SL> Ooooh! Disney reference books! How fun.... Would you mind terribly
SL> listing a few titles and ISBN #?
Okey dokey, here is number what? Six? in a continuing series of reviews
of Disney reference materials. I just hope my local Fido hub gets its
act together again soon so I can send this. Today's book review is on:
.        "Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland"
.        by David Koenig
.        Foreword by Art Linkletter
.        Irvine CA: Bonaventure Press, 1994
.        Hardcover ISBN: 0-9640605-5-8, $22.95
.        Softcover ISBN: 0-9640605-6-6, less
This book, as the jacket, front notes, and introduction repeatedly
state, is an entirely unauthorized anecdotal history of Disneyland, its
castmembers, and its guests. Walt would not have been happy about this
book. Neither am I, but probably for different reasons.
The author, a journalist (at a business magazine, not a newspaper) went
to great trouble to interview cast members past and present, cull
unfavorable newspaper articles, and research the transcripts of every
personal injury lawsuit ever filed against the Park; and orgnized them
into an entertaining and readable volume.
Be advised, however, that while this is not exactly a hatchet job by a
Disney-hater, it shines a bright light into all of DL's darkest
corners, including a few that I don't feel needed to be illuminated.
There's no question that forty years in a park filled with--and staffed
by--people will have problems. With 50,000 people a day passing through
the turnstiles, some will be injured, some will die of natural causes,
and some will be killed. This book tells all about it--from the outside.
Little here will surprise the experience Disneyacs among us. I didn't
know all of the gruesome details of the few deaths of castmembers and
guests killed on various attractions that are explained here, but the
body count was about what I had heard elsewhere. The stabbings and
shootings among the guests are news only to the extent they are more
rare inside the berm than outside--sadly it cannot exclude all of modern
reality.
One area of the book I did find entertaining was the collection of
castmember stories about "stupid guest tricks". I suspect that if there
really was a "Dopey Book" kept of dumb guest remarks, it vanished
quickly after publication. Pranks like telling the amorous couple that
the "Adventure Through Inner Space" lasted twenty minutes--just so the
ride operators could meet them en mass at the exit to applaud are pretty
funny, though.
Numerous remarks about closed circuit TV, infrared cameras, hidden
catwalks, and other security measures should serve to discourage those
who would take advantage of the Happiest Place on Earth, but human
nature will out. The range of cast pranks that are cause for termination
also suggest that standards of behavior are strictly enforced.
Coverage of strikes and the loss of the "family" feeling to the place
are spotty and entirely one-sided (like Disney would offer quotes to a
book like this!). They suggest, but do not explain the nature and extent
of the changes that have taken place under the castle in four decades,
and left me wanting to know more.
One should also remember that many of the carefully cited quotes and
interviews came from former or unhappy castmembers. Koenig admits that
none of the current castmembers who checked with the company ever
contacted him again. Thus while Koenig may have been entirely fair and
accurate, his sources must be considered somewhat suspect.
I borrowed a copy of "Mouse Tales" from the public library for this
review (a couple of y'all have mentioned it and got me curious). I will
not be buying a copy for my personal Disney Reference Shelf--not because
it is critical of the Company or Park, and not (just) because I doubt
some of the material within, but because it has so very little *new* to
say about Disneyland. And much of what it does have to say are stories I
don't find much value in the telling.
()_()
 (_)  Bruce (the price of admission is horror enough) Metcalf
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