Walt Disney's Apartment
Because Walt Disney wanted to ensure that everything would be as magical as possible when Disneyland was being built in the early 1950s, he had an apartment built in the theme park, which was an hour from where he lived in California. Employees would know when he was in the apartment, above the fire station on Main Street uSA, when the light was on in the window at night. To this day, more than 45 years after his death, a light is left on in the window in his memory and supposedly the room has been left untouched. since he passed away. Perhaps Mickey's Ears are not the only things you could ever see at Disneyland.
The Vault
Included in that rigid control of their trademarks in the vaunted Disney Vault. Disney started theatrically re-releasing movies seven years after they were originally released after "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." Since them, the home movie craze hit and with the advent of DVDs, the Vault is only reopened once every 10 years. Supposedly this is a ploy to get new generations of children interested in the movies. Or like any business, it could just be a way to make more money.
Rigid Control of Trademarks
Years ago, Disney promised that the corporation would sue three daycare centers in Florida for having five-foot tall painted depictions of Disney characters. The characters were replaced, but that is just one example of how Disney holds its trademarks close to the chest. In another case, a Florida couple was sued for a million dollars when they advertised Eeyore, Tigger, and Pooh outfits that they had available for parties. The couple sent the costumes back to the Peru ebay seller, which prompted Disney to say the couple acted in bad faith. No honey for you!
Don't Date Disney
Talk about keep quiet. Disney employees are expressly prohibited from dating other Disney employees, hence Don't Date Disney. A former employee of Disneyland let the cat out of the bag on that policy years ago when the he tattled to "LA Magazine" about his time as Jack Sparrow. Unfortunately, someone took a photo of him and his then girlfriend, an Ariel, and showed it to the higher ups, who were displeased. However, it was going to the premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," doing an interview in costume, giving his full name, and the interview being posted online that got his Ears taken away.
Facial Hair
Back in the 60s, long hair and facial hair was considered to be a sign of hippies, which the empire could not afford to be associated with. Hence a policy was born requiring all male employees to have short hair and no facial hair at the theme parks. It took until 2000 for the theme parks to renege on the policy. Now male employees are allowed to have neatly trimmed mustaches.
Hidden Ears
Whether your're at Disneyland or any of the other theme parks, everywhere you look there are Mickey Mouse Ears. And no, not the merchandise ears. From the shape of the pizza to the hedges to the ears hidden in the tiles, Mickey's iconic ears are everywhere thanks to Walt's desire to add to the magic of the kingdom.
Oscars
By the 2008 Academy Awards, Walt Disney's company had been nominated for more than 200 Oscars with more than 50 wins just in films under the Disney logo. Of those films, there are 51 nominations for animated features with 14 wins. With Pixar under the Ears, that amount close to doubles with 13 Oscar wins for Pixar. Disney will likely continue to tack on more wins since it has distributed all the major film releases for Pixar and bought the company two years ago. As for dear old Walt, he holds the record for most Oscars with 22 in regular categories and four honorary out of his 59 nominations.
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