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Walt Disney Urban Legends

McAvennie

McAvennie

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Mar 13, 2003
Messages
3,998
I remember on an UL website reading about popular US myth about a guy being killed on a ride at Disneyland. Can't remember what the hook was, something like it was at the bit where the pictures are taken or that it happened in th 70's and the kid haunts the ride. Well it happened for real, if it was a legened before it is now fact.

LOS ANGELES, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The locomotive hauling cars on a popular roller coaster ride at Disneyland split apart from the rest of the train on Friday, killing one man and injuring 10 other passengers, officials said.
The locomotive on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction broke away from the passenger cars as the train went through a dark tunnel about 11:20 a.m. (2:20 p.m. EDT, 1820 GMT), officials in Anaheim, California, said.
An adult man in the first passenger car of the roller coaster was found dead by emergency workers who arrived at the roller coaster, a train ride that blasts through a Western landscape past falling rocks and waterfalls and through fake mine shafts and caverns.
Disney shut down the ride for investigation.
"The locomotive itself disconnected from the passenger cars. How it was disconnected or became disconnected we are not sure at this point," Anaheim fire and police spokesman John Nicoletti told a news conference.
A local television station said the injured riders ranged in age from 9 to 47 years old. Eight of the passengers were taken to hospitals, including four males and four females.
Some passengers left the ride immediately after the accident, and it was not clear how many people had been on board, Nicoletti said.
Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner said Disney was working with authorities to find the cause of the accident. "Our hearts and prayers go out to those injured and to the family of the deceased," he said.
Disneyland is owned by Walt Disney Co. <DIS.N>, the largest theme park operator in the world.
"At this point we don't believe sabotage was involved, but we are going to look at everything," Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez told reporters.
Disney last year named a new executive to oversee safety and released a report on efforts to improve safety at its parks, prompted by public concerns in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Disneyland had an estimated 12.7 million visitors in 2002.
Past accidents at Disney parks include the apparent drowning at Disney World in Florida in April 2002 of a man who reportedly jumped out of a tower and fell into a lagoon, and the 1998 death of a 33-year-old man at Disneyland who was struck by a metal cleat at a dock at the Columbia ship attraction.
A 4-year-old boy was critically injured after being trapped underneath a car in the Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin in September 2000 at Disneyland.
Also a Utah couple sued Disneyland, saying they had been injured in summer 2000 on the Space Mountain roller coaster when their car derailed during an emergency stop.
 
I read in the Guardian a few years ago about a rule that 'nobody dies in Disneyland'! It seems that if paramedics are called to, say, a heart attack victim who looks likely to die, the patient is taken off the premises ASAP and can then be said to have died 'on way' or even in a convenient layby.
 
escargot said:
I read in the Guardian a few years ago about a rule that 'nobody dies in Disneyland'! It seems that if paramedics are called to, say, a heart attack victim who looks likely to die, the patient is taken off the premises ASAP and can then be said to have died 'on way' or even in a convenient layby.
Click to expand...

just like the houses of Parliament then..
 
My friend worked some time in Euro Disneyland in Paris a couple of years ago (three, I guess) During that time, some woman died in one of the rides (dunno which one, since I've never been there, but if I remember correctly, it was either the space-themed rollercoaster or the one with western theme). I've tried to find some information about this incident, but haven't found anything. All I know it can't be a UL.
Anyone else heard of this?
 
the UL McAvennie referes to is that on the rides opening an elderly gentleman died of a heart attack on the haunted mansion ride in disney world florida and that the ride had to be 'toned down' as a result.

There earliest example i know of this ul was from a kids horror movie about urban legends called "the willies" from the late seventies or early 80's I would guess (don't bother watching it, it really is crap), althogh other UL's mentioned in that film (such as the tomato plant up the nose) were in existence long before the film came out so this UL was probably in widespread circulation before tha film came out.
 
... erm... does it count that I would rather die than endure disneyland/world, etc. ?
 
sidecar_jon said:
just like the houses of Parliament then..
Click to expand...

should claify that... no one ever dies in the Palace aof Westminster by tradition... they are taken ill and die elswhere. Even if they are dragged decomposed from their desks or stiff as a board from the toilets. Its a tradition, i sopose to make it seem like its a safe stable place to the outside world....
 
