Whiskers While You Work? Disney May Change Rules
Is Mickey Mouse about to grow a mustache?
Will Donald Duck sport fuzz above his bill?
While Mickey and Donald probably will remain clean shaven, other Disneyland employees may be allowed to grow mustaches for the first time since 1957, the Orlando Sentinel reported Saturday.
Disney executives refused comment to The Times on Saturday, but rumors of a change in Disneyland’s strict grooming code had been circulating for some time, one employee said, and workers thought an announcement of the change could come as early as Monday.
“I think most of the people would say hallelujah,” Mike Duffy, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 362, which represents Disney workers in Florida, told the Sentinel.
“It’s good to see the company come into the new millennium from the 1950s. I can only imagine they’re doing this in response to the tight labor market.”
Disney’s dress code, of course, never affected the show biz side of the company.
No one ever forced Robin Williams to shave or told Julia Roberts she couldn’t work unless she covered up.
And the maestro himself, Walt Disney, had a strip of whiskers lining his upper lip.
Still, few companies have had a dress code as strict as the one for employees at Disney’s amusement parks.
The company dictates that employees--”hosts” in Disney lingo--must wear underwear and deodorant. It wasn’t until 1994 that female theme-park workers were allowed to use eye shadow and eyeliner and men could don toupees.
In 1989, Disney, which operated the Queen Mary in Long Beach, fired the first officer and two other employees for violating the ban on facial hair.
Disneyland’s last experiment in loosening its dress code ended in January 1997.
The yearlong experiment in sartorial freedom allowed male office employees to toss off their ties and wear sweaters and cotton twill pants and more jewelry than a watch and a wedding band.
Business casual, though, turned out to be a bad fit for the Magic Kingdom, with the emphasis too far in the direction of casual, the park’s image consultant said at the time.
“Everyone brings a different interpretation to the office,” Frankie Walters said. “The return to the classic dress code takes the guesswork out of it.”
Coats and ties, dress slacks and suits became the uniform for men once again at Disneyland.
Female employees were banned from wearing twill pants, casual shoes and T-shirts, but they could wear dressy culottes and pantsuits that were part of a coordinated outfit.
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Times staff writer E. Scott Reckard contributed to this report.
