disney unknown facts! (4)

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69
In 1957, President Harry Truman (a Democrat) took a trip to Disneyland and refused to ride the Dumbo ride because elephants are the symbol of the Republican party.
        
70
The Matterhorn rollercoaster at Disneyland has a secret basketball court inside it for Disneyland staff to use.
        
73
The ideas for Wall-E, Monsters Inc, A Bug's Life and Finding Nemo came from a single lunchtime brainstorming session in 1994, before the first Toy Story film was even finished. What did you accomplish over sandwiches today?
71
Disneyland employees only have their first names featured on workplace badges, because Walt hated being called 'Mr Disney'.
        
72
Back in 2004, the company auctioned (for charity) the chance to name a gravestone at the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. The winner, Cary Sharp, paid $37,400 on eBay to become the attraction's 1,000th ghost. Each to their own.
74
Though commonly referred to as seven 'dwarves', the films actual title is Snow White and the Seven 'Dwarfs'. This is because in 1938 when the film was released, 'dwarfs' was the accepted plural. Blame JRR Tolkien for the change.
        
77
When the Pirates of the Caribbean ride opened in 1967, the only fake skeletons available to Disneyland designers were rather naff, so they used real skeletons (previously employed for medical research) from UCLA's Medical Center.
        
78
Bully boy Sid from Toy Story has a hallway carpet which has the same design as the nightmarish corridors of The Shining. Chalk this one up to Toy Story editor (and Toy Story 3 director) Lee Unkrich, who adores the Kubrick film.
75
Mickey only has four fingers on each hand because animators thought he looked strange with five. The fact that he's a clothed mouse apparently didn't seem strange to them at all.
        
76
Disney theme parks don't allow staff to date one another, a fact that came to light when a 'Jack Sparrow' spilt the doubloons to the press.
        
79
Animal Kingdom scientists at the Disney World safari park have carried out pioneering studies into elephant vocalisations. Some of them travelled to Kenya to see Dumbo in the wild, and were involved in the discovery of a brand new call: an alert related to bees.