How I Worked My Summer Vacation

Published July 16, 2005

By C. W. Oberleitner

One of the hardest parts of this job is trying to make friends and family understand how spending a week at the Disneyland Resort is work and not a vacation.

Even though organizations like the National Fantasy Fan Club (NFFC) and the Disneyland Resort frequently are kind enough to issue o-meon.com press credentials, providing us with access to people and places we might otherwise never even come close to, there's still a great deal of running around involved.

For one thing, while I'm amazed at the volume of traffic our site has achieved in less than a year, we still aren't quite in the same league as, say, the Los Angeles Times. This means that it's next to impossible to get on the list of scheduled interviews at most media events.

I end up practicing what I've come to call 'Mike Wallace journalism.' In his younger days, before he and 60 Minutes became the de facto standard for probing interviews, Mr. Wallace was known to just appear on an interview subject's doorstep, camera crew in tow, shove a microphone in the subject's face, and start asking questions. I like to think I'm a bit more subtle than that but I do have to catch my subjects when and where I can.

Here, then, is a sample of some of the people you can expect to read and see a lot more about in the coming weeks here at o-meon.com.

Hi! My name is...
Video copyright obe-mediaone.

Michael Eisner's former personal assistant, and now head of The Muppet Holding Company LLC, Chris Curtain with Pepe the King Prawn.
Image copyright obe-mediaone.

Not all authors crave media attention. Author, historian, and Disneyland public relations guru Tim O'Day can be quite shy.
Image copyright obe-mediaone.

The job does have a few perks. Quite often they feed us pretty good.
Image copyright obe-mediaone.

Okay, I know you've already seen this one. Deserves a second look, don't you think?
Image copyright Disney.

One of the nicest things about covering Disney and Disneyana events is being able to meet some truly legendary talents from across the creative spectrum.

Renie Bardeau, Disneyland's Official Photographer for more than 30 years. He's the one that took the famous early morning shot of Walt and the castle.
Image copyright obe-mediaone.

Voice of Mickey Mouse, Wayne Allwine; father of the Autotopia, Bob Gurr; and the voice of Minnie Mouse, Russi Taylor.
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One of Walt Disney's original Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston.
Image copyright obe-mediaone.

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