The Hidden Mickey Book Fan Club BLOG! -  v005

The OFFICIAL HIDDEN MICKEY FAN CLUB!

Disneyland's 'Original' Hidden Mickey
By David W. Smith

Hello again Hidden Mickey Fans!

While the phrase Hidden Mickey has had a contemporary meaning for Disney fans around the world for the last ten years or so, (locating the iconic Mickey Mouse shape in things that are not as commonplace nor, perhaps, designed to be quickly identified), the concept of Hidden Mickey began on a ride that is very important to our first novel, HIDDEN MICKEY 1: Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales!.

For those who have not read this book yet, please understand that our books are novels, not guide books to find Hidden Mickeys. We do have those too, but this first Hidden Mickey novel is a first-of-its-kind action adventure mystery surrounding Walt Disney and his life.

It is with fond memories that I recall working at Disneyland in the early 1980's, especially working in a stocking cap and a cool pirate shirt on the ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. The first real 'Hidden Mickey' came about when we had a fun lead and a very slow evening usually during Grad Nites at the Park.

For those 'lucky' enough to have survived either going to or working, (or chaperoning), the annual Grad Nite events, you would remember that the park would be open from 11pm to 4am. What always started as an exciting, exuberant evening, quickly would turn into a reenactment of 'Night of the Living Dead' as the kids, the employees and the chaperones would end up walking around like zombies as the caffeine had lost its effect and the physical 'crash' would catch up with everyone. Save for some night owls or those who had slept enough, earlier that day prior to the party, most guests would be vying for any park bench not occupied to pass out on. Main Street would often look like a long-forgotten alley filled with vagrants and homeless people crashed out along the curb or against the sides of some of the buildings'until an employee told them they couldn't sleep on the sidewalks!

Anyway, as the night wore on, the majority of the grads who could stay awake would end up in Tomorrowland where the live bands kept the kids hopping through the early morning hours, leaving the other parts of the park virtual ghost towns. Working Pirates of the Caribbean at 2 or 3 in the morning, we would often go several boats without a single guest. This left those of us working with little to do, short of telling jokes or spreading gossip about who was hooking up with whom, all the while trying to stifle yawn after yawn.

During one of these slow shifts, our working lead found an old Mickey Mouse stuffed toy, probably something left behind from earlier when the park was open during normal operating hours. Because few supervisors came out to the rides during Grad Nites, our lead came up with a great idea that kept those of us working the ride a little more awake.

The lead would head into the ride and hide the Mickey Mouse toy. Because we often took breaks in pairs, two of us would use our twenty minute break to try and locate where he had hid Mickey.

When Mickey was found, the lead had some prize, like a candy bar, to give to the cast members who found Mickey. The most comical place we had located Mickey was on top of the talking skull right before the first waterfall. How he was able to put the stuffed toy up there, none of us really figured out, since it was high above the boats traveling in the ride flume.

If you have been on the ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, you know what a detailed ride it is. Finding a small eight-inch Mickey Mouse was often like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. Sometimes, our lead would include a clue that would give us a hint at where in the ride Mickey might be.

The hard part was trying to look for Mickey without being spotted by the guests, even when only few were on the ride; we didn't want to ruin the ride even for one guest. So, ducking when boats came by was a common occurrence if we were out in the parts of the ride that guest might see us.

Well... that's it for this issue...
Enjoy, and have a Magical Hidden Mickey Day!
 

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