When Opportunity Knocks, Just Say <i> Oui</i> : Expatriates: For many Southern Californians, Euro Disney means work combined with adventure and new possibilities.
For nine years, Ken Clifton spent his days unclogging other people’s drains and wondering whether life would ever take him further than the underside of a kitchen sink.
But things couldn’t have taken a more amazing turn for the 25-year-old Cypress native with the peach-fuzz complexion. Now his home is a downtown Paris hotel within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower.
Robin Brown was an aspiring North Hollywood model and actor whose cowboy good looks were often lost when competing with thousands who looked just like him. In France only a few months, Brown finds his Western hat and boots a hit in hip Parisian nightclubs, and a part-time overseas modeling career is beginning to take shape.
“The cowboy thing has a mystique all its own here,” said Brown, 36. “I go to the nicest clubs and people say, ‘Come on in.’ It’s great.”
Mary McFadden of Newport Beach lives near here. And Rolland Muller, who’s been the chef in hotel kitchens from San Diego to Newport Beach, is bringing the tastes of California to France’s Los Angeles Bar & Grill.
They are among a contingent of young Southern Californians whose dreams of the good life have drawn them to France and the payroll of the newly opened Euro Disney Resort.
Disney executives say the West Coast contingent and others from the company’s base in Orlando, Fla., have been invaluable in launching Disney’s $4-billion operation here.
In all, Disneyland International President James Cora said that more than 700 American “task force” members were brought to France, largely to train Europeans for jobs on park attractions or to work in restaurants or in the resort’s six American-themed hotels.
“The cultural blend seems to lend a balance to what’s going on here,” said Cora, himself an Anaheim Disneyland veteran who still maintains an office and home in Orange County. “These people may end up being our future government leaders.”
A waiter at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the park district known as Festival Disney, Clifton could hardly contain himself when he learned last Wednesday night that an Orange County tour group was being seated at his bank of tables.
“You’re from Anaheim? Hey, I’m from Cypress,” Clifton called out to one of the guests, his cowboy hat knocked back on his head. “It’s always nice to talk with people from home.”
Clifton said he heard about the Disney job from a supervisor at Wild Bill’s Western Extravaganza in Buena Park, where he worked nights. With Disney adapting the theme to France and Clifton looking for a serious change in life, it seemed a perfect marriage. He was hired and arrived four days before the park’s April 12 opening.
“I was seeing the same old people. I was eating the same old food,” he said. “Basically, I just wanted to see Europe and find out if I wanted to be a plumber for the rest of my life.”
Although the Disney paychecks will never make him wealthy, Clifton has found the experience a great adventure. He said Disney pays for half of his monthly commuting costs on the metro. He is also adjusting to the cooler climate, and he’s seen the Mona Lisa.
“I wanted to do this before I have to get back to the rut of things,” he said.
Brown, a former stunt rider at Universal Studios, has kept his Western role in France as a Buffalo Bill’s cast member. He got the job after calling Disney officials in Anaheim and in Orlando last year after reading a newspaper account of the company’s new park in Europe.
Deciding to come to France was a “pretty scary move,” Brown said.
Since his arrival, though, his aspirations for a career in modeling are beginning to bloom. He has an agent in Paris and is scheduled for his first photograph session this week.
His work at Disney includes precision-riding displays and general cowboy antics. In one skit, “bad guys” are lowered from the ceiling on ropes to enact a stagecoach robbery. The multicultural crowd erupts with laughter when one of the gunslingers greets the stagecoach driver with a polite, “ Bonjour .”
Brown described his living conditions as similar to his days in a college dormitory. He said Disney pays most of his expenses, and company buses provide transportation to and from the park every day. But neither Clifton nor Brown would disclose how much they are being paid.
“Let’s just say it’s a pretty fair salary,” said Brown, who has signed a one-year contract.
Elsewhere at the theme park, Newport Beach’s McFadden manages Annette’s Diner. Similar to the Ruby’s restaurant chain in Southern California, the European design has a Jetsons-meets-the-1950s look. McFadden once worked at Ruby’s and was hired last October for her job in France.
With relatives and close friends thousands of miles away, she said many of the employees have formed close friendships. “They have become like my family,” she said.
For at least one employee, the job at Euro Disney has meant returning to his native France from a career in Southern California.
French-born chef Muller had most recently worked in the Newport Beach kitchen of Le Meridien Hotel, said Hubert Ricard, who manages the Los Angeles Bar & Grill also in Festival Disney.
The chef, who could not be reached for comment last week, brought his experience with California cuisine to Disney, and the fare has apparently found friends among finicky French foodies.
“We’re like Spago,” Ricard said, referring to the upscale Hollywood restaurant and its bill of fare. “We’ve been real busy. It’s packed here on the weekends.”
