Bare Upper Lip No Longer a Must for Disney Workers

Memo to Disneyland cast members: Walt had one. Now you can too.

Walt Disney Co. said Monday it has scrapped a 43-year-old ban on mustaches for its theme park employees. The move is a minor concession for the Magic Kingdom, which continues to have one of the strictest grooming codes of any American employer.

Beards are still prohibited. Nose rings and purple hair? Forget it. And no Elvis look-alikes please: Sideburns below the bottom of the ears aren’t allowed.

But in a letter going out this week to 12,000 workers at Disneyland and its four parks in Florida, Disney Attractions President Paul Pressler said the mustache edict was lifted because surveys show patrons don’t find them objectionable--neatly trimmed mustaches, anyway.

“The discussions with our Guests showed, not surprisingly, that they feel strongly about the importance of our Disney look and view our Cast Members as role models for their children,” Pressler’s 289-word memo said. “And it was clear they also felt neatly trimmed mustaches are consistent with what they have come to expect of us.”

When Walt Disney opened Disneyland in 1955, the Anaheim park and its workers were meant to contrast with the tawdry amusement parks of the day and the “carnies” who ran the rides and games.

Disney, who enjoyed a cocktail or two, banned alcoholic beverages at Disneyland. And despite having a mustache himself--a neatly trimmed one at that--Disney decided in 1957 to ban facial hair formally for all workers at “The Happiest Place on Earth.” The prohibition spread to the company’s Magic Kingdom park near Orlando, Fla., and at the other three Florida parks it has opened: Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom.

Over the years workers have pined for an end to the ban. But Disney had held firm.

In 1989, after Disney acquired the company that operated the Queen Mary in Long Beach, it created a major stir by firing the mustachioed first officer and two other employees with facial hair.

Having taken facial hair so seriously in the past, it wasn’t surprising that Disneyland on Monday conducted an all-employees briefing, “Mickey’s roll call” in Disneyspeak, to explain the changes.

Park officials said they had shown pictures of beards, mustaches, spiky hair and other bodily decorations to highly diverse focus groups before making the decision. As some workers pointed out, the policy change comes at a time when that type of facial hair is out of vogue among younger people.

“I’m not growing a mustache,” one ride specialist said. “It looks too 1970s--you’d look look one of The Village People or something.”

Now a goatee, he added, that would be different. “If it was a goatee, hell yeah.”