Pop Culture Retrospective Episode # 16 - Disneyland Continued: Mishaps, Misadventures and Tragedies at the Happiest Place on Earth

Show #16 - Mishaps,  Misadventures and Tragedies at Disneyland

On the last episode of the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, we discussed the history behind Disneyland.  We learned how it went from an idea Walt Disney had in his head for many years that was inspired by his Saturday adventures with his daughters to the frantic opening that occurred on July 17th, 1955.  The Disneyland story spans so many decades and so much has gone on both behind the scenes - both good, bad and tragic.  So I wanted to take another deep dive into Disneyland, but this time focus on some of the darker stories that have come out of the happiest place on earth including more errors that occurred on opening day, as well as attraction malfunctions, cast member injuries and even, death..  I will also be sharing some personal stories from my time working at  Walt Disney World during my time on the WDW program almost 20 years ago.  I hope you will join me for some stories about the mistakes, mishaps, misadventures and tragedies of Disneyland (and a sprinkling of WDW as well).  So grab your: Mickey ice cream bar, your disposable kodak camera that takes terrible photos and your fanny pack, here we go!

Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.  My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard this pop culture time machine.  You are tuning in to Episode # 16:  Disneyland continued:  mishaps and misadventures at the happiest place on earth.  And before we get in to the show, I wanted to make sure to say that a vast majority of the stories in today’s show come from a few excellent books.  The first is called “Mouse Tales:  a Behind the Ears Look at Disneyland” by David Koening and “Inside the Mouse” by Stanley Fish and Fredric Jameson. I’ve had these books on my Disney shelf forever, but they are both still in print and are both an excellent read for those Disney fans who don’t view everything Disney does through rose colored glasses and appreciate a good chuckle while they read, albeit on the morbid side at times.  And please note that the information shared here is from the first few decades at Disneyland and Disneyworld, most of these stories are not recent but they are still a ton of fun to research and talk about for me, that being said, some of what we will discuss is still applicable today. Please note that some of the content of today’s show may not be suitable for young children or anyone who doesn’t want to lose some of the magic.

As we discussed in last week’s episode, the opening day of Disneyland was a bit hectic and many viewed opening day as essentially a failure due to the massive amounts of crowds that showed up unexpectedly as well as the mechanical failures.  Let’s start with some other opening day errors.  First, a power outage prevented Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride from opening. It was incredibly difficult for the thousands of people present on opening day in temperatures over 100 degrees I might add, to find shade.  It was hard to find a drinking foundation, a lot of guests ended up stopping at First Aid gasping for water. 

Perhaps exacerbated by the heat, celebrities Jeff Chandler and James Mason (both famous actors at the time) got in a fight over a carousel horse of all things.  Apparently they both wanted their respective child to ride first.  Also, a window fell out of the upper deck of the Mark Twain Steamboat, it hit a man on the head.  

The first few months saw some interesting attractions and events come and go from Disneyland.  One example occurred during Thanksgiving opening year.  Disneyland ran a performance called “Mickey Mouse Circus” and it featured live animals and circus performers.  During this performance, a panther chewed off a tiger’s paw.  The Circus wagon also hit a tent pole and part of the big top caved in (not so big anymore, are we?).  This show didn’t go over well with guests to say the least. About 30 years later though they decided to “bring in the clowns” if you will by showcasing an event called “Circus Fantasy” in 1986.  There wasn’t a big top this time, but there was a net over main street. There was also a ferris wheel on Main Street and games in town square.  Walt was very anti-traditional-carnival if you remember from last week’s episode so I’m sure he was rolling over in his grave at that thought of this!

Disneyland’s attractions also continued to have some challenges even after working out kinks during the first few weeks after the park opened.  In 1961, the Flying Saucers debuted.  There were often mechanical issues.  The attraction was sort of like a large innertube with a seat and steering mechanism on top.  The valves often lost pressure and as a result, the attraction broke down frequently.  You could tell it was about to malfunction when the saucers suddenly started moving up and down and then made a weird and loud air release noise and then a rattling, BOOM noise.  The attraction ceased operation in 1966 when Tomorrowland was updated.  

