The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (148 page)

Welcome
Mickey Mouse
!

* * *

Buena Vista Street
’s corner market just north of the
Julius Katz
shops is called
Mortimers Market
in honor
Mickey
’s lost name, history-that-almost-was.

The store
prettily evokes the mom-and-pop grocery store of the 1920’s.  Below intricate ornamental terracotta (can you see the carved mice?), green awnings stretched across delicately worked metal arms promise “Cold Drinks” to passers by.  Ceiling fans with wooden blades cool the air.

Wooden cold cases, painted white and packed with ice, chill pop bottles, fruit
s, and vegetables.  Spotless shelves above the cold cases display crates stamped
Mortimers Market
, crates holding apples, bananas, melons, and peaches, interspersed with cans of pineapple and cocoa.  As usual, the
Imagineers
have missed no detail.  The classic brands on display, like Elkay Cocoa, are real–were real, that is, in the 1920’s.

A couple of framed photos of old
Mortimer
hang on the wall.  Did the proprieter, small and humble, really inspire
Walt
’s creation of a little “everyman” type of cartoon mouse?  No.  But in the
Buena Vista Street
mythology–quite possibly.

Guests who know nothing of the
Mickey-Mortimer
history will still enjoy pausing at this vintage store front to purchase a cool beverage ($2 - $4.50 each) or one of the shop’s healthier wares ($2 - $4 each) like apple crisps, berry bowls, hummus, pickles, pineapple spears, trail mix, or veggie cups.  This is a particularly good store for Guests who are health or calorie-conscious.  Look for special seasonal fruits that add variety to more standard offerings.

Because it’s located near
DCA
’s main entrance,
Mortimers Market
is the best place to grab that bottle of water for your morning in the park, or for your drive home. 
Did You Know?
  Take a careful look at the ornamentation above
Mortimers
’ awnings; you probably spotted the carved mice, but did you find the tiny letter “m”s? 
Did You Also Know?
  Odd footnote to the
Mortimer
story:  In August 2012, I received from my mother a wonderful birthday present, a
Mickey Mouse Comic Strip Reprint Book
created by
Howard Bayliss
in 1971, and presented that same year to
John Fawcett
, who now owns and runs Fawcett’s Antique Toy Museum in Waldoboro, Maine.  The booklet contains reprints of
Mickey
’s first comic strips, originally printed in 1930. 
Mickey
and
Minnie
are in the desert, looking for treasure and helping
Minnie
’s
Uncle Mortimer
.  That’s right–
Mortimer Mouse
lived on as
Minnie
’s rancher uncle!  (I contacted Mr. Fawcett to be sure he didn’t want the booklet again after 41 years–perhaps it had sentimental value?  He assured me I should keep it.  If anyone has any knowledge of Howard Bayliss, please contact me as indicated in “About the Author”.) 
Did You Also Know?
  But wait–there’s more to the
Mortimer
history!  In the 1930
Mickey
comic strips,
Mortimer Mouse
was an old rancher, and
Minnie
’s uncle.  In 1936, animators went in a different direction, introducing a new
Mortimer Mouse
, a slender, rat-like young mouse who vies for
Minnie
’s affections (see
Mickey’s Rival
(1936)).  This final incarnation of
Mortimer
continues to make sporadic appearances in diverse
Disney
productions to this day.  It’s a mystery why the name
Mortimer
, so long ago rejected by
Lillian
, lives on in the
Disney
-verse.

Buena Vista Street
Character Meetings and Performers

It’s difficult for us, in 2013, to
picture what the 1920’s were like, but we all have iconic images stamped in our minds from history books and movies and PBS documentaries and, of course, cartoons.

We think of a college kid in a raccoon coat and pork pie hat, waving a pennant and saying nonsensical things like “2
3 Skidoo”.  We think of a flapper in strands of beads, madly dancing the Charleston on a marble-topped bar.  We think of big tin automobiles with hand-cranks, juddering and clanking along dirt roads that were even then being paved and laced with electrical and telephone wires.  We think of champagne and gin and hot jazz, a party that never seemed to end.  We think of the stock market, soaring up and up, no one dreaming it could crash so hard.

By and large, these images have truth.  You can hear the mad, mobile merriment of the age in its music, and you can hear the music on
Buena Vista Street
, peppy tunes like “Shake That Thing”.  We had won World War I, and everyone was dancing in the 1920’s.  Progress was in full swing, and the thing to be was modern.  Everyone moved to the cities and talked slang and played the market and moved fast and had unlimited confidence in the future.  We were industrializing, electrifying, motorizing, refrigerating, agitating, and animating.  Cartoons were the perfect medium to communicate the zany speed of the new age, and the possibility of the impossible that it promised.

Los Angeles was humming with endless possibility when
Walt
arrived in 1923.  Former ditch digger William Mulholland had brought water to L.A.–seemingly all the water it would ever need–by 1913.  Dirt roads had given way to paved roads, gas to electricity, horses to automobiles–Downtown L.A. had installed more than 30 traffic signals by 1923.  Real estate was booming, oil was flowing, and the moving picture industry was about to explode.

Walt
moved to L.A. at a golden moment, a perfect match of personality and place.  He was an optimist among optimists, a dreamer and doer among dreamers and doers.