The snopes thing is good but it asks questions as well as answering the,m.
It mentions in one pinstamnce a story about a guy who shot himself in the head outside EPCOT in the piece about deaths in Didneyland being covered up, but this death doesn't appear on the list of 9 official disneyland deaths.
There is nothing to back up that story and it appears they are using an UL to prove another UL!?! Did someone really blow their head off outside EPCOT?
Also the menytion of a girl being run over and killed in the parking lot doesn't get listed as one of the 9. Surely snopes isnt being as pedantic as the UL suggest Doidney are. a death in Disneyland car park is still a death at Disneyland if u ask me.
 
The list of deaths i linked to is a list of visitors who've died on rides or attractions, "Outside EPCOT" and "In The Car Park" are not rides.

I'm sure that many more people have died in, or as a result of being in, the park, but that wasn't the list i posted.
 
I woke up to read the news about the death after having dreamed (what seemed like) a very long dream about different types of roller coasters. I rode some in the dream and sat out some because I didn't feel they were "safe." I rarely dream about amusement park rides so it stuck with me, and continued to stick with me after I read the story that morning.
 
Noteworthy as much as anything else for the, well, curious reaction of the Epcot people: "Yep, working the way it's supposed to. Killing four year olds." I mean, yes, re: the mom, just because DisneyCorp says it's OK, well, God still gave you a brain. I've not seen the ride, but it really doesn't sound like something I'd put a four-year old on. As to the Disney people, I wonder, as a complete non-expert, if being at least 44" tall, the height of an average six, six-and-a-half year old has little to do with whether little bodies should be subjected to 2 Gs.

Boy, 4, dies after riding Epcot attraction

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) -- A 4-year-old boy died after passing out aboard Walt Disney World's "Mission: Space," a ride so intense that it has motion sickness bags and several riders have been treated for chest pain.

Daudi Bamuwamye passed out Monday afternoon on the attraction, which simulates a rocket launch and trip to Mars. The Orange County Sheriff's Office said his mother carried him off the ride and employees helped her place him on a bench.

Paramedics tried to revive him, but he died at Celebration Hospital.

The sheriff's office said the boy did meet the minimum 44-inch height requirement for the ride at the Epcot theme park, which uses centrifugal force to simulate twice the normal force of gravity.

An autopsy was expected Tuesday to determine the cause of the boy's death.

Officials said the boy from Sellersville, Pennsylvania, was on the ride with his mother, Agnes, and a sister.

The $100 million ride, one of Disney World's most popular, was closed after the death but was reopened Tuesday after company engineers concluded that it was operating normally.

In 2003, Disney began placing motion sickness bags in the ride.

During an eight-month period in 2003-04, six people over age 55 were taken to hospitals for treatment of chest pain and nausea after riding "Mission: Space," though none of them was found to have any serious problem.

At that time, it was the most hospital visits for a single ride since Florida's major theme parks agreed in 2001 to report such problems to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Updated figures were not immediately available.

One other death was reported at Disney World this year. A 77-year-old woman who was in poor health from diabetes and several ministrokes died in February after going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at the Magic Kingdom. A medical examiner's report said her death "was not unexpected."

Signs warn visitors about the intensity of the "Mission: Space" ride.

"For safety you should be in good health, and free from high blood pressure, heart, back or neck problems, motion sickness or other conditions that can be aggravated by this adventure," one sign on view last year said. Signs also warn pregnant women not to go on the ride.

Florida's major parks are not directly regulated by the Department of Agriculture; state law exempts large, permanent amusement parks that have their own inspectors from state oversight. But the parks agreed to share safety information in 2001.

Disney officials said in a statement after the boy's death that they were "providing support to the family and are doing everything we can to help them during this difficult time."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/14/disney ... index.html
 
Just my opinion, but if the ride required barf bags to be placed I would not allow my 4 year old on it.
4 years old!
What the heck were those parents thinking.
 
Too bad. Thunder mountain is one of my favorites. For anyone who has not been on it, its appearance is that you are on a rusty old train, flying down a mountian at excessive speeds. Very very fun one, and not too much motion sickness. Thats in frontier land, one of the best areas.
 
sidecar_jon said:
sidecar_jon said:
just like the houses of Parliament then..
Click to expand...

should claify that... no one ever dies in the Palace aof Westminster by tradition... they are taken ill and die elswhere. Even if they are dragged decomposed from their desks or stiff as a board from the toilets. Its a tradition, i sopose to make it seem like its a safe stable place to the outside world....
Click to expand...