A Disney parks classic is the Jungle Cruise where guests get to float down a river, navigated and narrated by a skipper.  At first, the Jungle Cruise was going to feature wild animals, as Walt really wanted this.  Animal experts explained that many of the animals would be asleep during the day.  However, they did decide to rent alligators from an old tourist area called Buena Park Alligator Farm.  The rented alligators were placed into a fenced in area near the entrance to entertain guests while they waited in line. The alligators would make snake-like hissing noises so many guests thought they were audio-animatronics.  Kids often threw popcorn and plastic alligator figurines, assuming they weren’t real.  Remnants of what they threw were found on the alligator’s teeth.  Sometimes the alligators would get out of the pen and found their way into the lagoon.  They’d have to call the handler who would make bizarre noises with his throat which were effective in getting the alligator’s back. Divers who helped rescue the boats in the event it got off track started to get worried about having to enter the water with the potential of locking eyes with an alligator, totally understandable.  

Other creatures could also be found lurking in Disneyland, including rats.  During the 1960s, rats overran Tom Sawyer Island.  Each night they would go out in search of scraps left over from guests during the day. 

Cast members accidentally encountered them one night while closing up the snack stand.  Two female cast members accidentally locked themselves in the shop and were caught off guard when they saw the rodents running about.  They called for backup and soon a few of the island’s raft operators arrived with cave paddles ready.  One tactic that Disneyland allegedly used for ridding the island of the furry invaders was to put out hotdogs which were laced with cyanide.  The rats would take a bit of the hotdog and then fall into the river after taking a drink.  Each morning, someone would have to go to the river and skim the top for the dead rats. Apparently, one time a child picked up one of the hot dogs and fell ill.  The family sued the park and that method of pest management stopped.  They decided instead to utilize cats which roam the park after hours to take care of the rat problem.  

Working at Disneyland provides a lot of unique job opportunities.  For example, Disneyland has dozens and dozens of full time electricians on staff with a one group whose sole job is to change out the lightbulbs that can be found on many of the rooflines.  Some cast members spend some of their shifts spreading out bags of dust at the Haunted Mansion  and spray imitation cobwebs, made from a liquid substance, onto the attraction's props to make it more spooky. Custodial cast members power wash Main Street and other paved areas each night.  If you’ve ever wondered why gum isn’t for sale in the parks it’s because it’s a pain to remove from surfaces.  Another job responsibility is polishing brass on the carousel each shift.  The horticulture department is incredibly important and employees dozens and dozens of cast members.   They maintain thousands and thousands of trees and shrubs.  The Mickey Mouse shaped with flowers in front of the Main Street station is re-planted at least 7 times per year. Also, there are a few full time divers who spend their shifts maintaining lagoons, waterway areas and attractions that have sections where the vehicles travel through water.  Disneyland (and DW) both have extensive costuming departments.  They maintain the tens of thousands of costumes (Disney’s word for uniform) that are worn by both cast members and the audio animatronics. During my time working at WDW, I was quite fascinated by the costuming department.  I worked at the Magic Kingdom during my time in Florida and my shift began by parking in the cast member parking lot and taking a bus to the Utilidor or “Utility Corridor” which are a series of tunnels that are below the Magic Kingdom park.  My first stop when arriving at the Utilidor was stopping at the costuming department.  I would tell them my size, and they would give me a fresh costume that was cleaned, pressed and ready for the show.  After the costuming department handed me my costume, they would scan the skirt and shirt with a bar code scanner and my ID tag which also had a bar code on it.  They kept track of all of the costumes to make sure none of them left the park.   Most of the time, my costume was a floor-length, brown and teal plaid skirt, along with a sort of frilly, beige, button up shirt, complete with a magenta bow tie.  I would go to the locker room, change, and go up the staircase that came out in the back of the Emporium, the store where I worked.  

