‘End of an Era’ : He Had Job of Note at Disneyland

Seated in an antique electric car, Warren Gale made his last of an estimated 33,000 trips down Main Street as part of the Disneyland Band on Friday, leaving behind a 33-year legacy of music in the Magic Kingdom.

“I feel like a baseball player who has just set a record,” Gale said of his years of service. “It will be interesting to see if someone else can break it. My guess is that no one will.”

Gale, 68, has been entertaining Disneyland guests with his trumpet since 1955, when a friend hired him for the park’s Dixieland Band one month after the grand opening. Shortly after, he started substituting for a Disneyland Band member during the week. He soon became a fixture in the band and was named assistant director in 1974.

When the band reached the end of Main Street, Gale stood up in his red, gold and white uniform to direct one last time as the musicians played a medley of Disney songs, including one of his favorites, “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

“When I took this job I started thinking about moving to Orange County,” said Gale, a longtime resident of Long Beach. “But I thought ‘no’ because music jobs don’t last that long, so I didn’t move. I’ve been commuting for 33 years.”

In addition to the atmosphere and the people, Gale said he stayed at Disneyland for practical reasons. “When I was working in nightclubs there were no benefits, sick pay or anything like that.” Gale worked in nightclubs as a jazz musician from 1939 until he came to Disneyland.

Although he plans to relax and possibly do some traveling with Dorothy, his wife of 47 years, during his retirement, he will make some occasional appearances as a free-lance musician. Gale has plans to perform in Alaska on April 1.

Disneyland band director Dave Warble described Gale as a “consummate gentleman” and a creative and musical genius who is “idolized in the trumpet world.”

“I call him the E.F. Hutton of trumpet players because when he plays, everybody listens,” Warble said. “When he stands up to play, every musician stops to hear him play. We can’t replace this man. It’s the end of an era.”

Warble also remembered Gale as the last of two employees allowed to have a mustache, despite the longstanding Disneyland requirement that all male employees be clean-shaven. Gale said he was allowed to keep his because he had it when he was hired.

“Sometimes people have asked me, ‘Were you hired with that?’ I always said I was born with it.”