An excerpt from a Fox News article:
FOXNews.com - Disney World Tells Santa Lookalike to Hit the Road
“They told me I either needed to alter my appearance or I needed to leave the park because I was impersonating Santa Claus. They told us that Santa was considered a Disney character,’ said Worley.
Santa is now a Disney character? Sure, they own The Little Mermaid (sorry, Hans Christian Anderson). But Santa? Surely not.
My friends and I were once denied entry to Disneyland because the boys’ jeans had ripped knees. That was fashionable at the time, but the irony is: they had been saving up for this Disneyland trip and didn’t have money for new clothes. We went back to the car and they ripped their pant legs off and we folded up the remaining so as not to show the stringiness (they didn’t want us wearing cut-offs, either). They looked like dorks, but cleaner cut dorks, and we got in that time. Later that day we saw a number of white kids with ripped jeans and cut-offs. Either the doorkeepers had become too busy to check everyone’s clothes as the day wore on, or being darker-skinned and long-haired made one more subject to scrutiny.
1 response so far ↓
1 Alexander // Dec 21, 2006 at 12:23 am
This reminds me of an article on snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/disney/parks/longhair.htm). I wouldn’t have guessed that today they are still that uptight…
Though, as a Disney Fan, I’d have to try to defend the “Santa” thing: I don’t believe they claim to have a copyright on Santa Claus, but it was surely meant to avoid confusion with park guests. They have a Santa Claus of their own who has to play his part.
Would you go to Disneyland dressed up in a Mickey costume, would you expect to be let in?
Bye
Alexander