Disney's darkest secrets – human bones at Disneyland, racism and mysterious death

Walt Disney may have created some of the most famous childhood movies of all time, but he’s faced a lot of controversy following his career.

Walt, who was born in 1901, created the brand Disney with the launch of Micky Mouse in 1928 – and soon after it was followed with a string of different characters and films.

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Mickey and Minnie Mouse became the face of Disney, but some of the most popular films come from adaptation of Grimms’ Fairy Tales – though the endings were often changed to suit Disney’s happily ever after.

As Disney became a sensation – with the market capitalisation of the franchise now worth $180billion (£148billion), Walt opened the first Disneyland park, though he died before the others welcomed the public.

There are now six Disneylands across the world, with the seventh set to open in London in 2024.

Despite a lot of happy memories associated with the franchise, it’s not all positive under the surface, from Walt Disney himself to spooky situations taking place at one of the famous parks.

Human bones

Before the days of good quality props, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride which opened in Disneyland in 1967 used skeletons with actual human bones.

The ride opened months after Walt’s passing and it was the last one he ever oversaw personally, but one thing which couldn’t be created on the ride was skeletons.

They went to UCLA in California and procured real human skeletons for the ride, but in Jason Surrell’s book Pirates of the Caribbean: From Magic Kingdom to Movies, they said as technology improved a “new generation of Imagineers” replaced the old ones.

It was explained that the real human bones were later returned to their countries of origin and given a proper burial.

Racism

Since Walt Disney’s heyday multiple claims have come out suggesting that Walt was racist – mostly down to the use of racial stereotypes in his movies.

In fact, one movie was deemed so offensive that the company will no longer let it be seen in public.

Journalist Neal Gabler has done a deep dive into Walt’s career and many meetings, and Gabler recently cited a meeting in which he referred to the Snow White dwarves using a racial slur.

Disney also faced controversy with the first Disneyland over the reported unwillingness to hire minorities at the parks.

Abandoned parks

Some Disney parks were abandoned without any explanation – but the most controversial one was perhaps the River Country, Disney’s first water park.

Disney stated it was closed down due to low footfall, but in 2001 it was reported that a brain-eating amoeba was discovered in the lake surrounding it.

The lake was a main source of water for all the slides, so it has been argues that the park was closed for this reason.

Spreading ashes

It is quite common for people to spread ashes in places which meant a lot to the loved ones, but it’s incredibly common at Disney.

Spreading ashes at Disney is not allowed, and the staff need to use special hoovers to remove ash particles from the air to prevent them being breathed in by tourists.

The occurrence is now extremely common at Disney, so specialist staff are trained to handle it when it does take place.

Mysterious death

An 18-year-old worker was once found dead at Disneyland.

Debbie Stone, a hostess for the park, tragically died in 1974 after working at Disneyland for a summer job and later became a hostess for the park.

Debbie was thought to have been crushed between the walls of the two theatres during the America Sings musical extravaganza, which always saw the theatres rotate together – but at night it would go the opposite way to close the two together.

At 10:30pm, when the last show as finished, a guest heard a scream and when they went to the scene, Debbie had been killed.

It remains unclear how Debbie ended up trapped in between the walls.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk