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| Cast Place For and by Disney employees past & present | |
| Shoshana Lewin, editor |
Reader Contributed Story! |
Thursday, December 14, 2000
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Reader Submitted Story
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Back in the old days, when Disneyland had a parking lot instead of a fancy carnival, the Indiana Jones show building (The big green building on the Disneyland Hotel side of the Esplanade) had a security tower. A guard would sometimes sit in the tower to monitor the parking lot.
One day an Indiana Jones cast member decided to go up to the roof to take his break and have a smoke. He looked across the roof and saw a security guard sitting against the wall next to the tower. He started walking over to say hello and quickly realized that the "security guard" was actually a dummy.
Apparently they would sometimes use the dummy instead of a live person. At least they were smart enough to only use the dummy occasionally. When the cast member got back to the ride he told everybody about his discovery. The story worked its way up to supervision and they shortly thereafter banished Indy cast members from the roof. Some other Indy factoids: The ice machine (which doesn't work anymore) is located behind the door on the far side of the station. The ice was dropped from the ceiling in the Big Room to make it look like the building was caving in. The original giant snake basically blew up and they had to replace it. If the emergency system goes off the vehicle restraints are supposed to release guests on the ride so they can exit the ride themselves. Cast members are then supposed to empty the station and let the guests in the attraction fend for themselves. The policy may have changed since 1995 but that's what it was then. A guest came into the control tower and — how can I say this gently — released her bowels on the floor. She had come in and frantically asked where the bathroom was. She didn't believe him when he said it was downstairs. She left the control tower and then came back ten seconds later and asked again. She said "I need to go" and boy did she.
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| TALK STORY! |
Are you a CM or a former CM? I would love to hear and share your stories! E-mail me! Stories and comments you submit become property of and may be published on this site; we normally don't publish last names of current CMs, but if you wish to remain anonymous altogether or do not want me to share your stories, please let me know when you e-mail me. — Shoshana
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in reader-contributed stories do not reflect those of Cast Place or MousePlanet.
| CMSPEAK |
CM – Cast member; company lingo for “employee.”
Empowerment Evolution – The 1995 attempt by newer park management to introduce modern accountability and market forces into the stodgy Disneyland methodology and power hierarchies. The name was meant to “empower” rank and file employees by removing layers of their management, though now there are more managers than ever.
TPO – Theme Park Operations; the division of the Disneyland hierarchy that actually works in the theme park itself.
TDA – Team Disney Anaheim; the name of the on-site administration building.
Area manager – used to be responsible for an entire land, with all business divisions in the area reporting to him.
Area supervisor – the immediate boss for location supervisors who divide up a department of intelligently grouped locations. The area supervisors in turn reported to the area manager. Nowadays all supervisors and area supervisors have been replaced by managers and assistant managers — the same idea, but smaller “business units" than a department; usually just one location in fact.
RFT – “A” status; a full-time hourly employee.
RPT – “B” status; an hourly employee five days a week but just not quite 40 hours usually.
CR – “C” status; an hourly employee who works weekends year-round and five days a week during all school holiday periods (including summer and Christmas break).
CT – a part-time hourly employee who works five days a week during all school holiday periods (including summer and Christmas break). No seniority, so shifts worked are usually quite short.
| GETTING HIRED @ DL |
Locate the employment center to fill out an application, and they will call you for an interview (dress nicely, just shy of an actual suit). Once there, follow these rules, in this order of importance:
1. Smile and be very friendly. They want outgoing people.
2. Do not let the group interview throw you off balance. They want outgoing people who can “perform” a little bit.
3. Do not worry about job (in)experience. They don't care. They want friendly people, not experienced and/or hardened people.
4. Do your best to convince them you already have a Disney attitude: you want to work with people, you're a team player, and you would consider this a dream job (however, don't overdo it on the crazy-Disney-fan side either). Strike a nice balance.
5. Did I mention the importance of a smile?
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