At least once per shift, a guest would ask me if I worked there.  Now keep in mind, my program started in August, in Florida and I was 18 years old. I don’t know many people, let alone a teenager, who would be wearing a long skirt and a long shift in the middle of the summer when temperatures and humidity are incredibly high in Florida.  At the end of my shift, I would return the costume to the linen cart.  I distinctly remember throwing my costume onto a huge pile that had grown in the cart.  A few other fellow cast members were also doing the same and one said:  “should we attempt to summit Mt. Costume?”  It was appropriately funny that he said that because the pile was HUGE, a testament to just how many thousands and thousands of cast members worked at the Magic Kingdom each day.  

By the time I worked at Walt Disney World, a lot of the outdated cast member expectations and stereotypical roles based on appearance had gone by the wayside.  But, at one time, Disney had some unique protocols and assignment methods for their cast members.  For example at Disneyland, the prettiest girls were often assigned to the Storybook Canal attraction where they narrated a boat ride through classic Disney stories. If I had done my college program in the 1960s, I TOTALLY would have been assigned to be a canal boat narrator.  If you had red hair and freckles you were assigned to Tom Sawyer Island, ruggedly built young men were assigned to Frontierland and if you were tall and blonde you were assigned to work at the monorail.  Further, class clowns were often assigned to be a skipper on the Jungle Cruise.    At one time, beards were not allowed, women could not wear earrings or necklaces and there were specifics around hair length and style.  I remember reading about this in maybe the late 1990s or early 2000s, so prior to applying for the college program, I made sure to die by hair back to my natural brown (my hair was blonde periodically throughout high school) to ensure I did not have two-toned hair which was apparently frowned upon.  I think most of the hair and facial hair requirements are no longer a part of their policies.  

In addition to the previously required unique appearance expectations, Disneyland cast members have also been known to get into a bit of equally unique mischief.  For example, at one time Matterhorn hosts (the Matterhorn is an indoor rollercoaster ride at DL) would put a group of small children into 1 bobsled and then a group of heavier adults (i.e. college football players) behind them.  The heavier group would inevitably catch up and very quickly I might add, and then the attraction's brakes would kick in.  This isn’t quite the same but when I was in high school, I worked for a Marriott hotel in my hometown.  We also liked to play some pranks.  We’d often call Marriott hotels in other countries and say something silly, throw the display apples into the lobby while ducked down behind the front desk or we’d put one walkie talkie in a plant and take one to the back of the office and say stupid things on it and guests were clueless as to where the odd noises were coming from.  Back to DL though.  Jungle Cruise skippers would often load a heavier group of people into one corner so that the boat would fall off of the rails.  

On the Skyway attraction (buckets that traveled on a wire in sky across the park), the capacity for one ride vehicle was 4 people.  Cast members would periodically have competitions to see how many guests they could cram in. One cast member managed to 8 people in.  It pulled down the cable and the bottom hit the tunnel of the Matterhorn and got stuck.  Cast Members would also take a spin on various attractions after hours and would ride them incorrectly - for example on Peter Pan’s Flight, one person  hung off the rudder and on the Matterhorn bobsleds, one person rode on the nose and someone hung on to that person’s feet.  

Cast members also receive injuries periodically while on the job.  Cinderella once caught on fire as she had a battery powered light system for the Main Street Electrical Parade.  Once, while dancing, her dress ignited on fire. Her dress was pulled off and stomped out.  During the Christmas parade, a similar situation happened with a battery-powered Christmas tree caught on fire.  Guests have also sustained injuries while visiting the happiest place on Earth- often times because they are not paying attention.  Some have fallen off of docks while looking around.  Some people would also get into lines for no reason other than they saw other people doing it.  Another common occurrence is people walking into the wrong bathroom.  In the 1970s, if someone lost an item on the Matterhorn, cast members would try to retrieve items on their own so they didn’t have to shut the attraction down.  Sometimes they would go so far as to use a hanger to hook said items.  One time a guest’s wig blew off and two cast members named Gary Lucas and Cathy Davis went to find it.  On their first loop they spotted it and took a second loop around to grab it.  Cathy leaned out of the ride vehicle, but they were going around a corner.  She slid around the vehicle and she ended up going over and out of the ride vehicle and fell down at least 50 feet.  After making a remarkable recovery (apparently doctors told her she would never walk again, but she did and went on to have several children).  She continued working for Disneyland for many, many years.  On the Storybook Land boats, hostesses have periodically fallen into the water.  They have been known to fall off the back of the boat mid-trip.  And, oftentimes guests didn’t notice because they were too distracted by the scenery.  

