Walt Disney Company - Spinning Disneys World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent

SPINNING
DISNEY'S
WORLD

Memories of a Magic
Kingdom Press Agent

Charles Ridgway

Copyright (c) 2007 by Charles Ridgway. All rights reserved.

SPINNING DISNEYS WORLD

MEMORIES OF A MAGIC KINGDOM PRESS AGENT

Published by The Intrepid Traveler, P.O. Box 531, Branford, CT 06405 www.intrepidtraveler.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

This book makes reference to various Disney copyrighted characters, trademarks, and registered marks owned by The Walt Disney Company and Disney Enterprises, Inc. They are used in this book solely for editorial purposes. Neither the author nor the publisher makes any commercial claim to their use. Note: For purposes of readability, the official names of some entities, including but not limited to Disneyland(r)Park, Walt Disney World(r) Resort, Disneys Animal Kingdom(r), Disneys California Adventure(r) Park, Walt Disney Imagineering, and others are often referred to in the abbreviated or colloquial forms by which they are commonly known to the general public.

Cover design by Foster & Foster

ISBN: 978-1-887140-96-6

Distributed to the trade by National Book Network

Dedication

To my wife, Gretta, who shared fifty-three magical years with me, and my children, Janet and Scott, who continue to enrich my life after Disney.

Foreword

Forty years of playing press agent for Walt Disneys Mouse Houses on three continents has given me a mental library of war stories about Walt himself and his Imagineers plus visiting showbiz stars and behind the scenes tales of publicizing the worlds most famous outdoor entertainment parks - tales I enjoyed telling to my news media friends for many years.

They were the ones who suggested putting the stories in writing. Translating these verbal tales to the printed page would be easier if I could do it with a wink and a smile.

Starting as a Disneyland publicity writer, I soon developed a secondary specialty setting up photographs of visitors and special events - including telling Walt Disney himself where to stand when he was part of the setup. Not too many tried telling Walt where to go.

My favorite picture was the last one we shot of Walt in 1966 - sitting on a bright red fire engine beside Mickey Mouse in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. Both are smiling. It was shot by my friend and co-worker Charlie Nichols, but I was the one who got to tell Walt where to sit

Since I began my working life as a reporter and writer, the best part of my Disney job was meeting thousands of fellow journalists from magazines, radio, television and newspapers around the world - entertaining them and being a guide for their family visits to Disney parks in Florida, California, France and Hong Kong. Many were internationally known writers and broadcasters, fascinating to know.

Making friends with them was vital to my job. I went to see them in their offices. They came to see Mickey Mouse and the parks. We talked about their Disney experiences but even more we talked about ourselves - our families, our joys, our jobs, our troubles and ambitions, the state of the world.

Which is where these tales were first told. Some are funny. Some are sad, full of miscues and triumphs. Some are even unbelievable. Hopefully they reveal some of the magic that Walt Disneys world has brought to my life and the lives of millions of people, ordinary and mighty, around the world.

Chapter 1

T here I was, less than a week into my new press agents job at Disneyland, standing on top of a desk to reach photo files on shelves that stretched up to a fifteen-foot Victorian ceiling. It was Monday, the park was closed; there was no one around. The year was 1963, January. The door opened behind me.

May we come in? inquired an unseen voice.

Hell, yes, I said. Its not my joint.

But it was his. This was Disneylands City Hall Police Station and that was Walt Disney himself followed by his staff on a typical walk-through.

I said, Hello, too embarrassed to look at his face to see whether Walt was amused or annoyed. The group took a fast look around the tiny office, packed to the gills with all the Publicity Departments press releases, fact sheets and photos ready for hand-out or mail-out to writers and editors for newspapers and magazines across the country.

Perhaps intimidated by the clutter of an office barely large enough for two desks, mine and my secretarys, and a wall full of shelves, the inspectors left quickly without comment or conversation other than Walts hurried Thanks.

Thus began, less than auspiciously, a forty-year career as a publicist for Disney parks in California, Florida, France and, most recently, Hong Kong. This was the first of many times I saw Walt striding across Town Square at the head of his management team - always walking fast and always ahead.

My love of Disneyland began much earlier - even before the invitational celebrity/press preview July 17, 1955. As a reporter for the Los Angeles Mirror-News, I first became intrigued watching strange hills, buildings and rivers take shape as I drove down Harbor Boulevard in 1954.

For months I tried to get my city editor/boss, Hank Osborne, to let me do a picture feature on it. Our tabloid paper was big on pictures.

Wait until its nearer done, he kept saying.

Finally, in April, 1955, he got tired of my pestering and gave me the go ahead. My hook for the story was An Anaheim kid sneaks into Disneyland under the construction fence for a preview look. Disneyland Publicity Manager Eddie Meck wasnt too thrilled with the idea because he could visualize every kid in town trying to repeat the maneuver. But he let me try it.

Since I had no children at the time, I borrowed a neighbor, five-year-old David Potthast, as my model.

Mirror-News photographer Delmar Watson met us at the construction gate. Delmar and his brothers - five of them - were famous among L.A. photographers as slightly nutty and full of gags. All of them had appeared in Our Gang comedies and other movies as child actors (the best known was Bobs Watson). Delmar had also scored as a child comedian and carried his comedic talents into his photographic career. He always carried crazy props just in case - things like a beat-up Boy Scout hat, oversized rubber boots, a battered bugle, even a fishing pole. We used them all.

We posed David in his seven league boots, arms akimbo in front of a half-finished Sleeping Beauty Castle. We had him fishing off the dock in Frontierland - no water in the river. In fact, the first time they filled the river it was dry by the next morning. It took weeks to line it with a hard clay to keep water in.

David was one of those kids we used to call spunky - always in some kind of devilment with a wicked little gleam in his eyes. He made a perfect model. We took his picture leaning out the window of a stagecoach (no horses), climbing a man-made rock in Adventureland and, of course, crawling under the fence.

As we went around I noticed several #6 flash bulbs lying around and got suspicious. I called the city desk to tell them I thought another newspaper was working on the story and suggested I come in and write it for the next day. Delmar was already on the way with his photos.

Were too tight tomorrow. Wait and write it Monday and well get it in next week.

Monday morning, the Los Angeles Examiner came out with a double-truck of pictures detailing progress on the Disneyland construction site. Im still mad about getting beat on my story.