Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/19/walt-disney-reviews-work-in-pr.html
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That’s quite the outfit on “Miss Disneyland Tencennial”.
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What you read as condescension I have always seen as stage fright. Seated at his desk and reading cue cards after a couple of snifters and Walt was Mr. Natural. Actually having to deliver scripted lines on location with other humans and the guy was a wreck.
The old guy was mighty complex with a history of what nowadays might be described as a nervous disorder. He was in fact hospitalized as a young man for what in those days was considered a nervous breakdown and had an ongoing history of depression. This reality does certainly humanize this incredibly creative and complex man.
When it comes to Walt it is very important to separate the image, both overly negative, as well as overly positive to better understand the creative genius that he truly was.
Mind you, none of his astounding legacy would even have been possible without the hardcore business sense of his loving older brother Roy.
Walt was the dreamer, the idea man, Roy in his devotion to his kid brother ensured that Walt’s dreams were realized.
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She clearly won that honor due to having the best hat.
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I wonder if they ever filmed what happened when those pirates got their hands on little miss ten-cennial. Wait… they don’t even have hands! And ten-cennial isn’t even a word! Disney, you shattered my dreams once more!
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With how often the ride closes, you’d expect it still in progress.
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I don’t see Johnny Depp anywhere.
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Related
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Too bad some people got so “politically correct” and forced Disney to change the ride to be more PC.
Wait, a Disney post that’s not by Cory?
What’s happening?
Where are my dried frog pills?
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Wasn’t Walt Disney a Nazi sympathizer? Was all for eugenics?
Family Guy is not a documentary.
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There’s no evidence that anyone “forced” Disney to enact the change. It appears to have been a wholly internal decision.
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Kinda-sorta. While Disney wasn’t a fascist himself he was just so vehemently anti-communist that he happened to align with fascists a lot. There are probably modern parallels.
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My brother & sisters & I were devoted watchers of “The Wonderful World of Color,” the Sunday night Disney TV show. Usually they showed serialized movies, but sometimes they showed these Disneyland docu-plugs. Eye-popping stuff for kids from Long Island.
And GOD, how frustrating! My parents were utter cheapskates, and wannabe hipsters disdainful of Disney (“I wouldn’t go if it was across the street!”), and the notion of a family vacation to Disneyland (or Disneyworld) was on the same level as me getting flying lessons, my own german shepherd puppy, and my father staying sober all on the same birthday.
We didn’t even go to Gulf gas stations so we could get the Disney activity magazine. (Which was probably full of more plugs for the theme park and movies.)
FWIW, Julie’s outfit was apparently the official uniform of the Disneyland helper-staff. A girl in a skirt with a riding crop and helmet didn’t strike me as weird when I was a kid, but it seem really odd now.
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I prefer piratically correct entertainment, as long as I’m not the featured act.
Like they do with the Haunted Mansion every November!
(That’s how that works, right? Changes are “forced” by Politically Corrects?)
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And yet Walt’s vision for Disneyland was that it would be everchanging. Always being updated and improved. But these days a strange mix of nostalgia and and hero-worship people now insist that nothing change. Main street was supposed to evoke the early 20th century small towns of his (and the parents of the customer’s) childhood. To be proportional now it would be filled with 1950s mid-century modern architecture. And you would have thought that main-streets in the Disneylands in other countries would have been localized. But people are so “respectful” of Walt’s original plans that they preserve and repeat them, while ignoring his penchant for constant change.
It reminds me of how bronze age best practices for food safety and humane treatment of animals have been fixed and unchangeable kosher and halal practices. It’s almost like Disney has founded a religion.
And if it was a word, it would mean 110 years…
The uniform in Disneyworld 10 yeas ago was similar, but powder-blue IIRC. And yes, the riding crop and faux (it was soft, not hard) riding helmet does seem a little fetish-y.
Julie is sharp, Uncle Walt.
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