Disneyland also has an extensive lost and found department.  According to some reports, they find at least 150 sunglasses and hats per day.  They have also found ski boots, cameras, dentures, wooden legs, a hair dryer, and rolls of camera (in the days before digital cameras and cell phones).  Also, one time a Japanese tourist opened his wallet on the skyway for some reason and about 3,000 fell out.  Surprisingly, most of it was recovered.  

Sadly, despite Disneyland being such a magical and happy place, it has not been without it’s tragedies.  The first fatality at Disneyland was a 15 year old boy named Mark Maples who skipped school one day in 1964 to visit the park with his friends.  One of his buddies unbuckled his seat belt as they were nearing the top of the Matterhorn attraction.  Unfortunately, he stood up, lost his balance and fell onto the concrete below.  He passed away in a hospital a few days later. 

In 1966, a young man named Thomas Guy Cleveland snuck into the park and hopped a fence and landed on the monorail track.  His plan was to walk the track until he reached an attraction area and hop down.

A monorail began to approach and although a security guard yelled for him to get off the track, he didn’t.  He opted instead to hide on a canopy below the monorail.  It wasn’t low enough and so the bottom of the monorail struck and killed him almost instantly.  Just a year later, another young man named Rickey Lee Yama died while riding the People Mover (currently known as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority at WDW).  He and his friends were jumping from car to car while the cars were traveling through a dark tunnel. 

His friends managed to successfully make the jump, but he fell between two wheels of one of the vehicles.  A few years later, in 1973, an 18 year old boy named Boyden Delarout was visiting Southern California from New York.  He and his friends came up with a plan to stay on Tom Sawyer Island past the park’s closing.  They hid in an off-limits area to avoid security who did a sweep at the end of the operating day to make sure all guests were off of the island.  Later that night, the group decided they wanted to head back so they opted to swim.  Unfortunately, Boyden was carrying his little brother on his back and he couldn’t swim.  After swimming, Boyden went down and sadly, drowned.  Thankfully though, his little brother did make it to shore.  

1980 saw yet another People Mover accident.  Gerardo Gonzales attended Grad Nite at DL and once again, attempted to jump from car to car.  He lost his footing and fell under one of the vehicles. Cars were not able to just stop running if something was sensed on the track.  So, he was dragged for about 100 feet and was pronounced dead at the scene.  

Even animals can fall victim to emergencies at Disneyland.  One time a horse suffered a fatal heart attack while pulling a street car on Main Street.  The horse had a literal heart attack and dropped dead.  After being covered with a tarp and clearing the area, the horse was eventually moved off stage with a forklift.  

Aside from the fatal accidents at Disneyland, there have also been many accidents.  In 1989, a group of teenagers shook their skyway bucket so severely that the wheels came off of the cable and the ride instantly shut down.  Many passengers were trapped in the attraction and required evacuation via the fire department after waiting for about 4 hours.  Dumbo the Flying elephant also suffered many malfunctions following about 3 decades of use.  Disney knew it was time to replace it when one of the ride vehicles started to tip at a 45 degree angle and a support arm completely collapsed.  Euro Disneyland (now called Disneyland Paris) was being built and they took that park’s Dumbo the Flying Elephant attraction equipment since that park was several years away from opening.  

