FROM: No Event Too Small Published Wednesdays

Sneaking Under the Fence at Disneyland

Ask any reporter: the 'hook' for a story is as important as the story itself. Disney Legend Charlie Ridgway, then a feature writer for the Los Angeles Mirror-News, had a great hook for covering Disneyland, then being built: sneak a kid under the fence.

- by Charlie Ridgway, June 8, 2011

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Back in April 1955, I was working as a feature writer for the Los Angeles Mirror-News, and on the weekends watching Disneyland slowly take shape behind thick construction fences.

I was fascinated by Disneyland, knew it would become something important, and wanted to write about Walt and his park before the rest of the world caught on.

I had an idea to 'sneak' an Anaheim kid under the fence at Disneyland. Not for real, of course: I told Eddie Meck, Disneyland's Publicity Manager, what I wanted to do, and after a bit of convincing, he went along with the idea.

So I drove out to Disneyland with a five year old kid (on loan from a neighbor) and with a photographer, Delmar Watson, who in his younger years had played one of the kids from the Our Gang comedy shorts.

We didn't actually sneak under the fence; we drove through the gate, and met some Disney people in charge of showing us around.

We got pictures of the kid standing in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle (which was then only a story and a half high), trying on Seven League Boots in front of the Castle, fishing off the dock in Frontierland (even though the 'river' was dry), and riding in a stagecoach (even though it had no horses). And, of course, a shot of the kid 'sneaking' under the fence.

As we were walking around the park, however, I saw discarded flash bulbs on the ground. They weren't ours, and so I knew that another reporter had been in the park very recently to work on a story of his own.

When I got back to the Mirror-News, I told Hank Osborne, my city editor, that we'd better rush my story to press, because if we didn't, someone else would beat us into print. Hank wasn't too concerned about it, and told me that tomorrow's paper was full.

"We'll run it next week," he said.

On Monday morning, I picked up a copy of the Los Angeles Examiner, a rival newspaper, and saw their two-page spread with pictures of Disneyland.

I got beat on my story and never did forgive Hank for letting that happen.

Don't want to wait another week to read more from Charlie Ridgway? Don't blame you! I can help: first, read my review of Charlie's book, Spinning Disney's World, and then... buy it! The book brims with Charlie's well-told stories, and it spans the length of his Disney career, from Disneyland to Disney World and beyond.

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