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ladodgerjon
07-19-2007, 11:53 AM
As an attendee at this year's NFCC convention, I had the opportunity to meet former Disney publicist, Charles Ridgeway. Seeing him reminded me of a theory he wrote about in his new book, "Spinning Disney's World":

Ridgeway disputes the often told story about the overcrowding at DL's opening day festivities due to folks that counterfeited admission tickets.

If my recollection is correct, Ridgeway's theory is that the issued press passes had no printed limit to the number of guests that could be admitted on a single pass...

Ridgeway posits that many members of the working media that brought several family & friends with them on the 17th-- thereby catching the Disney folks off-guard with a park stocked with many more attendees than expected.

Hmmm... an interesting thought, eh? Thought I'd share with all of you...

danyoung
07-19-2007, 11:59 AM
Well, we've learned that the story about the colorblind bulldozer operator isn't true, so this wouldn't surprise me.

Tinkermommy
07-19-2007, 01:59 PM
I think that's a very interesting theory! Here's why...on 5/5/05, we were in the front of the security line when the esplanade filled up and they stopped letting people in.

We had a perfect view (including sound) of the people who WERE getting let in -- media and their families. We thought this was ironic for two reasons -- first, it was our understanding that the park had been closed 5/4/05 for a media event. We joked about it not being enough for them.

Second, I am a journalist, and I have never gone to work the way the majority of the media they were letting in at that point were dressed. They were casually dressed, accompanied by their kids, some with strollers and diaper bags, and not a single one that we saw had any visible kind of "tools" like cameras. In short, they looked like ordinary visitors to Disneyland, the exception being that the ordinary visitors were trapped in line in Downtown Disney.:p

I'm not saying it shouldn't have been allowed -- my observation is just that members of the media don't necessarily travel alone to events like 5/5/05 and the Nemo preview. In fact, my friends have dogged me for years to try to get on Disneyland's media "list" so I could get them into special stuff, too!

Why don't I? Because it seems wrong to me. The company I work for has a written policy that we don't accept anything more than a cup of coffee from anybody lest it be perceived as coloring our objectivity. I couldn't, for example, have accepted one of the little plastic aquariums containing fish cookies I saw a Disney CM giving to some of the media during the Nemo preview. While I could ride Nemo or attend 5/5/05 to write about the experience, I couldn't reasonably bring my child with me unless she was somehow part of the coverage. Bringing my friends would be out of the question.

Am I condeming those who do? Nah. Would I buy the theory that the media showed up with extra guests? Heck, yes! Could that have been enough extra people to have so impacted the attendance that day? Who knows! Interesting thought, though.

Suzie Minnie
07-19-2007, 11:08 PM
I just bought this wonderful book at the park. It mentions both the bulldozer story and the opening day ticket theory. If all of these theories are false, why do you suppose Disney is telling us these stories?

smd4
07-20-2007, 05:03 AM
If all of these theories are false, why do you suppose Disney is telling us these stories?Because, as is often the case, the myth is more interesting and fun than the reality.

AVP
07-21-2007, 02:46 PM
Well, we've learned that the story about the colorblind bulldozer operator isn't true, so this wouldn't surprise me.Yet Disney persists in perpetuating that story - it's in the Steve Martin film as well as Then, Now & Forever.


Second, I am a journalist, and I have never gone to work the way the majority of the media they were letting in at that point were dressed. They were casually dressed, accompanied by their kids, some with strollers and diaper bags, and not a single one that we saw had any visible kind of "tools" like cameras.


my observation is just that members of the media don't necessarily travel alone to events like 5/5/05 and the Nemo preview.


While I could ride Nemo or attend 5/5/05 to write about the experience, I couldn't reasonably bring my child with me unless she was somehow part of the coverage. Bringing my friends would be out of the question. Disney has "family media days," where members of the media are specifically encouraged to bring their kids to events. It's usually a weekend in the fall, right about the time the holiday events begin. Beyond that, Disney does invite some media, depending on their market, to include their kids in events. Those are usually the travel writers who won't be filing their articles for days or weeks, or guidebooks who are just there to see the "latest and greatest" for their next publication. But yeah, I know what you're saying. Sometimes I get annoyed with the way some members of the media seem to take advantage of their access.

