Grab Bag: Chuck Empties His Inbox

First published September 9, 2003

By C. W. Oberleitner

If the JHM forums are any indication, Jim Hill's article that touched on Al Lutz's coverage of Eisner and the Big Thunder Mountain tragedy stirred up a lot of emotions and opinions. Well, wait until you read what CW Oberleitner has to say about good old Al and his claims about Michael Eisner's whereabouts. Plus he offers up a few corrections/explanations on earlier articles, and even gets a mention in about his own close encounter with Disney's CEO.

The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things. While I don't have an awful lot to say about sealing wax, of cabbages and kings I can tell you that a whole lot of our readers have had a great many things to say to me. From news of coming events to the inevitable, Chuck you ignorant slut -- thanks Jim -- corrections of my occasional inadvertent oversight or misstatement of the facts, my mailbox is stuffed with news from our readers.

As always I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to write. And, once again I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for not being able to respond to you all personally.

Big Thunder Update

Strictly speaking this first item does not come from my mailbox. It does, however, dovetail with Jim's story Covering the Coverage, which ran here Monday. In that column Jim made reference to a MiceAge column by Al Lutz that first appeared on that site Saturday, September 6. In that column Mr. Lutz accuses Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner of lying to the public.

Eisner made a big point of saying in his opening remarks he had especially come down to Disneyland that day to reassure the cast members and the families of the injured and killed during this trying time…

Unfortunately Michael Eisner was lying.

Cast members who were on their toes knowing he was at the resort were shocked by his statements. They also felt demeaned when he stated he "was there to reassure" them and the families of the victims.

It turns out that Eisner had already been checked into the Grand Californian Hotel, and was at the Disneyland Resort to be a major part of the ABC Prime Time Weekend promotion at the California Adventure park...

This lie makes one want to question everything he says.

How disingenuous of him to use this tragedy to promote himself.

What does it show us about Michael Eisner's character?

I was at the Disneyland Resort Saturday, September 6, and again Sunday September 7, covering the ABC Primetime Weekend for JimHillMedia. After speaking with several Disneyland Resort managers all I can think to say is,

Al, you ignorant slut!

It took only minutes to confirm that yes Michael Eisner, and ABC execs did already have DLR suites and meeting rooms booked for that day. This was done weeks in advance for ABC Primetime Weekend. It is an annual event and a major part of ABC's new fall lineup promotion. However, at the time of the Big Thunder Mountain accident Mr. Eisner was still in Burbank and was not expected in Anaheim until late that evening.

Sources familiar with the organization of last Friday afternoon's press conference at the resort said they expected Disney Theme Park and Resorts President Jay Rasulo but where surprised to learn Michael Eisner would be joining him.

Regardless of the time of his arrival it is apparent to even the most cynical and callous observer that when Mr. Eisner said he was "there" to reassure the cast and families of the victim and injured riders he was speaking in the present tense. In other words supporting these people at that very minute was all he was focused on. Not ABC and certainly not a series of meetings.

Mark Your Calendars

Moving on and returning to items from the mailbox here are some fun things you can do during the coming weeks.

Saturday, September 13^th, 12-7 p.m. and Sunday, September 14^th, 12-5 p.m. it's the 33^rd Annual Brentwood Art Center Student/Faculty Exhibit and Sale. Over 600 drawings, paintings, and sculptures created by students of all ages and levels will be on display.

This exhibit is unique in that the artwork displayed represents a student body ranging from entertainment industry, working artists, beginner through advanced students, gifted children, and many scholarship recipients. The Center will have staff available at the exhibit to discuss the philosophy and curriculum of their exceptional fine art program. The work will be exhibited through Monday, September 15^th. This event is free to the public.

The Brentwood Art Center is located at 13031 Montana Ave at 26^th Street in the Brentwood district of Los Angeles. For further details and directions visit,

Brentwood Art.com

Y Arriba Girlfriend

What's more fun than an "official" Disneyland Resort promotional event weekend? Answer, an "unofficial" event weekend combined with an "official" event weekend. The weekend of October 3 – 5 promises to be one of the biggest and most festive weekends all year long at the Disneyland Resort.

