece is also different.
So we're inconclusive at the moment?
Unfortunately, yes.
So would your dad have written a letter
if he gave this to somebody?
He wrote letters to everybody.
If he gave it to somebody, he would have
written them a letter with it.
He certainly would have gotten a thank you letter back,
that would be in the archives.
It would be at the library.
OK.
Can you help us out with the library?
I'd be happy to help.
So this sounds like there's going to be a lot of digging,
and this could take a long time, so I
will leave the helmet with you.
We'll take good care of it.
We'll definitely use it to dig a little,
and see what we can find.
And we're hoping to follow a lead,
so we can really authenticate it.
OK, cool.
I really, really appreciate it.
Thank you.
You did amazing, dude.
It's great helping you.
It's been great having you here.
Thank you for coming.
Thank you.
- Corey, great to see you. - You, too.
Thank you.
So we weren't able to authenticate the helmet just
yet, but Rachel's going to do a lot more digging,
and I've really got my fingers crossed, because in the end,
I think this thing is real.
In the meantime, I'm going to leave
the helmet here at the ranch, so other visitors can enjoy it.
And hopefully I get some really good news soon.
I can't wait to come back here, because this
is really one of the coolest places I've ever been to.