The propensity to inspire legends is one of the strong suits of Walt Disney theme parks. Some of them are whoppers, too. Doomed spirits haunt some of the happiest places on Earth. Dolls come to life at night, switching places before the next morning’s guests arrive. Uncle Walt’s head resides somewhere on the premises. Or maybe he’s not dead at all. Maybe he unearthed the secret of longevity, and that allowed him to take up permanent residence behind the scenes, controlling all phases of the Disney empire to this day.
What follows are a series of rumors that seem so far-fetched that no one could possibly believe them, yet some people do. Perhaps you’ve even fallen victim to a couple of these hoaxes yourself. If so, you’ll want to read on to discover these completely untrue “facts” about Disney theme parks. Warning: there’s a lot of debunking ahead. On the plus side, if you’ve got friends who spend an inordinate amount of time passing along this nonsense as a way to talk smack about Disney, you’re about to turn the tables on them in fairly epic fashion.
The ghostly remnants of Walt Disney…
Image: Disney
The legacy of Walt Disney is so epic in scope that rumormongers have devoted countless hours coming up with seemingly plausible ways that his spirit might live on at his parks. And those are the well-intended people starting those rumors. Haters craft even taller tales regarding his corpse and whether it or not it may be a Corpse-sickle…Corpsicle?
Image: Disney
Anyway, both parties wound up creating equally alarming versions of the truth. Some people believe with every fiber of their being that the frozen heads of Walt Disney and Ted Williams are resting in a vault somewhere, waiting to become real-life Futurama characters. A&E’s Biography, now the Bio Channel, eventually devoted an entire article to debunking this belief. They note that the cause of confusion is a second party account of Disney’s philosophy on the subject as relayed by a devout disciple of the corpsicle industry. And even THAT GUY plainly stated that Uncle Walt’s family cremated his body. So, if a friend ever tries to state this as fact, please do me a favor. Walk over to your refrigerator, open your freezer, grab a Popsicle, walk over to your friend, and smack them with it. They deserve it.
Worst. Viral video. Ever.
Image: Orange County Archives, Flickr (license)
Disney’s most ardent supporters don’t do his cause any better, though. No, they don’t think that the frozen remains of Walt Disney reside under Pirates of the Caribbean. Their belief is even more outlandish. They subscribe to the notion that Walt Disney loved his theme park so much that he couldn’t leave it. After his death, he found a way to stay at the Happiest Place on Earth rather than shuffle off this mortal coil and ascend to the afterlife.
Yes, this sounds crazy. Yes, it IS crazy. It’s a real thing that has enough supporters to maintain an oddly large amount of traction. In fact, someone brings it back to the public eye again every few years. A recent example occurred in the winter of 2015. The Mirror and Huffington Post both ran stories suggesting that cameras accidentally caught a ghost on camera. At Disneyland. And it was Uncle Walt.
The whole thing feels like a campfire tale run amok. Someone with a vivid imagination doesn’t know when to quit, right? Alas, these posts are all too true. Some writer stumbled on a grainy 2009 YouTube video. It purportedly reveals security camera footage of a ghost trekking through, fittingly, the exterior of Haunted Mansion on its way to Rivers of America. The fact that it’s obviously a reflected light doesn’t seem to dissuade anyone from their Fox Mulder-esque belief. This 63-second second trifle of viral video has somehow accumulated over 13 million views.
Walt Disney: Reverse Vampire
Image: Neon Tommy, Flickr (license)
What you can conclude from the above is that people really want Walt Disney to haunt his theme park. Why they don’t want him to rest in peace or enjoy his heavenly reward is beyond me. The strange part is that this isn’t even the most desperate attempt to place Uncle Walt at Disneyland right now.
One of the least likely myths in the entire world, and almost certainly the quirkiest at Disney, is that Imagineers are even greater than you thought they were. During their research, they unearthed the technology to make Walt Disney immortal. I realize you’re waiting on a punchline right now, but what could I say that’s funnier than that?
The philosophy surrounding Disney’s continued and not at all impossible existence is that he wanted to get out of the spotlight. Rather than place himself at the forefront of all transactions involving The Walt Disney Company, the founder and namesake of the corporation instead resides in an understated apartment in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. From this home hidden in plain sight, he orchestrates all the business decisions that allowed his people to buy Pixar, Star Wars, and ESPN among other financial masterstrokes. I strongly suspect that current CEO Bob Iger HATES this myth, because it makes him the Milli Vanilli of the Fortune 100.