Friday October 3, is the first day of Gay Day 2 at the Disneyland Resort. Years ago, a private travel company would rent Disneyland after hours and host a private party for gays and lesbians. That event was canceled in 1998 when Disneyland expanded its off-season operating hours. The following year a group of enterprising young people launched Gay Day 2, patterned after an event in Orlando, Gay Day (1), which attracts over 100,000 gays and lesbians from around the world each June.

Like the Orlando event, Gay Day 2 is a "mix in," meaning event attendees mingle with the parks' regular guests. Gay Day 2 is not an official Disneyland Resort event. The parks are open to the general public. Like participants in Orldando's Gay Day, Gay Day 2 participants, gays, lesbians, their families and friends, are encouraged to wear RED shirts to identify one another and demonstrate market potential.

While Gay Day 2 is not an official Disneyland Resort event Fiesta Latina is. This coming Saturday, September 13, marks the first of four weekends of live Latin music and dancing, arts and crafts, interactive family activities and traditional foods that are all part of the Disneyland Resort's celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Fiesta Latina events will take place in Disney's California Adventure theme park. The dates are, September 13-14, 20-21, 27-28 and October 4-5. October 5 will also be Gay Day at DCA. My suggestion is that if you don't have a two park annual passport you check with AAA or your travel agent and get a 5-day Park Hopper – they're on special now – and plan on spending the whole weekend at the Disneyland Resort. I know I'm going to be there. I'll look for you on the dance floor.

For more information check the following links:

Disneyland Resort.com

Southern California AAA

Gay Day 2 @ Disneyland Resort

Chuck You Ignorant Slut!

I'll be the first to admit that Jim receives the lion's share of mail around here. Like he always says, however, if you want to hear from the readers just say something wrong. Here's a sampling of some things you sharp-eyed readers have caught me on from my recent columns.

Regarding comments I made about the now defunct Package Express service at Disneyland, So Long and Thanks For All The Fish, August 5, forcing guests to leave the park to stash purchases in their cars and hotel rooms, Sarah Marie wrote me with the following information:

Not to say that DLR doesn't do a bad job on the merchandising front, but rather to, you know, make sure we don't complain too loudly about things that aren't exactly accurate...

There are actually three package handling options available to Guests who purchase merchandise from the stores in the parks and at the World of Disney. The first you acknowledged -- we have lockers, ranging from $3 to $7 (the two biggest size lockers are located in the Picnic area, just to the left of the Disneyland main entrance; there are other lockers located behind the Fantasyland theatre [which may now be closed, since the theatre isn't running any current shows], on Main Street behind the fruit cart [between the Market House and Clothiers], as well as on both sides of the entrance plaza between parks and in Disney's California Adventure). You can open and close those any time you want, and they don't clear them out until they clear the parks. We also have Package Express for Resort Hotel Guests (Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier Hotel, and Disney's Grand Californian), which is free of charge; your purchases arrive by 7am at your hotel bell desk. And, there's Package Check-In, available at Pioneer Mercantile in Frontierland, the Star Trader in Tomorrowland, and the Newsstand on Main Street (the location notable for the candy and souvenier window that you can shop at without actually going into the park). The last two will take anything you bought from the Resort (NOT from the stores in Downtown Disney) except for food.

I'm not a spokesperson for the resort or anything, by the way; I just work in Stores and see a lot of people working much harder than they really ought to, trying to manage their purchases. ^_^ The biggest key to all three services (as well as issues about lost items, returns, exchanges, etc.) is to keep your receipt; you're supposed to have it when you go to Package Check-In.

We also ship anywhere, pretty much, and the cost is pretty much what you pay for catalog shopping ($5.99 and up). We don't ship food or hand-blown glass (when you buy something and we can't ship it, we tell you right off), though.

Anyway, considering how the Pirates merchandise was handled, I figure there are bigger things to worry about. Though we cast members wouldn't mind bringing back the old Package Express, I think. More hours and all.

Thank you Sarah, it looks like you caught me thinking like a stereotypical Annual Passholder. Bad columnist. No churros.

It's always fun to hear from old friends and to learn that they've been reading my column. Okay, I include all my friends' e-mail addresses in the distribution list announcing each new column but it's still nice to hear from them. The following comes from an old friend and former editor living in the Bay Area. Patrick is my grammar mentor and god. He wrote to me regarding my August 19, column, Recalling California.

Ummmmmmmmmmm...ahhhhhhhhhh...oh Chuck...