Now that we have discussed some of the more sad stories from Disneyland, I think the last segment of today’s show should be about some of the comical, mainly, bizarre character encounters and other inside stories from cast members.  Just thinking about these make me laugh, all of these years later after learning about them.  

Here are some of my favorites from the “Mouse Tales” books.  And I’ll preface this by saying I certainly don’t condone violence, but given the sort of slap-stick nature of many of these stories, I find them hilarious and down right, ridiculous.  

Being a character, whether it is fully costumed (i.e. Mickey Mouse) or a face character (i.e. Snow White) have some of the most fascinating stories. Costumes are changed frequently for characters and in 1978, just in time for his 50th birthday, Mickey received a new costume.  Unfortunately, whoever designed it was thinking of fashion over function if you will.  First, the shoes were suddenly much bigger and were difficult to walk in.  The middle portion of the costume was made larger which resulted in performer’s backs going out.  The design of the eyes was also different- they went from being a screen-like material to being plastic with small holes.  This made it difficult to breathe and they often had to be sprayed with de-fogger and then later lysol of course at the end of the day, so needless to say, those who wore the costume often ended up with blood shot eyes or “ojos rojos” as my sister and I used to like to say.  

Cast members who are new to the gig as costumed characters often go home with sore cheeks from smiling, forgetting they are wearing a mask.  The average time of a role as a character is about 3 years (may be less now).  The job is very taxing on the body as the costumes used to weigh about 40 pounds, I’m sure that is improved now but the extra weight plus the heat must have been very overwhelming.  The heads of the characters are typically disproportionate to the bodies so that places a lot of pressure on the neck, shoulders and back of course.  Like I mentioned earlier about Mickey Mouse and his large shoes, this is still the case today.  Walking in huge shoes is really difficult, so characters often fall and need to be helped up.  And because they are not face characters, they cannot speak so they cannot ask for help, they just hope a fellow cast member sees them right away.  In the early days of Disneyland, some of the most vulnerable characters were the 3 little pigs.  The costume didn’t have functional arms or hands so if one of them fell over because of losing their balance or god forbid pushed over, they have no way to break their fail or get back up.  Because of how the costume was shaped, when one of the pigs fell to the ground they would roll around and would kick around until someone would help.  I’ll post a link to a YouTube video that features a lot of “character fails” where you can see some of these comical accidents with the characters.  

The hardest part about being a character, especially a fully costumed character, is the heat.  

Apparently one cast member whose role was as King Louie (from the Jungle Book) started to suffer from heat stroke while working and he ended up puking inside of the costume and vomit came out through the mouth screen.  Of course the costume was laundered but it still smelled like puke and no one wanted to wear it.  I’m sure that’s not the only costume that had that happen and as a matter of fact, vomited and passing out due to the heat were not all that uncommon.  

One cast member said on one of his shifts on a hot summer day, he had to pick up Goofy, Donald and Mickey- all had passed out on the sidewalk within 5 minutes of each other and needed assistance.  Under no circumstances can a character take their head off while on stage at a Disney Park, no exceptions.  It was not unusual for characters to vomit inside the costume and then pass out on a parade float.  Not wanting to ruin the magic, the character would be left laying down or slumped over on the parade float until it moved out of sight from the guests. One time during a parade in high heat, Dumbo vomited, puke started to spew out from the screen near the mouth and he passed out on the float.  I wonder if Timothy Mouse changed his famous song from “when I see an elephant fly” to “when I see an elephant barf?” 

In addition to the heat, just being around so many people created high temperatures within the costumes.  Temperatures could reach over 100 degrees inside of the costumes.  Further, since guests often put their arms around the characters or hug them, not only does that add to the temperature, but it also adds extra weight to their already uncomfortable costumes. 

