DISNEY AND WASHINGTON D.C.

It's always been interesting to me how well connected the Disney Corporation is with the government. Way back in the 1940's, when Walt's animation career was cranking right along, the government asked him to make war propaganda films to help combat WWII. As the red-blooded American that he was, he made a series of anti-german and anti-japanese film like Der Fueher's Face - 1942 / Education for Death - 1943 / Comando Duck - 1944. . . you know, your typical light and fluffy Walt Disney fare. (I'm thinking none of those ever showed in Tokyo Disneyland) He also approached by the military to make instructional films for the troops. Though the Navy was the first, soon the Army, Air Force, Department of Agriculture and Department of Treasury all wanted to tap into Walt's creativity. For the Treasury, in 1942 and 1943, Walt made films that encouraged Americans to pay thier taxes to help the war effort and published a book to teach children about purchasing War Savings stamps.

Jump ahead a couple decades and in the nineteen sixties, when Walt was amassing huge chunks of FLorida swamp land and citrus groves for what would later become Walt Disney World, Orange county Florida pretty much gave the company free reign. Reedy Creek improvement district was created as a special government agency by the state legislature in order to lure Walt to the state. It regulates building codes and can even levy taxes. Guess who the largest tax payer is. . . .. A little side trivia note. The Swan and Dolphin hotels are the second largest tax payers. Don't get me wrong, now a days, the Reedy Creek fire marshalls patrol every inch of the property and I've heard of areas that get busted for breaking the rules. They also provide emergency services for the entire property.

After a relatively short run as The Disney Golf Resort which later turned into the Disney Inn in 1986, the facility was renamed again. Shades of Green (1994) was leased by the government as a military only resort. In 1996, Uncle Sam bought it outright and it became a retreat for US military personel only. Since then, on many occasions i've seen see military helicopters fly over. These weren't the run of the mill police or television crew size helicopters, I'm talking the Huge, Shake the Building, loud helicopters. The only thing that could top seeing them was in 2008, when we heard about a fighter aircraft fly over for some big wig at Shades of Green. The word was let out to the guests. We spent the whole day looking at the sky. Of course it happened after i had left for the day. (dang Murphy's luck)

Every so often Disney manages to do something that makes me say 'That is Sooo Cool." In 2007 and 2009 in July Magic Kingdom's Mainstreet was the site of a US Citizenship Naturalization Swearing in Ceremony for 1000 new Americans immigrants. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses . . . and we'll send them to Disney World !!!!"

Talk about going 'to infinity and beyond', in 2008 NASA sent Buzz Lightyeaar to the international spacestation for a several months. The actual doll / action figure flew into space as part of a kids educational program. There were pictures of him standing infront of the crawler as the shuttle was being rolled out to the launch pad. What I find hysterical is that when he was brought back, they had a ticker tape parade down mainstreet complete with Buzz Aldrin. . . the real astronaut.

One more thing about NASA, I was told that when Disney was testing Mission Space, that they had astronauts from the cape come test it. Their assessment was that it was the closest thing to a real shuttle launch a civilian to experience.

Since 2005 Disney World and Disneyland has been home to the Presidential pardoned Thanksgiving Turkeys. The US President pardons them, they are wisked away to the airport and flown, first class mind you, to Florida or Califronia where they are the grand marshals in the holiday parade, then they live out thier days at the park. Although for marshmallow and yam (2005) thiers days ended of natural causes eighteen months later. A little side note to this story: Disney sent them a CD with the song Happiest Place on Earth to them so the turkeys would get acclaimated to it.

When I worked at Epic (indiana jones stunt show)in the ninety's, we were told they were holding the show for a VIP. Fine, we thought, let's get them in here, get the show on the road so we could get to lunch. Well, we waited, and waited and waited. FINALLY, we saw Men in Black walking onto the stage as they escorted an older gentleman to his seat. It was Jimmy Carter and he was surrounded by Secret Service men. Can I just say, Secret Service men are scary. The final scene of the show, Indy fires a pistol. It will only shoot blanks, but the secret service men still watched Indy like a hawk untill the tech locked it up. Jimmy Carter was cool. He came out on atage and shook hands with the cast and crew while his body guards glared at us all.