I read each article you send our way, and I've noticed that some of my original edits that I did for you have actually been incorporated in further writings, this one just REALLY stood out to me! It's your opening statement...not one of the things you want to stand out in an opening sentence:

It probably comes as know surprise to anyone…

Now I KNOW that if you had reread that statement before having it published, you wouldn't have submitted it. And I HATE to bring it up at this date, since it has already been published, but I think you might want to correct that opening statement as soon as you can!

As we all know, no one would be surprised to know that it probably comes as no surprise that this little problem with the words know and no are really no problem for you as a writer…just that you didn't have the piece copyedited before submittal.

Just thought you might want to know about the issue so that it could be corrected. Otherwise, not a badly written article!

Your invisible editor friend…;-)

Thanks Pat. I no you'll forgive me noing that you read the column that followed that one wear I admitted substituting Recalling California fore an overdue column on the origins of Splash Mountain.

Speaking of Bit by Bit, Putting It Together, The Story of Splash Mountain, August 26, Casey had the following to say:

I'm writing about your most recent article on your defense of fact checking that turned into an article about the origins of Splash Mountain. By the end of your article it's true that you go after the facts, you don't necessarily get them (as we see in the end), but you go after them, which is important. While reading your article however I wasn't really concerned about your fact checking ability but which story was true. And you kind of left us hanging, the article was going along very well and it kind of just dropped off at the end.

So we have Jim's version (Which I remember reading once before.)

Your version.

And Eisner's version (Where Breck wasn't mentioned.)

So what exactly happened? Who's version is true? Did Breck call you back?

Casey, do you by any chance know my friend Pat in the Bay Area? Oh, never mind.

Casey it saddens me to say that no I haven't heard from Breck Eisner. Ironically I did just meet his father Michael Eisner last Saturday. I'll tell you more about that in a minute.

The whole point of the story, and I apologize for not making this clear at the time, was that the full story of Splash Mountain is one that will probably never be fully known. Casey, here's the problem. Jim's source and mine, while extremely reliable, were only partial observers of those events twenty years ago. They didn't see and hear everything but like good storytellers they used their own judgment and imagination and filled in the parts they didn't have firsthand knowledge of.

Michael Eisner is not about to go on record saying that he allowed his then fifteen-year old son to influence one of his earliest multimillion-dollar decisions at The Walt Disney Company. Remember it's not his money but rather the shareholders and they might take a dim view of paying the father millions of dollars a year only to receive the benefit of the son's wisdom.

Likewise given that Breck Eisner referred my questions to Disney Corporate Communications, even though he himself is not an employee of WDC, it isn't very likely he will ever share his experiences that Saturday afternoon in Glendale. That just leaves Frank Wells and Marty Sklar as the only other people with firsthand knowledge of what happened during that meeting. Mr. Wells is no longer with us and Marty just plan ain't talking.

I suspect like most long time Disney executives Marty has a book of his own up his sleve. If this is true perhaps someday he will share the events of that afternoon with all of us. In the meantime -- speaking of filling in blanks -- I think it's pretty safe to assume that Breck Eisner did significantly influence his father's decision to authorize the construction of Splash Mountain. But just in case you aren't thoroughly confused by how Splash Mountain may have gotten the attention of Disney money mangers check out this story from Instidude on our Discussion Boards. It too comes from sources within WDI who should know the real story.

Da Big Cheese

Fate is a funny thing. Because of a prior commitment I arrived late for the Young Students Animation Workshop promoting ABC's Wonderful World of Disney television show during the early hours of ABC Primetime Weekend. The event was already in progress. My Disneyland Resort host took me in through the cast entrance of the Animation building.

It was very bright outside and very dark inside. I could barely see anything. I was lead up a small ramp and told I would have to stand in this spot until the program ended. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light I began to make out the figures around me. To the left, where I actually was supposed to be, was a roped off area for the media. In front of me and to my right were various people from Disney managing the event. Directly to my right less than three feet away was Michael Eisner.

Every reporter in the park that day would have killed to be close enough to ask Michael Eisner something, anything about the tragic events of the day before. Me, all I could think of was how to broach the subject of his son advising him to build Splash Mountain twenty years earlier. In the end I realized that despite this rare opportunity this was neither the time nor the place to raise the subject. I did, however, ask him if he would pose for a picture for JimHillMedia.com readers and he said yes.

C'ya real soon!