Last one out, turn off the light
Image: Disney
The support for the belief involves lighting. Some people claim that the candle in the window of his apartment on Main Street at Disneyland occasionally turns itself off and on. Yes, that candle is always supposed to stay lit. Its flickering or turning off means a power disruption, not a supernatural event.
Despite the obvious explanation, there’s a wives tale about why Disney chose to leave this light on. A maid allegedly tried to turn off the light in Uncle Walt’s Disneyland apartment after his death. After exiting the residence, she noted it was still on. Presuming she had forgotten to turn it off, she went back in specifically to do so. To her shock, the instant she exited the building again, the lamp activated once more.
Image: Sam Howzit, Flickr (license)
The terrified cast member relayed the incident to others, and that’s how supposedly why Disney employees chose to leave a light on for Walt. Reading between the lines, someone else on the custodial staff played a fantastic prank on a co-worker, she took it seriously, and now Disney has to waste energy powering a lamp. This must be Ashton Kutcher’s favorite Disney myth.
To a larger point, if such a magic elixir existed, Disney’s Nine Old Men really could have used it. Why did Disney hog it all for himself and let the Imagineers who discovered its magical properties wither away via the natural aging process? He could have saved a fortune in training new Imagineers by keeping the old guard, the originals, instead. Despite the gaping logic flaws with the Immortal Walt rumors, it persists in many circles. To wit, if you google “Walt Disney still alive”, there are 73,000 results. People really want to believe that whether by head-in-a-jar or scientific witchcraft, Uncle Walt bested Father Time. If he does come back to life and all these rumors prove accurate, feel free to lord this article over me.
Ghosts in the Disney machine
Image: Disney
According to urban legend, the godfather of Disney theme parks isn’t the only spirit who walks the streets at night. Indeed, Walt Disney World and Disneyland are two of the greatest inspirations for ghost stories. It’s presumably because so many people try to spread the ashes of their loved ones at these two parks. With that many parts of the deceased floating in the air, someone’s going to do some haunting.
Rod Serling Meets the Ghostly Bellhop
Image: Disney
The most popular recent story involving spirits at Walt Disney World allegedly occurred at The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. A Disney cast member in full ride regalia as a bell hop tested one of the rides prior to opening. You probably know that there are multiple loading platforms for this ride, and they’re cleverly named Alpha, Beta, Charlie, and Delta. Echo and Foxtrot are the shafts directly below where the ride gets exciting.
The bell hop received the assignment of checking the Delta platform. That’s apparently the unlucky one, because story goes that this employee dropped dead of a heart attack while standing on the platform. Rather than leave the earthly realm behind, this dedicated Disney worker chose to remain on Delta forever. He now haunts the facility, providing a spookier ride experience for it than on the other three platforms.
Nobody loves this myth more than Disney cast members. It adds an element of excitement on dreary days where the lines are long and the customers are irritable. Plus, it’s much easier to get into character if you actually believe that people could die on the attraction. There’s a popular video supporting the notion that the ghost still stands watch over the Tower of Terror. He’ll even knock off the hat of any cast member who shirks their duties, apparently.
Room for 1000…
Image: Disney
The social media era has created an unfortunate byproduct of fake rumors, videos, and images. The idea is to build a story credible enough that it doesn’t fail the laugh test. If you can scare people enough to give them a chill or raise the hair on their arms, you’ll get a lot of attention.
The Haunted Mansion is a perfect candidate for this sort of behavior. The turbulent history of the attraction and its strong association to several Disney theme parks guarantees that fans of the macabre will always feel drawn to it. They tether their own mythologies to existing ones, pushing the boundaries toward the scarier side of an oftentimes humorous ride.
The most famous recent example is a ghost tale surrounding a pair of boys, one of whom laughs continuously while the other one cries. There isn’t a lot of backstory as to how or why the kids wound up trapped for eternity at a Disney theme park. The fact that one cries all the time is odd, because I’ve just described Heaven for a lot of children. Anyway, a surprised park guest relayed his encounter with one of the boys in this 2004 thread. A respected poster described his confusion when he studied a picture he’d taken while riding a Doombuggy:
“I took my 100 ft nightshot accessory to WDW with the specific purpose of taking ride photos of the Haunted Mansion for WDW Virtual Visit. Well, after documenting the ride, I put the camera away for the rest of the day. I went back to our place that evening and began to download the photos to my laptop. After doing so I scrolled through them to make sure I had all I needed, and low and behold, on one of the first shots of the attraction, I saw something that definitely WAS NOT there when I was on the ride itself. This photo was taken in the first hallway of the attraction with the eye-following portraits.
