Archive for the &;Disneyland&; Category

Nixon inDisneyland

July 12, 2007

As a media trainer, a key tenet we teach is to never repeat a negative, even when denying it.  President Nixon at the time of Watergate said &;I am not a crook.&;  Convincing, no?  Now Nixon&;s presidential library, located in Orange County, the land of Disney fantasy, has decided to join the reality-based community.  The cover-up that was Watergate will no longer be continued in the museum, although you&;ll still be able to hold your wedding or barmitzvah in the Library&;s reproduction of the White House East Room.  Money quote: &;Visitors learned that Watergate, which provoked a constitutional crisis and became an enduring byword for abuses of executive power, was really a &;coup&; engineered by Nixon enemies. The exhibit accused Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein — without evidence — of &;offering bribes&; to further their famous coverage. &;Most conspicuous was a heavily edited, innocent-seeming version of the &;smoking gun&; tape of June 23, 1972, the resignation-clinching piece of evidence in which Nixon and his top aide are heard conspiring to thwart the FBI probe of Watergate. &;This was history as Nixon wanted it remembered, a monument to his decades-long campaign to refurbish his name. Nixon himself approved the exhibit before the library&;s 1990 opening. &;Everybody who visited it, who knew the first thing about history, thought it was a joke,&; one Nixon scholar, David Greenberg, said of the Watergate gallery. &;You didn&;t know whether to laugh or cry.&; Now that &;exhibit&; is gone, tossed literally in the dustbin (dumpster) of history.  Somewhere a blue-haired Orange County matron is shedding a tear, but fear not: Digital photos were taken of each exhibit, so Nixon&;s version of history will survive for digital display.

Posted in Disney, Disneyland, Media Training, Richard-Nixon | Leave a Comment &;

Notes fromDisneyland

June 22, 2007

I recently attended the launch, literally and figuratively, of the Finding Nemo submarine ride at Disneyland.  Although I didn&;t grow up in Southern California, I&;m starting to understand the sometimes-creepy nostalgia for a Disneyland of the past that almost seems like a Coney Island of the Mind, as Lawrence Ferlinghetti put it.   While many rides of the mythical &;E-Ticket&; era are gone, the Cold War era Disney submarine fleet (launched 1959) has returned from mothballs with a vengeance, to take us on a wonderous undersea journey chasing the little fish Nemo.  Disney has also bowed to the green era; the 8 subs are now clean electric-powered.

The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland

Disney should open an attraction called &;The Line Experience.&;  No ride, just a long line, with lots of hot, tired people from around the world waiting to be entertained. Disney employees have two retirement plans: their 401K and the stuff in their basement. As press, we had an unusual experience&;visiting Walt&;s apartment.  Anaheim was strawberry farms when Disneyland was built, with no freeways or hotels.  Rather than drive the 35 miles back to Holmby Hills, Disney had a small apartment built above the fire station on Main Street.  Like much of Disneyland, it&;s preserved in immaculate creepiness; the early 20th century furniture and footstools covered in doilies, the inevitable Edison phonograph (a victrola-like device with a huge horn) and the two day beds, 15 feet apart, where Walt and wife slept apart from one another.  It smelled like Grandma&;s house.  I picked up the ornate white rotary dial phone.  There was a dial tone, as if waiting a call from The Maker.  At night, they leave the light in the window on for Walt.

Posted in 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, Cold-War, Disney, Disneyland, Finding-Nemo, Uncategorized | 1 Comment &;