For the Hall of Presidents efficanados, Yes We Can get the THE real Barack Obama to record the short speach for his animatron's voice. The attraction's creators packed up a small audio studio and went to Washington DC and set up shop in a small at the White House (I think) where Barack recorded his few lines.

Nothing but the best for Our World.

YOU'RE KIDDING . . . Right ?

Lately, I've been scribbling down notes from various people's stories, waiting until I had enough to blog about. So with out further adieu. . .

Did you know the Buzz Lightyear is on the International Space Station ? In 2008, the astronauts brought a Buzz doll with them to leave on the station. Apparently there is an on going kid's educational program and Buzz is the spokes-doll (is that a real word?)

I heard today, on the news that Barack Obama's girls was going to be wearing Disney made, princess inspired dresses for the inaugauration. I can see it now, we'll have a Princess line of dresses AND a Presidential line of dresses in our stores.

If it looks like pot and smells like pot, it must be . . . pot, right? Well, according to Disney Horticulture folks, maybe not. I was working crowd control for the Pirates and Princess party in 2008. Stationed in front of the train station, I began smelling something rather strange. Several other people I was working with thought the same thing I did. The plants around the flag pole looked like marijauna, smelled like marijuana, BUT apparently, was not marijuana. Believe what you will, I think the Horticulture people were messing with us.

Guests are what keep this blog going. THe things we see and we hear never cease to amaze me. Disney Vacation Club. (a.k.a. Disney time share) has a representative in the resort lobbies. One of the DVC reps mentioned that they have turned into the non-official information booth. I asked him what his most absurd question was. His answer: "If my dad buys a vacation club, does he get a monkey ?"

A tree had fallen across the boradwalk leading to the ferryboats to Magic Kingdom at Wilderness Lodge. A front desk cashier was working part of her shift at the bus stop helping people find thier way on the right bus. She had a very irrate guest confront her and demand that SHE move the tree, right then. After being yelled by the guest, the cashier left her post, walked in side and informed managers that she was never going back to the busses again. Thanks the the 2008 economy issues, that post was perminately eliminated.

A story about Port Orleans comes from many years ago. The person who told me this believed it happened back when it was still two separate resorts (Port Orleans and Dixie Landings). Apparently they have a place called Alligator Bayou and a brainiac was feeding an alligator. Let me remind you, a) this is Florida, gators are everywhere, b) it is a criminal offense to feed alligators, c) Gators are not the sharpest tool in the shed. When this guest ran out of food, the gator was still hungry and followed him to the building. The building had automatic doors. When the gator reached the door, it opened and yes, it went inside the building. Needless to say, they removed the automatic door opener soon there after.

At All Star Resort, I had a lady who had just got off of a very long and trying plane flight. They took her cigarette lighter from her a the airport. The fight was delayed. She was aggitated one moment and crying the next. When she asked if I had a lighter or cigarettes( of which I had neither), i knew her problems had little to do with us and more to do with nicotine withdrawls. It made me really glad that I did not smoke.

In closing I want to leave you with a recent story to start out 2009 right. One of the concierge Cast members was helping a guest, when someone came to the counter and said, "there's a naked child running up and down the hall way." THe cast member looked at her guest, who told her to "go do what you need to do, we'll wait." By the time Disney staff got there, another guest had corraled the child, wrapped him in a towel and had him sitting down. The managers used the master key to open the door to the child's room. There was nobody in the room. One of the managers noticed shoes by the balcony door. He pulled back the curtian and quickly closed it again, but he had seen WAY MORE than he had ever cared to. Let's just say, junior was about to be a big brother. Junior's mom and dad were, of course, a bit miffed at being caught with thier pants down. . . literally and figuretively, but the manager explained to him that his son was running up and down the hallway buck naked. Apparently, they laid Junior down for a nap and decided to expand thier family out on the balcony. When Junior woke up, mom and dad were gone, so he walked out of the room and the door locked behind him.

Tuned in next time for more tales of the absurd.