As you’ll see in the photo after clicking the link, it appears as though a child is peeking his head out of the doombuggy and looking directly at me. Not only was he not there when I took the pic, there wasn’t a child of this age within 20 people in front of me in line, and as you can see, he’s only a few doombuggies in front of me. Not only that, what’s he doing looking at me? There is NO flash, and NO visible light coming from me. It’s all infrared, and invisible to the naked eye.”
You can view the image at WDWMagic. Warning: You may lose sleep afterward. Still, there’s no proof that this is anything more than a bored child he didn’t notice a couple of Doombuggies ahead of him. Because ghosts aren’t real, right? RIGHT???
The Curse of the Black Pearl, indeed…
Image: Mttbme, Wikimedia (license)
His name was George, and he was a diehard employee of The Walt Disney Company. A welder by trade, George showed up for work every day, did his job, and made his co-workers smile. His dedication to his craft almost supersedes the fact that he didn’t exist. Tragically, George’s job requirements included climbing a set piece from the early days of the attraction. It was called The Burning City, and it stood high in the air. As George attempted to climb up to service the contraption, his tripped and fell to his death.
Alas, George was an amalgam of two different Disney construction workers who experienced tragedies during the early days of the park, neither of whom were stationed at the work site for Pirates of the Caribbean at Walt Disney World. The honesty between the lies is irrelevant to the myth, though. Twisters of truth remember George the welder as a single man who later became a spirit called the Ghost Pirate of the Caribbean.
Image: Disney
Disney cast members have offered their respects to George for decades now. They understand that if they fail to greet him over the PA system in the morning and at night, they’ll run the risk of incurring his wrath. George is equal parts friendly ghost and hostile spirit. People who befriend him will enjoy an easy work day. Those who fail to acknowledge him will suffer ride breakdowns, power outages, and even the occasional ride injury.
Basically, George receives the credit for every incident that occurs on Pirates of the Caribbean. Many current and former cast members relay personal anecdotes about weird things that happened on the ride that they believe are otherworldly in nature. In reality, this is a rickety old attraction that takes place in water in the dark. Strange things occur, and none of them involves a ghost whose name people don’t even remember correctly. On the plus side, it gives cast members something to look forward to each day as well as something to blame when things go wrong.
The “lost” Mickey Mouse cartoon
Image: Disney
Should you have the courage to google suicidemouse.avi, well, you’ll be in for a disappointment. It’s an elaborate hoax involving the mouse that started it all. Some enterprising viral video creator recognized that spinning the beloved icon into a dystopian victim would be brilliant years before Banksy borrowed the idea.
Mickey Mouse Goes to Hell was an early contender in the found footage genre. The premise was that an executive (in some versions, the archivist is noted film critic Leonard Maltin) discovered hidden footage on a previously released animation clip. The video only displayed the first three minutes of a nine minute production. Curious, he tried to watch the rest and basically wanted to gouge his eyes out by minute seven.
The clip’s audio alters around this point, evolving into a gurgling noise that sounds like someone drowning. After that, a screaming sound emerges. Meanwhile, an unholy version of Mickey Mouse appears onscreen. He has a wicked smile that is not at all Disney-friendly, and then his face gradually falls apart piece by piece. It’s obviously someone’s idea of a joke that frankly isn’t all that entertaining on either a psychological or humorous level. Still, if you want to investigate the story more, there’s a surprising amount of information out there about SuicideMouse.avi.
Don’t lose your head…
Image: Disney
Every parent warns their children of the dangers of amusement park rides. These warnings begin the instant their kid can pass the “You must be this tall to ride…” lines. The hope is that by instilling respect and a healthy dose of fear in their child, they’ll avoid any issues while on vacation at the Happiest Place on Earth.
Does a wives tale that provides a doomsday scenario for that philosophy help? That depends entirely on its extremity. In the case of Space Mountain, the rumor is so scary that it may frighten your child too much to relay it. That’s your call.
According to legend, a misbehaving boy managed to slide his legs out from under the safety harness, allowing him to stand up. As you know, the ride primarily takes place in the dark, so the kid couldn’t see the impending danger and, well, lost his head.