When I was checking into the Nemo event there was a woman in front of me who was really annoyed that her husband and kids were not going to get their own media credentials - she said if Disney included them in the invitation, and was paying for their hotel room, they should also be included in the media activities. She raised quite a scene, and was making pointed comments to the effect that she couldn't "in good concience" write positive things about the new ride if she wasn't able to see how her own children liked it. :rolleyes:

AVP

danyoung
07-21-2007, 03:09 PM
Yet Disney persists in perpetuating that story - it's in the Steve Martin film as well as Then, Now & Forever.

I'm not sure it's Disney perpetuating the myth as much as the myth being a very strong myth that most folks, including Disney folks, still believe actually happened.

Suzie Minnie
07-21-2007, 05:30 PM
I'm not sure it's Disney perpetuating the myth as much as the myth being a very strong myth that most folks, including Disney folks, still believe actually happened.

How do you know that it didn't happen?

Malcon10t
07-21-2007, 05:57 PM
How do you know that it didn't happen?Which myth are you questioning? The bulldozer one was confessed to by the person who did the "embellishing". Why Disney continues to push the myth is beyond me. Maybe because it is fun to believe.

As far as the tickets, it makes sense that it could have happened the way LADodgerfan says. Lets say they issue 10,000 media passes and they don't say "Admit one", so Mr. Pressman comes and brings his wife and 2.2 children. Very easy to see how it could get to be out of control. I would have thought a newspaper would have printed a picture of a "counterfeited" tickets.

danyoung
07-21-2007, 06:22 PM
From an old Mousepad thread, written by Opus1Guy -


I had the pleasure of having lunch one day with Disney Legend Bill Evens. Bill was the one Walt selected to head up the landscaping of Disneyland back in it's initial creation, and who continued in that same capacity many years afterwords for Disney theme parks all around the globe.

I just happened to mention the oft-told story of the bulldozer operator. The story goes that when land preparation started out on the Disneyland site, Bill went around and color coded the existing trees on the property into 3 groups...Destroy, Remove For Relocation, and Leave Right There. 3 different color ribbons were tied around the various trees. Story is the bulldozer operator just started plowing away at almost every tree with a ribbon on it. When stopped and questioned what the heck he was doing, it turned out he was color-blind!

This story was printed back in 1955 in all the pre-opening Disneyland "interest" Press Releases and appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Register, Orange County Register and countless other newspapers around the world at the time. It's still published in various Disneyland history books and publications.

When I mentioned this story, Bill squinted his eyes and shook his head from side to side. "You know...I've always wondered who started that story! I didn't hear it until many years after Disneyland opened. I never did know where that started up, 'cause that never happened to my recollection!"

Interesting. Well I happen to know that Imagineering President (at that time) Marty Sklar was just a humble copy writer for Disneyland back in the 1950s, and that he issued almost all of those interesting stories about the designing and building of Disneyland, to the Press.

So one day I had the opportunity to see Marty and I brought up what Bill had told me and that Bill never recalled any such incident. I mentioned to Marty that I knew he was in charge of that kinda stuff back then and inquired if he had any knowledge of that story or the Press Release. Marty smiled and kinda stirred uncomfortably for a few seconds and then sheepishly admitted he might have embellished that one...or maybe just made it up altogether. I think he said something along the lines of they were desperate for interesting stories and well...the place was all about Fantasy, wasn't it? ;) I asked if there were any others that were just made up, and he just said he'd better plead the 5th on that one. :)

Suzie Minnie
07-21-2007, 08:01 PM
Thank you Dan! Very informative!

Suzie Minnie
07-24-2007, 02:11 PM
I just read in a Disneyland book that people with tickets brought guests. That is why it was so overcrowded. Also, it said that one person put up a ladder and was charging people $5 to climb in. Isn't $5 a lot of money for 1955?
It still gave that bulldozing story though.

RStar
07-24-2007, 09:19 PM
That's it. I'm no longer going to belive any of these stories unless I witness it myself. ;)

smd4
07-25-2007, 08:47 AM
Next on the chopping block:

"The gold spike in the courtyard of Sleeping Beauty Castle is (or was, depending on who you talk to) the very geographic center of Disneyland!"