The Most Magical Place on Earth is alcohol-free

Image: Amy, Flickr (license)

Disney’s family-friendly reputation causes some folks to take every concept to its logical extreme. They believe that Uncle Walt loathed the idea of alcohol in his parks. There’s actually a kernel of truth in this. Disney disliked the smell of beer, especially when it dried on hot concrete. Given the arid conditions at Disneyland, it made sense to disallow alcoholic beverages inside the park.

There were exceptions almost from the beginning, though. In 1967, a dozen years after the park opened, Club 33 debuted in New Orleans Square. Disney designed this lavish club for the patricians rather than the hoi polloi, and catering to such an elite crowd demanded the sale of wine and champagne. So, alcohol has been available on the Disneyland premises for almost half a century now.

The situation at Walt Disney World is a bit murkier. The subdivision of theme parks caused a divide in the standard rules across the sites. Epcot featured several pavilions that include restaurants and bars onsite. They couldn’t accurately reflect the culture of Germany without beer, and I say that as someone whose given name is technically Mombauer. My people love their potent potables, and Disney respected that with their park dedicated to world culture.

Image: Disney

Magic Kingdom played by very different rules until recently. It’s absolutely true that the same original rules for Disneyland applied to Magic Kingdom for decades. The situation didn’t change until the introduction of Be Our Guest Restaurant in 2012. In terms of publicly accessible Magic Kingdom establishments, it was the first to offer beer and wine to guests. You can read the original Time Magazine article on the subject if so inclined. Suffice to say that some guests stated outrage at the time, but what was effectively a trial run for public alcohol consumption at Magic Kingdom succeeded. In fact, people expect the now-confirmed The Jungle Navigation Co. Skipper Canteen to sell alcohol as well. Just please don’t spill any beer on the concrete. It would make Uncle Walt roll over in his grave.

We’ll always have…this article, Ilsa

Image: Warner Bros. 

Have you heard the one about The Great Movie Ride? It’s the tall tale that claims that in order to maximize the authenticity of the attraction’s celebration of the glamor days of Hollywood, Disney imported a special artifact. That movie treasure is none other than the plane from Casablanca, the one that Ilsa boards for her flight to Lisbon, the one that permanently separates her from the love of her life, Rick.

While I admire the people who started this rumor for having tremendous movie taste, they didn’t show a lot of filmmaking knowledge by starting it. Anyone who has ever worked on a set understands that producers have to cut a lot of corners to stay on budget. Few things are ever built to scale. In the case of Casablanca, one of the most storied films ever made, plane models were crafted on set, but they were not full-sized.

Someone at Disney missed this point, which led to a public relations blunder. See, the reason why this myth has been propagated so much is that it came directly from Disney. Almost exactly a decade after The Great Movie Ride debuted, the company wanted to drum up attention for one of their anchor attractions at Hollywood Studios. Employees performed an international search to unearth a plane similar enough to the one from Casablanca to pass for it. Whether they planned the misinformation campaign from the start or it happened accidentally is up for debate.

What we do know is this. The plane on display during The Great Movie Ride is a Lockheed Electra 12A. Amusingly, the one they managed to buy had been used on some film sets, just not for Casablanca. It was the right plane for the project, and had the company just stopped there, everyone would have praised them for their commitment to authenticity.

Alas, Disney was in for a penny and in for a pound. They boldly proclaimed their coup. They had acquired the plane Humphrey Bogart stood beside when he sent Ilsa away, telling her that she’d regret it if she stayed. It’s a magical movie moment, but Disney’s part of the story was a lie. Their plane had nothing to do with the actual production of Casablanca. In fact, their Lockheed was a better quality vehicle than the Travel-Air used in the film. It was a rare black eye for the company, and their public announcement is the unlikely source of the myth. See? Even Disney can get things wrong when it comes to Disney history.

And there you have it. These are the myths and legends of Disney that persist in the face of all logic and reason. No matter how improbable and illogical they are, people enjoy the theory of them so much that they maintain belief in the literally unbelievable. If you ever encounter such a devout disciple of arguments such as dolls coming to life at night or an immortal park creator still living on Main Street even today, feel free to shut them down. Consider all these myths busted.