That’s the spirit
Buena Vista Street
communicates, in part through the
Citizens of Buena Vista Street
.  You’ll see them throughout this district, and they’re happy to share their stories with you.  A peppy policeman hands out citations for good citizenship.  A merry messenger delivers good tidings at top speed.  A gossipy dog lady and a flamboyant photog round out the crew.  The
Citizens of Buena Vista Street
wear threatrical period costumes and stand out from the crowd.  Like the land they inhabit, the
Citizens
are breezy, fun, and looking to the future.  That’s the mood they want every Guest on
Buena Vista Street
to enjoy, a sort of sociological time travel.

Mickey
is no stranger to
Buena Vista Street
.  You’ll find him near
Carthay Circle
, dressed like a
Red Car News Boy
. Sometimes he’s conducting a meet-and-greet.  Sometimes he’s performing in the
Red Car News Boys
’ show. And sometimes this
Mickey
can talk.  And sing!  He’s the most advanced masked character to date.  Now, t
hat’s
progress!

Other core
Disney
characters also conduct
Buena Vista Street
meet-and-greets. 
Goofy
and
Pluto
, and minor characters
Chip ‘n’ Dale
, visit
Buena Vista Street
wearing dapper 1920’s & ‘30’s togs (Goofy’s blue-and-green plaid suit is the bee’s knees!).

Every hour or so, the
Red Car News Boys
commandeer one of the
Red Car Trolleys
.  It’s quite a sight,
Disneyland
entertainment at its best.  These talented young men (and some young women, with their hair tucked under their caps) sing and dance as the trolley car rolls along
Hollywood Boulevard
.

When the red car stops at
Carthay Circle
, the news boys leap out and perform for delighted Guests.  They sing
California, Here I Come
, and
A Suitcase and a Dream
–they’re relating
Walt
’s origin story through song and dance.  What a way to tell a story!  Guests feel like they’ve been teleported into a musical. 
Mickey
joins in the fun too.

News boys were a typical sight
on city streets in the 1920’s & ‘30’s, one of the major distribution arms of the newspapers.  With all that progress and modernization in the early part of the century, there was plenty of news to report in those days–and much of it was good.  In the 1910’s,
Walt
’s father
Elias Disney
ran newspaper routes in
Kansas City
;
Walt
and
Roy
were among his news boys, and spent hours every morning and every evening delivering papers throughout the city.

In 1992,
Disney
released a film called
Newsies
.  It was the first movie
Kenny Ortega
directed, and despite his talent, a compelling story (the 1899 news boys strike), songs by
Alan Menken
(
The Little Mermaid
(1989),
Beauty and the Beast
(1991),
Tangled
(2010)), and a cast that included
Christian Bale
,
Robert Duvall
, and
Bill Pullman
, the movie bombed.  A critical as well as financial failure,
Newsies
attracted a small but intensely loyal fan base.  They must have sensed greatness;
Disney
’s stage version of
Newsies
, which debuted in 2011, is popular, even beloved, and has won two Tony awards.

Buena Vista Street
’s
Red Car News Boys
are as energetic and harmonious as a Broadway troupe, and when you see them and hear them, you’ll find yourself swept up in the
magic
.

The
Red Car Newsboys
aren’t the only talent motoring along
Hollywood Boulevard
.  From time to time you’ll see a big jalopy driving through
Hollywood Land
, filled with jazz musicians and a glamorous jazz singer in wonderfully loud costumes.  Suitcases and musical instrument cases are strapped to the vehicle.  It’s a touring car, and it looks like maybe these folks have traveled a long way.

This is
Five & Dime
,
Buena Vista Street
’s resident jazz band.  The
Five
are the musicians (saxophone, trumpet, guitar, bass fiddle, and percussion), and
Dime
is the singer.  They park the big jalopy at
Carthay Circle
and alight.  Guests gather around.

Five & Dime
deliver hot jazz and pop from the 1920’s and ‘30’s (before jazz branched out and got all chilly and cerebral). They perform
When the Red Red Robbin (Comes Bob Bob Bobbin’ Along)
.  And
Ain’t We Got Fun?
they sing?  We sure do! 
Ain’t We Got Fun
is a vibriant foxtrot composed in 1921.  It’s a satirical piece, but for millions in the 1920’s, and millions at
DCA
now, its breezy, exhuberant spirit couldn’t be more literally true.

Several performers portray
Dime
, but her vocals are always rich and sure, delivery and diction perfectly matched to the vintage tunes.  She’s a class act with beaded fringe, elbow-length black gloves, and a feather headdress.  The nattily dressed band is top-notch, completely in step as they blaze through upbeat songs of the prosperous ‘20’s and the can-do ‘30’s.

Goofy
, in his hep blue-and-green plaid suit, joins the fun, dancing Charleston moves with
Dime
, and helping her introduce the band.  What’s
Five & Dime
’s story?  Band members explain:  They’re from
Chicago
(where
Walt
was born), and they’ve moved to L.A. (via Route 66, naturally) like so many dreamers, to make their dreams come true.

When you watch
Five & Dime
, be prepared to become part of the act! 
Dime
invites a man in the crowd to dance with her, and she serenades him with the tune
I Want To Be Loved By You
while they trip the light fantastic.  Is the man a Cast Member?  Nope–he’s a real Guest, some guy in the crowd that catches
Dime
’s attention.