When I worked at Disney World, the cast members who were characters always wore black shorts with gray tshirts underneath their costumes.  Whenever they came down for a break (schedule is 40 mins on and 20 mins off due to the heat) their gray shirts were always completely soaked and saturated with sweat.  I always saw them whenever I was on my break at the Mouseketeria (I’m not kidding, that’s what it was called).  And for some reason, maybe because it was a pain to take them off or maybe because it made it so that when they had to get dressed again to go out on stage it was more efficient, but for whatever reason the character cast members always kept the furry feet on despite the rest of the costume being off while being on break.  So, I would often see a young man, dressed in black shorts, a soaked gray t-shirt and orange feet walk into the Mouseketeria. It caught me off guard every single time.   

In addition to heat from weather, heat could also be generated by the cruel actions of park guests.  One time a guest took out a lighter and ignited Baloo.  The CM inside the costume thought it was getting hot in his costume and was told he was  literally on fire by security.  Unfortunately, this isn’t the only instance of cruelty to costumed characters.

Probably the worst characters to mess with were the 7 dwarfs, because, well, there are 7 of them.  

One time an aggressive child was caught beating on Dopey, he was quickly surrounded by Grumpy, Doc, Bashful, Happy, Sneezy, and Sleepy.  Another time, a boy was beating up on Doc.  The other 6 dwarfs backed the kid into a fountain.  Apparently, face characters are a lot less likely to have physical violence directed toward them, however, sometimes they do jump in to help.  One time a kid was wailing on grumpy and Snow White came to the rescue.  She allegedly put the kid into a headlock and said”  beat the crap out of him, Grumpy!”  

One guest wanted to know whether or not Pluto was real or an audio-animatronic...instead of taking a closer look, she stabbed him on the shoulder with a hat pin.

Chip and Dale were once posing for photos with a couple in Frontierland.  Chip jokingly put his arm around the girl.  Her boyfriend proceeded to punch chip in his plastic face, thinking the costumed character was trying to make a pass at his girlfriend.  Chip fell to the ground and the boyfriend continued the altercation by kicking Chip.  He stopped when he heard the cries of a woman coming from inside the costume.  Man, was that guy nuts or what?! 

Some cruel guests have tried to pull off character’s heads or stab face masks to see if they would deflate. Some have even tried to push them over short fences and when smoking was more common, guests would blow smoke in their faces not really how much that would actually get trapped.  Speaking of stabbings, in the 1960s, some whack job pulled a 6 inch knife on Alice of Alice in Wonderland and demanded that she go on a date with him.  The Mad Hatter came to her rescue but the man stabbed that character in their rubber face.  The White Rabbit apparently alerted security and then came over and intervened.  

In 1964, the Beatles visited Southern California to perform a concert.  Rumors started to spread that they were going to visit Disneyland, but that they would dress as characters so as not to get recognized.  All weekend-long crazed female fans ran up and screamed with excitement at any character they saw.  

One cast member who played Mickey Mouse for a number of years finally snapped one day.  A girl kicked him in the shin and he chased her across the park all the way to the main gate.  They tripped at some point during this episode and Mickey actually fell on top of her. 

A cast member wearing a crocodile costume was punched so hard that he fell backward.  Mickey and Captain Hook had to pull him off stage.  The Big Bad Wolf apparently wasn’t intimidating enough toward guests as he was once kneed in the groin area and also had to exit stage left.  One cast member who played Pluto said he got bloody noses at least once per week because guests used to intentionally smash in Pluto’s nose.  And finally, parents often encouraged their kids to do something aggressive toward the characters.  Often overheard was “There’s Winnie the Pooh, go kick him, I’ll take your picture.”  One cast member who performed as one of the 3 Little Pigs wore shin guards after being kicked there so much.  I swear I am not making this stuff up!

I hope you have enjoyed this look back at the mishaps, misadventures and tragedies at Disneyland and a few nostalgic stories from Disneyland.  If you are enjoying the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, please do myself and yourself a favor and subscribe and rate the show!  Please tell your family and friends about the show!  You can contact me anytime, my email address is:  popcultureretrospective@gmail.com or you can follow me on Twitter, I’m @popcultureretro.  I hope you will join me for my next show where we will discuss the life and escapades of the one and only, Madonna.  Until then, be kind, be safe and hold on to your memories.