Other Stories by Disney Theme Park Cast Members

Tuesday, June 20, 2000
Edited by Kevin Yee

Contributed Stories

Since so many Cast Member have stories to share, this space here will be periodically updated with their fun and interesting narratives. Many of them, you will notice, choose to remain anonymous. If you have a great story to share too, email me at the link at the bottom of the page.

The Very Last Golden Horeshoe Show

This week's contributed story comes from another Kevin.

Here's a great memory: I was working the day that the very LAST performance of the original Golden Horseshoe Revue was performed starring Betty Taylor, Fulton Burley, et al. Until then the Golden Horseshoe Revue was listed year after year in the Guinness Book of World records for, I think, about 35 years of continuous performances. The longest running show (with the same cast, to boot) EVER. Amazing.

Eisner, from what I understand, wanted to make some deal related to Walt Disney [WD for short] Travel Co. with Amex — Amex didn't want to do the deal unless Coca-Cola participated. Well, Pepsi had been the sponsor of the Golden Horseshoe from day one. Coke wouldn't do the Amex / WD Travel deal unless Pepsi, and everything associated with it, was permanently pulled from the park.

Golden Horseshoe had to go. What a sad day that was. In my opinion it was the "beginning of the end" for the DL that many of us knew, loved, and grew up with.

You may not remember this, but Betty Taylor and Fulton Burley had small but very well appointed dressing rooms installed adjacent to the Adventureland / Frontierland Attractions break area (above the old River Cafe — is the cafÈ still there?).

[Editor's note: River... Cafe? Do you mean the Stagedoor Cafe? The Break Area is still there, it's above the Wheelhouse / Riverbelle Terrace.]

Occasionally you'd see one or both of them coming or going and it was always really neat — these people were Disney legends. They'd been doing this famous saloon show for-EVER and we all had a great deal of respect for both of them.

They were always very nice to us "peons." They did spend a great deal of time in their dressing rooms, but with five or six shows a day, I guess you've got to rest between shows.

Anyway, no one I knew had ever been in either of these rooms, but on that "last day" Betty and Fulton left their doors open between shows. I remember going in to say goodbye to them. There were pictures of each of them with Walt Disney and just about every President, and every other foreign Prime Minister or other head of state you could name for the thirty five years they'd been doing the show. Also lots of framed, casually done artwork by some of Disney's finest. Definitely a "wow" moment.

Eisner reserved the actual final performance of the Golden Horseshoe for executives and their invited guests only. What a rip. So we were told to see the show when we could as it was closing soon. A whole crowd of us in that area actually "walked off" of our attractions (The Mark Twain remained docked, if I remember correctly) so that we could crowd around the stage door and crane our necks into the theatre to see what we could of this historic moment.

There were lots of tears and cheers. What a memory. I wonder if there's any other CMs out there that remember the very last Golden Horseshoe?

Signed-Another Kevin

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.

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.

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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