The story isn’t true, of course. Space Mountain doesn’t have that sort of danger intrinsic in its design. A person would have to work hard to find a way to get decapitated during the ride. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, though. Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, experienced this kind of incident in 1980. So, it’s a lie with the ring of truth. Having said that, coasters move at such high velocity that collisions can cause loss of limb, as occurred at Alton Towers in the summer of 2015. As such, this myth works as a cautionary tale for misbehaving children, assuming they don’t suffer nightmares after hearing the story.
People always joke that the song makes them want to kill themselves…
Image: Disney
An unexpected number of myths involve It’s a Small World. I suspect it’s because some folks despise the song so much that it elevates their desire to perform character assassination on the entire attraction as well as Disney as a company. Whatever the explanation, the It’s a Small World stories strain credulity.
The first of them falls in the haunted spirits category. A woman who took a boat ride in 1999 came away with a disturbing memory and an even more chilling photograph. She claims that her ride suddenly stopped when the entirety of It’s a Small World shut down. It was the type of breakdown that required cast members to turn on the lights and tell guests that they were going to be extracted from the ride immediately.
Image: Disney
One of the occupants being rushed out of the building grabbed her camera, sensing something unusual occurring. Remember that this was the age before the ubiquity of smartphone photography. People had to wait weeks to develop film, and when she finally got her vacation photos back, one them was shocking. According to this post on Imgur, a child had hung itself in the rafters and she had unintentionally recorded it for posterity’s sake.
Spoilers: it’s not even a little bit true. The ride is virtually nothing but dolls that are child-like in appearance. There was no report of a death at any Disney theme park during this timeframe. And the blurry picture shot from below is a strong hint that somebody snapped a horrid picture that they’d now instantly delete off their phone. Since this was 1999, however, it became a scandalous turn of events that proved that a child haunted the rafters of It’s a Small World.
And that’s the LEAST weird of the two myths about this attraction…
Image: Disney
Okay, we’re about to take this article to plaid. Please don’t shoot the messenger for this nonsense. There are people who believe that It’s a Small World’s dolls come to life at night. Imagine Toy Story as an amusement park attraction, and you get the gist. If you’re anything like me, the mere thought of that will haunt your dreams for months.
All of those creepy dolls don’t need power to operate. After cast members leave at night, the characters re-animate and throw a party, presumably talking about all the annoying humans who rode through It’s a Small World that day. Perhaps Walt Disney’s ghost or the immortal Walt Disney himself even visits to hang out with them. Is it okay if we blend multiple myths together at once like that?
Believe it or not, the story can and does get weirder. Some people aren’t content with the concept of living dolls who act as statues during the day before moving around at night. They had to plus the urban legend even farther. Their belief is that the cast members who loved It’s a Small World return there when they die. Yes, the creepy dolls are possessed by the spirits of former Disney cast members, and they are the ones who enjoy the scary doll dance after park closing. Let’s all agree never to ride or think about It’s a Small World ever again.
The silly stuff
Image: Disney
Quirks regarding attractions, spooks who refuse to leave, and a frozen (or undead?) park founder are all fascinating myths. There’s a final category of nonsense so ridiculous that it boggles the mind. Here are the weird urban legends about Disney that are impossible to categorize.
It’s not made of Legos, folks
Image: Disney
Some people are deluded enough that they think Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom hides a secret. The state of Florida suffers from extreme weather, especially during hurricane season. Disney conspiracy theorists are convinced that Imagineers planned for the most catastrophic of conditions. If a hurricane ever came inland, Disney employees could unpack Cinderella Castle in hundreds of tidy pieces and relocate it to safety until the storm passed.
I…you…what? How does anybody even debunk that? Isn’t common sense good enough as a refutation? There are castles that have survived for centuries that aren’t as well fortified as Cinderella Castle. If Red Dawn ever became a real thing, Cinderella Castle would be a great place to stay until the enemy was pushed off American soil. It’s that solid in its construction. A place that can survive cannon fire isn’t going to disassemble like a Mr. Potato Head. What’s there is there. Permanently.
Toy Story characters receive special training
Image: Disney
One of the joys of Disney theme parks is the training provided to certain cast members. The people provided the privilege of representing Disney’s iconic characters in costume must remain as true as possible to the history and behavior of those identities. Mulan will act like a warrior, Dug will meet and instantly love you, and Mary Poppins will speak in an authentic accent. It’s this dedication to detail that differentiates Disney’s theme parks from basic amusement parks.
