stemming six future self and his assistant excused herself and conover and i were sitting with john stemmons behind this big desk. he is about 6 feet 4 inches. he didn't say a word and finally he spoke. he said well it has to be done. you girls go ahead. [laughter] so it was that kind of adventure. >> in the early 80s this exhibit ran into a number of delays and obstacles and outside forces. i want to go through a couple of these. initially the national park service did not consider this to be an historic site worth preserving. initial fund-raising efforts were unsuccessful. the attempted assassination of president reagan brought attention to on dallas. john hinckley had brought the gun used to shoot reagan here. that pushed fund-raising under the table for a couple of years and then there was an arson attempts during the 1984 republican national commission. the building almost burned down. >> oh goodness. he was accustomed to answering the phone in the middle of the night and about 4:00 a.m. one morning he answered the phone and she said she is still asleep and then he said it's for you. [l