Don't they just leave them on a bench in the House of Lords?
 
bigphoot said:
Don't they just leave them on a bench in the House of Lords?
Click to expand...

LOL -- isn't that an Alexei Sayle's sketch?!?

TVgeek
 
Here is a death attributed to Disneyland
2 months after the visit!

This article below infers that this sort of thing
DOES happen more often than we suspect.
This case just sounds odd...

TVgeek
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtm ... ID=8820469

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Days after a young boy died on a space ride at Walt Disney World, the California Supreme Court opened a new avenue to sue Disney and other theme park operators, ruling the parks have a duty to keep customers safe, even when they seek the thrill of danger.

The ruling, released on Thursday, was a victory for the family of a 23-year-old Spanish woman who suffered a fatal brain injury aboard the Indiana Jones ride during her 2000 honeymoon at Disneyland in southern California.

The court said the family could sue Walt Disney Co . under a state law usually applied to transportation companies. Disney declined to comment on the ruling. The case now returns to Los Angeles Superior Court for trial. The decision comes days after a 4-year-old boy died of unknown causes after riding Disney's Mission: Space ride at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. No cause of death has been identified.

The California court ruled that Walt Disney Co was required to provide vehicles that are "safe and fit for the purposes to which they are put."

Cristina Moreno suffered a brain aneurysm as a result of "violent shaking and stress" she experienced on the ride, her family's lawyer, Barry Novak said. She died in Spain about two months later.

Rob Doughty, vice president for communications at Disneyland resort, commented on the decision: "While we disagree with the decision, it has nothing to do with the safety of our parks. Our commitment to guest safety has been, and continues to be, unwavering."

Novak, who has litigated several brain trauma cases against Disney and other parks, said the opinion means that theme parks "must warn the public that the rides can cause serious injury and even death to people without preexisting conditions."

Disney had argued it had no liability as a transportation provider because its passengers were seeking thrills and pleasure, not trying to get to a destination.

But the court responded in its 4-to-3 decision: "Certainly there is no justification for imposing a lesser duty of care on the operators of roller coasters simply because the primary purpose of the transportation provided is entertainment ... The rider expects to be surprised and perhaps even frightened but not hurt." Disney recently prevailed in a safety-related issue in a lawsuit with a ride manufacturer over Mission: Space.
Environmental Tectonics Corp of Pennsylvania, which designed and built Mission:Space, claimed in a 2003 lawsuit that its engineers had been banned from safety tests and wanted to be relieved of liability in the event of an accident.

A federal judge in Philadelphia dismissed the safety claim from ETC's lawsuit on Monday, the same day the 4-year-old boy passed out and died after riding Mission:Space.

An autopsy found no trauma but was inconclusive about the cause of his death. Further test results are expected in about a month.

A lawyer for ETC would not comment on whether the company would try to reinstate the safety claims. The case, which includes cross claims by Disney about time and cost overruns on the ride, is scheduled for trial in September.

ETC was "enormously saddened" to hear of the child's death but made no other comment about the accident or litigation in a written statement released on Thursday.

The boy's death has renewed calls by California-based consumer group Saferparks for federal oversight of theme parks, which are exempted in Florida and other states from ride regulation and inspection laws that govern mobile carnivals.

Data provided by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions shows 3,900 injuries nationwide in 2003 and an average of two fatalities from 315 million visits made each year to theme parks.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
 
gncxx on the Wizard of Oz discussion wonders why there is no thread for Walt Disney urban legends.

So here it is.
 
Wow! That was a fast reply, H. Four minutes!

Thanks much for the Snopes link.
 
There is a story that Disney employees used to refer to their workplace as "Mausewitz" until an edict from senior management told them to cease and desist. They then started calling it "Duckau". 8)
 
Most of the Disney ULs are about how the company isn't as wholesome as its family image presents, with rude words hidden in cartoons and suchlike. There are some strange, full time Disney haters out there on both sides of the wholesome debate.

What is apparently true is that worried Disney executives held prayer meetings when Daryl Hannah appeared topless in the live action Splash, so they can't all be committed to corruption of the innocent.
 
I heard the one about the 'Mickey/Minnie Mouse fornication' short movie about 20 years ago and believed it at the time, but I realise now that it is unlikely to be true.

The story goes that some animators made a Mouse-porn film as a birthday present for Walt, and after they showed it to him he asked 'Who did this?' and sacked them on the spot.

