Did you ever notice those signs on doors or entranceways in Walt Disney World that say the area is for CASTMEMBERS ONLY?
Did you ever wonder what was actually behind those secret doors?
Peeking behind them is a no-no, of course, but not for reasons you might think. A glimpse into these behind-the-scenes areas would, in effect, shatter the illusion Disney is trying to convey.
I’m reminded of a story that Disney legend Marty Sklar tells which best illustrates this point.
Sklar had just begun working at Disneyland in 1955 when he drove with a photographer to a photo shoot. “He wanted to take a shortcut, so we took a dirt road that ran near the Rivers of America,” Sklar recalls. “We passed a man in a floppy hat and parked the car, which was visible to the Mark Twain riverboat as it passed by.”
The man in the floppy hat turned out to be Walt Disney. “Within seconds, Walt was right there poking his finger in (the photographer’s) chest! He snapped at us, ‘What are you doing with that car here in 1860?’”