Sometimes, having to act in character is especially tricky. Take, for example, the cast of Toy Story. Like the It’s a Small World dolls above, Woody and Buzz and the rest of their team only come to life when the humans aren’t around. The recurring joke in the movie franchise is that the instant someone shouts a warning that their owner, Andy, is around, they must freeze in place.
Take that premise and extrapolate it to a theme park setting. Say, for example, that you see the army soldiers from Toy Story marching in formation toward a greeting site. What would happen if you shouted, “Everybody freeze! Andy’s coming!” The only acceptable answer here is chaos.
Disney theme parks are precisely run operations requiring cast members to maintain order in the face of the unimaginable chaos of thousands of children under 10. You can’t have people in giant costumes dropping to the ground in order to stay in character. It’s a danger to everyone involved, and it creates mayhem for people in the surrounding area.
Image: Disney
In order to avoid that eventuality, Disney has a standing directive that cast members cannot be 100 percent authentic when it comes to Toy Story quotes. If you shout, “Andy’s coming,” the mascot will acknowledge you. They will not, however, dive to the ground. At least, that’s true today.
In 2013, Dewayne Bevil of the Orlando Sentinel tested the practice. He’d seen a viral image making the rounds that showed Woody and Jesse sitting lifeless after a guest had pointed out that Andy was on his way. A third person, presumably the person providing the warning, rests between them in order to get in on the fun.
Bevil, a highly respected, longtime amusement park reporter, received a reply from a Disney spokesperson. They acknowledged that due to safety concerns, Toy Story characters are no longer allowed to participate in what is a wonderful tribute to a basic theme of the movie franchise. The same cast member, however, refused to deny that it had never happened previously. That’s the company’s way of confirming that it seemed like an entertaining practice that proved a bit sketchy in execution, so Disney had to shut it down.
So, this myth is busted but also confirmed as historically accurate. If you ever manage to persuade a Disney cast member to perform this rite on a slow day, you are officially my hero. Because it’s awesome.
Under the Dome: The Prequel
Image: FOX
Centuries before Stephen King and The Simpsons Movie celebrated the idea of living under a dome, this rumor existed regarding Epcot. Some people were convinced that Walt Disney picked Florida for a reason. While he couldn’t control hurricane season, presumably due to a disappointing series of trials from Imagineering’s Weather Division, Uncle Walt could make other plans.
The most legendary of these is that he intended to build a dome. Within its domain, Disney could guarantee perfect weather at all times thanks to the magic of what I’m sure would have been the world’s largest central air unit. For all we know, that might have been the original purpose of the Spaceship Earth facility.
The belief that Disney intended to do this was so pervasive that it was as tethered to the concept of Epcot as the monorail and People Mover. Alas, any passion for this never made it out of the planning stage. While Imagineers did consider it alongside countless other potential innovations for the City of Tomorrow, they discarded the idea for the obvious reason. Do you have any idea much the materials would cost for a dome of that size? And you’re not going to find anything like prefabricated dome panels at Home Depot. This explains why Orlando residents do not currently reside under the dome.
The spitting camel
Image: Jeff Christiansen, Flickr (license)
Since its inception, eBaum’s World has had a reputation for being a bit shaky with the truth. After a media conglomerate purchased the site and fired all the original staff members, this destination web hub became notorious for, let’s say, borrowing content from other locations. The danger with that is that you occasionally cite someone else’s nonsense as fact.
That’s the only way to explain the first page of this article. I’ll save you a click by spoiling it (and note that if you must click, please follow standard internet protocol by NOT reading the comments section). eBaum’s World claims that a Disney cast member performs a nefarious action while guests are flying on Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride. According to their information, someone controls the camel spitting. I guess the premise is that Disney figures it’s a great idea for one of their employees to antagonize guests with a splash of water, especially if it’s well-aimed enough to hit someone in the eye.
Think about the above for the moment. Is The Walt Disney Company in the business of antagonizing park guests? Sure, a flick of moisture isn’t the most irritating thing that’ll transpire during a theme park visit, but it’s annoying nonetheless. Disney employs the water splash as a fun way to add an element of surprise to the festivities. If they added any element of meanness to the act, guests would complain. When that happened, Disney would stop doing it immediately. They built their entire empire around the concept of positive reinforcement.