It's possible that there is Mouse-porn out there, but it wouldn't have been made for Walt as he was obviously not going to be amused. :lol:
 
If you want to see Disney porn, the artist you want is Wally Wood. His "Disney orgy" poster is pretty much the last word. Wikipedia discusses it as follows:
In circles concerned with copyright and intellectual property issues, Wood is known as the creator of the unsigned satirical Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, which first appeared in Paul Krassner's magazine The Realist. The poster depicts a number of copyrighted Disney characters in various unsavory activities (including sex acts and drug use), with huge dollar signs radiating from Cinderella's Castle. Wood himself, as late as 1981, when asked who did that drawing, said only,"I'd rather not say anything about that! It was the most pirated drawing in history! Everyone was printing copies of that. I understand some people got busted for selling it. I always thought Disney stuff was pretty sexy ... Snow White, etc."[4] Disney took no legal action against either Krassner or The Realist, but did sue a publisher of a "blacklight" version of the poster, who had used the image without Krassner's permission. The case was settled out of court.
Click to expand...

I'm shocked that Disney didn't sue Krassner's ass raggedy, since it's a blatant trademark transgression. (I've seen it.) If they didn't want the publicity, why go after the blacklight version?

Because of this poster, I had remembered Wood as the defendent in a case in which Disney prosecuted the writer/artist of a comic story in which Mickey's nephews were actually his illegitimate children by Minnie. They were not getting married for professional reasons, and the boys took drastic action to blow the scandal and force their parents to marry. The artist's defense, which shows a surprising degree of naivete for a pornographer, was that if he didn't make the trademarked characters look as much like the originals as possible the point of the work was lost, and that anyone who saw the works would know that they were unlicensed parodies because the stories and images were so wildly out of character. I saw (or invented; the memory is vivid but isolated) an interview in which he said emphatically, as if defending the good name of a real couple: "Mickey and Minnie would never act like that. Nobody's going to think this is a Disney production! Nobody's going to be confused! But if the characters don't look exactly like Mickey and Minnie there's no point to doing the story." He had lots more faith in - well, in lots of things - than is justified by reality.

Properly sourcing this story would involve a search of work-inappropriate websites, so excuse me on relying on my faulty memory for that bit.

Due to a friend with a blithely filthy mind and a love of animation, I've seen far more cartoon porn than I care to. Disney is a popular target, but judging from the context I would call it a twisted sort of tribute, rooted in the same impulse as steamy fanfic. The more you exclude all trace of sex from a work, the more incentive a certain type of person will have to extrapolate it.
 
I found the "Disney Orgy" poster on the Subgenius site, but it looks more jokey than pornographic to me. It could have been worse (or better, depending on your point of view).
 
http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm

Claim: During the filming of the 1958 Disney nature documentary White Wilderness, the film crew induced lemmings into jumping off a cliff and into the sea in order to document their supposedly suicidal behavior.
Status: True.
Click to expand...

This brings to mind a story my professor told me when I was in film school. A year before White Wilderness, Disney made the nature documentary Perri, which centered around a squirrel. Problem was, the squirrels used for the main character were jittery and hyperactive. Someone on the set got the bright idea that gassing the squirrels with nitrous oxide might mellow them out to acceptable levels. Of course, this was a inexact science and by the time production wrapped several dozen Perris were inadvertantly gassed to death. :x

The White Wilderness story is pretty well know, but I have never heard anything else about this supposed story. Anyone else heard this one?
 
gncxx said:
but it looks more jokey than pornographic to me.
Click to expand...

Many jokes are pornographic, and this is America, where birth control information has been prosecuted as pornographic (historically) and a magazine for teen-age girls was pulled by some stores for containing gynecological information with pictures (within the last year).

This is also one of the world's giant corporations, with more lawyers on retainer than graduate from Harvard in any given year.

Here's my Disney FOAF - I have it from another local children's writer, who claimed to know someone who had a contract to write a book for Disney. I don't remember whether it was an original for Hyperion or a tie-in book. The story makes most sense if it was work-for-hire. Anyway, when the FOAF read the contract, she was astonished at how overkill-laden it was, absurdly restrictive even for a work-for-hire. One clause struck her particularly, stating that Disney was buying/retained certain rights on earth and throughout the solar system.

At this point she'd already marked up the contract a bit (always negotiate!), but she thought this was just funny, and she was tired and exasperated, so she wrote in "except Saturn."

When she returned the signed copy, she got a frantic call from the legal department, demanding to know: "What do you know about Saturn?"
 
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