One of my favorite things to see at Disneyland is a costumed character meeting with children (and giddy adults). In this 1964 image, some of Snow White's Dwarfs are marching through Fantasyland. Along the way, somebody apparently whacked Happy with a nine-iron. Right in the head! It's nice to see that he can still smile in spite of this indignity.
These characters aren't quite as primitive as the Mickey and Minnie costumes from a few days ago, but they're still rather crude. I've always wondered why they had useless, dangling arms. Did the performer need the hands inside the costume in order to manipulate the slightly (and I do mean slightly) flexible faces? Or did they partially hold the costume up from the inside? Inquiring minds want to know. If one of them fell down, they were as helpless as a turtle on its back.
My most recent character encounter was with Buzz Lightyear, he's much shorter in person than you might imagine. But he was nice enough to pose for a picture with me!
The arms may have been dangling and useless but at least they weren't slapping the kids silly ... (yeah Tigger, I'm talking to *you*)
ReplyDeleteI think the arms were dangling because the way the costume was designed, the shoulders and head of the person were tightly fit into the Dwarf costume head. And for Katella Gate, there are stories of the Dwarves spinning, causing the arms to flail and beat up kids who were not behaving nicely!
ReplyDeleteI remember that the dwarves could "wiggle" their noses. I'm guessing the actor inside just put his hand in the nose and pulled. But it did cause the face to look like it was being sucked in and out. Kinda scarey for a little kid!
ReplyDeleteGood Golly Miss Molly will somebody PLEASE tell me why I continue reading this blog while I'm at work? I have been sitting here for the past five minutes, suffering from lack of oxygen. Why? Because I am laughing so hard, yet trying to muffle my laughter so as not to attract the attention of my co-workers...
ReplyDelete