I used to believe a lot about Disney theme parks as a kid and in a way, I am realizing more and more that the knowledge and information I may have taken as gospel from Imagineers, cast members, or anyone for that matter may not be entirely accurate, if not downright lies.
Memories often serves as bad evidence and in the face of certain proof, memories are unreliable. Pictures can help verify memories like the Case of the Old Man in the Blue Bayou. I mean I found out that the Old Man in the Bayou was nowhere to be seen when the Blue Bayou and the Pirates both opened in March 1967 and yet he was apparently designed in 1970 or 1971 for the Rivers of America in Florida. Such was the astonishment I had upon realizing that there was another Florida-born aspect of the Pirates I took for granted as being designed with the California park in mind. Anyway, I tried to find the oldest photo of the Old Man and the oldest photo of him in his Louisiana residence is a close up from April 1974, just four months after the Pirates opened in Florida sans the Blue Bayou. However, Beacon Joe, as he is called, was apparently added to the Floridian waterfront in early 1973. The "evidence" to suggest that Beacon Joe was rocking on his porch in the Pirates' initial years was a memory of sorts from my maternal grandfather who "remembers" an old man on a porch in the backwoods of some boat ride. The year was 1969 and the Timber Mountain Log Flume debuted two months prior to his trip with my grandmother. On that very same ride, they have an old man on a porch, so perhaps his memories were all mixed together. My wish list includes a possible 1973 photo of the Old Dude in his Bayou element. I can only hope.
Anyway, let's talk about "official Disney history" or the narratives that sell books to suckers like us. We all know a good story about the development of one of our favorite attractions. Perhaps, one has heard of the six spooky years where the Haunted Mansion teased Disneyland visitors until one day in the sweltering heat of 1969 the doors finally creaked open. How about that story about how a Chinese restaurant planned for Main Street got jumbled up and thrown into the entryway of Adventureland? My favorite revolves around the mess of development in the 1960's and 1970's where the collective narratives regarding Riverfront Square, New Orleans Square, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Space Mountain, Walt Disney World, and other major projects from that time are all inconsistent with dates, paperwork, and other confusing factors. Was the Haunted Mansion meant to be a boat ride? Who knows for sure! When did the Haunted Mansion get cemented as a ride instead of a walk-thru? Anyone's guess at this point.
We now know that the story about Card Walker ordering the Imagineering staff to replicate the Pirates at the Magic Kingdom in early 1972 to be factually inaccurate because a December 1971 memo lists a number of new projects destined for the Magic Kingdom by 1973, including a "Pirates ride" scheduled for December 1972. It may be the case that Card Walker around the time of Roy Disney's death was given the authority to oversee the Company's direction and was heeding the complaints of visitors who were expecting the 15 minute boat excursion to be a part of Walt Disney World. However, what is known now by Disney historians differs from the "official" history like the role of the NYWF in the development of the Pirates ride.
The New York World's Fair was certainly instrumental in the direction the Disney Company was taking to their theme park business, but it wasn't the magical (excuse the pun) reason why the Pirates ended up opening as a boat ride with Animatronics in 1967. It certainly helped cement the plans for the attraction into place by giving a definite ride system, despite the fact that the Pirates attraction was actively designed as a boat ride as early as 1962, just around a year before Disney took on the Small World pavilion. Certainly similar to how Disney was working on the Animatronic Lincoln in 1962 and the Tiki aviary around the same time. However, to suggest that the only reason why the Pirates is a boat ride with the animatronics is because of the New York World's Fair is just frustrating.
Marty Sklar claimed one thing about Space Mountain's development and yet a series of models, maps, concept art, and paperwork contradict his claim. But he was the one to trust, after all? Then again, memory is unreliable.
It's a tragedy that the Disney Archives and their research library is closed off to actual researchers who are wholly interested in the answers, even for a small entry fee. However, I have a theory that may have been previously suggested on the dark corners of the Internet. My theory is that since the Disney Company is obsessed with profits and they also have sole access to the Archives, then ultimately they have the exclusive access to write books that are seen as "factual" by the Disney-obsessed public who will purchase said books, often for an exorbitant price.
There is apparently more to gain in having total control of a repository for a handful of "official" researchers to dole out the same "facts" about the same ride or show. Tragically, this translates to a Company-wide disregard for the history of the Vacation Kingdom (nickname for Walt Disney World in Florida) where the show elements of a ride like the Pirates or the Haunted Mansion are repeated from the originals at Disneyland, which erases the unique nature of those rides. Granted, when applying those two classics to their incarnations around the world, there is a change that is somewhat rectified with their original intent. For example, the placement of Phantom Manor (the Parisian Haunted Mansion ride) in Frontierland is not just logical in terms of appeal to a foreign audience, but it harkens back to the placement of the "Ghost House" on the outskirts of Frontierland and its inclusion as a part of that area's landscape in the 1968 Disneyland Dictionary. Similarly, the placement of Pirates in Adventureland across almost all parks in terms of location as well as ticketing (in the case of Disneyland's individual coupon booths) as well as its thematic aesthetic (pirates are an adventurous bunch, not a bunch of frontiersmen) is another difference and brings up the fact that Caribbean Plaza was given its own individual identity within the context of the park's early operation. While still being a part of the Adventureland section of park guides, it was still noted that Caribbean Plaza was meant to not only be an extension of the "adventure", but even a sovereign entity within the Park's landscape. This is similar to how the area of Liberty Square-Frontierland was delineated by a dash instead of a solid line in the early guidebooks. Now they are ironically separated by the very people who took away the individuality of Caribbean Plaza in relation to the multi-ethnic palate of the Adventureland that debuted in 1971. Interestingly, this also means that the unique nature of these rides are erased or changed to the point that they no longer make the sense they did when they opened.
You can't attribute that to mere cultural shifts or history, but you can attribute it to a desire to make the Disney theme park an almost-uniform brand of places instead of diverse, living things. You can attribute something like a change in a ride's narrative (e.g. the element of time in relation to the Pirates in California versus Florida) to a desire to make the Magic Kingdoms of the world into a consistent roster of places with no respect for their original design. It would be no different than gutting the Eastern seaboard resort motif of Main Street in Florida to mirror the quaint Main Street in California. It's a tragedy, thus more of a reason to have the researchers and writers access the kennels of information for their observations.
At any rate, the novelty of the "fun facts" wears off when confronted with statistics, headlines, photos, keen observations, etc. A "fun fact" about the Tiki Room being the first major attraction to use air conditioning is undercut by the realization that Disneyland has been using air conditioners consistently since 1955.
Another "fun fact" peddled by popular Disney blogs and "official" Disney historians is that the Western River Expedition was killed off by the Pirates. That is not true considering how WED started working on the Pirates for Florida in 1971 and yet the Western River Expedition was heavily promoted by a post-show exhibit for the Walt Disney Story, which debuted in 1973. There are too many factors that to suggest the Pirates killed off any hope for Marc's dream attraction is an insult to Marc and Disney as a whole. Then again, the narrative is simplified and concise for Disney-sponsored museum displays on the subject. Instead of telling people that Thunder Mesa was ultimately killed off in part to a shift in the types of attractions the Mouse wanted to pursue, they say that the 1973 opening of Pirates killed off any hopes Marc had for a Western Pirates.
It's surely that the accepted narratives of history have been sought after and glamorized more than the stone-cold facts, which pose a threat to the security of our perceptions and by extension, what we think we know.
As someone who invested years into the pursuit of knowledge, especially of the historical variety, it pains me to think about how much a popular narrative can easily replace the reality of the matter and thus confuse and distort our understanding of the world.
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