Disneyland Hotel Workers Fired for Not Shaving Mustaches

As a Disney devotee for more than 40 years and as one who unabashedly admits the influence of “Fantasia” on my life, I am probably typical. Walt Disney may have had a different face for his associates and employees than the visage presented to the adoring public, but that’s show-biz.

The current flap about individual rights and the Disney Co.’s intent to maintain uniformity is a non-issue. Disneyland, Disneyworld, and the Disneyland Hotel are part of a larger, meticulously designed piece of theatrical art put on display everyday for an audience of millions. Every aspect of the Disney creations has been carefully patterned by what the original author perceived as the public’s desire for dreams and living together happily ever after.

I first visited Disneyland in 1968. My wife and two children were not as nearly excited as I was to enter the Magic Kingdom. This was the culmination of a vision that Disney had tantalized us with for years in film and now it had come true. It was real. The little streets were perfect; the doorknobs were polished to perfection. Every detail of the buildings, the rides, the costumes, the handsome shining faces, the atmosphere, were as they were supposed to be--perfect.

Like any work of great art, there is a discipline, a continuity of conception behind it. No matter what the form, there is an identifiable framework that holds it together. Art is never anarchy. All employees, including those who join the company at the executive level, are oriented in the “Disney way.”

Being in business for myself, I have a beard and often sit in front of my computer looking rather unkempt. I don’t know if I could abide with the “Disney way” as a life style or work style. All I know is that the way Disney created an illusion became a reality for countless numbers of us all over the world who still like to dream about living happily ever after.

IVAN LADIZINSKY

Marina del Rey