To a larger point, Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride is an automated attraction. Everything works on a timing system, which means that all splashing occurs in a way that you can actually anticipate if you study it enough. Of course, you don’t even need to put that much effort into it. Watch the camel’s head. That way, you’ll know if and when any water is heading your way. There’s no evil cast member, folks.
The Most Magical Place on Earth is alcohol-free
Image: Amy, Flickr (license)
Disney’s family-friendly reputation causes some folks to take every concept to its logical extreme. They believe that Uncle Walt loathed the idea of alcohol in his parks. There’s actually a kernel of truth in this. Disney disliked the smell of beer, especially when it dried on hot concrete. Given the arid conditions at Disneyland, it made sense to disallow alcoholic beverages inside the park.
There were exceptions almost from the beginning, though. In 1967, a dozen years after the park opened, Club 33 debuted in New Orleans Square. Disney designed this lavish club for the patricians rather than the hoi polloi, and catering to such an elite crowd demanded the sale of wine and champagne. So, alcohol has been available on the Disneyland premises for almost half a century now.
The situation at Walt Disney World is a bit murkier. The subdivision of theme parks caused a divide in the standard rules across the sites. Epcot featured several pavilions that include restaurants and bars onsite. They couldn’t accurately reflect the culture of Germany without beer, and I say that as someone whose given name is technically Mombauer. My people love their potent potables, and Disney respected that with their park dedicated to world culture.
Image: Disney
Magic Kingdom played by very different rules until recently. It’s absolutely true that the same original rules for Disneyland applied to Magic Kingdom for decades. The situation didn’t change until the introduction of Be Our Guest Restaurant in 2012. In terms of publicly accessible Magic Kingdom establishments, it was the first to offer beer and wine to guests. You can read the original Time Magazine article on the subject if so inclined. Suffice to say that some guests stated outrage at the time, but what was effectively a trial run for public alcohol consumption at Magic Kingdom succeeded. In fact, people expect the now-confirmed The Jungle Navigation Co. Skipper Canteen to sell alcohol as well. Just please don’t spill any beer on the concrete. It would make Uncle Walt roll over in his grave.
We’ll always have…this article, Ilsa
Image: Warner Bros.
Have you heard the one about The Great Movie Ride? It’s the tall tale that claims that in order to maximize the authenticity of the attraction’s celebration of the glamor days of Hollywood, Disney imported a special artifact. That movie treasure is none other than the plane from Casablanca, the one that Ilsa boards for her flight to Lisbon, the one that permanently separates her from the love of her life, Rick.
While I admire the people who started this rumor for having tremendous movie taste, they didn’t show a lot of filmmaking knowledge by starting it. Anyone who has ever worked on a set understands that producers have to cut a lot of corners to stay on budget. Few things are ever built to scale. In the case of Casablanca, one of the most storied films ever made, plane models were crafted on set, but they were not full-sized.
Someone at Disney missed this point, which led to a public relations blunder. See, the reason why this myth has been propagated so much is that it came directly from Disney. Almost exactly a decade after The Great Movie Ride debuted, the company wanted to drum up attention for one of their anchor attractions at Hollywood Studios. Employees performed an international search to unearth a plane similar enough to the one from Casablanca to pass for it. Whether they planned the misinformation campaign from the start or it happened accidentally is up for debate.
What we do know is this. The plane on display during The Great Movie Ride is a Lockheed Electra 12A. Amusingly, the one they managed to buy had been used on some film sets, just not for Casablanca. It was the right plane for the project, and had the company just stopped there, everyone would have praised them for their commitment to authenticity.
Alas, Disney was in for a penny and in for a pound. They boldly proclaimed their coup. They had acquired the plane Humphrey Bogart stood beside when he sent Ilsa away, telling her that she’d regret it if she stayed. It’s a magical movie moment, but Disney’s part of the story was a lie. Their plane had nothing to do with the actual production of Casablanca. In fact, their Lockheed was a better quality vehicle than the Travel-Air used in the film. It was a rare black eye for the company, and their public announcement is the unlikely source of the myth. See? Even Disney can get things wrong when it comes to Disney history.
And there you have it. These are the myths and legends of Disney that persist in the face of all logic and reason. No matter how improbable and illogical they are, people enjoy the theory of them so much that they maintain belief in the literally unbelievable. If you ever encounter such a devout disciple of arguments such as dolls coming to life at night or an immortal park creator still living on Main Street even today, feel free to shut them down. Consider all these myths busted.
#/media/File:Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_at_Walt_Disney_World_January_2012.jpg){kind=link}