Dark Side #1
It’s time to get to the dark side of Disney. I have been contemplating to do this article for a while and I think I’ll do it. Warning, what I am about to tell you is true and it is gonna get a little gruesome so be prepared. With that being said, here are Top 5 Dark Disney Secrets. *Disclaimer: Brush and Palette do not guarantee the reliability of the information provided below, nor does it claim the information as 100% factual.
- Debbie Stone
It’s the summer of 1974 and young Debbie Stone just graduated high school. She was looking for a summer job and she decided to work at Disneyland. Disneyland just opened a new attraction called “America Sings” and it featured a cast of audio-animatronics animals that entertained the audience by singing songs from various periods in America’s musical history, often in a humorous fashion. The attraction had six stages and they would spin while you were sitting. Two weeks after the opening, Debbie is put to work on the attraction. She was the person that would stand next to the stages and tell everyone to enjoy the show and tell them to gather their belongings. Well on July 8, 1974, Debbie got too close to the moving stage and as it was turning, Debbie got caught and was dragged to her death. She was crushed by the stationary wall and the moving wall. The audience heard her screams and they immediately stopped the show, but it was too late for that. Debbie Stone was pronounced dead on the scene and some workers say that they could still feel her presence to this day.
Source: https://opinionfront.com/the-infamous-death-of-debbie-stone-at-disneyland
- Lemmings
In 1958, Disney released a nature film called “White Wilderness” and the film featured animals such as polar bears, lemmings, the musk ox, and Beluga whales. There was one segment of the film where the lemmings were jumping off a cliff because they had to “reduce population”. At the end of the part where the lemmings jumped off the cliff, the camera showed the lemmings at the bottom dead. What the audience didn’t know was that they lied. The crew members pushed the lemmings off the cliff and made it look like they killed themselves.
Source: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=56
- It’s Pretty Lit in Paris
At Disneyland Paris, two chefs committed suicide in 2010. This was followed in 2013 by an employee who tried to set himself alight. One of the chefs left a note saying, “I don’t want to work for Mickey anymore.” His father said that his son was depressed about the food at the park being switched from freshly-made to frozen – surely the final straw for any Frenchman.
Source: http://scribol.com/pop-culture/film/dark-secrets-disney-hoped-never-see-light-of-day/4/
- Dolly’s Drop
In 1984, a 48-year-old woman was killed when she was thrown from a Matterhorn Bobsled car and struck by the next oncoming bobsled. The spot where she was killed is now called “Dolly’s Drop” by cast members. An investigation found that her seatbelt was not buckled. It is unclear whether the victim deliberately unfastened her belt or if the seatbelt malfunctioned.
Source: https://stillunfold.com/history/15-tragic-disneyland-deaths-in-recent-history
- It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Dies
In 1967, a 17-year-old boy from Hawthorne, California, was killed while jumping between two moving PeopleMover cars as the ride was passing through a tunnel. He stumbled and fell onto the track, where an oncoming train of cars crushed him beneath its wheels and dragged his body a few hundred feet before it was stopped by a ride operator. The attraction had only been open for one month at the time. This was a popular game among teens to jump from one cart to another if you fall I guess you lose.
Source: https://stillunfold.com/history/15-tragic-disneyland-deaths-in-recent-history