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Disney's Cast Members Expand

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:44 pm
by Loomis
I love this story...

Reality Shapes Disney Garb

http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... california

It's not such a small world after all. As Disneyland celebrates its 50th birthday, the park is grappling with a harsh reality of middle age: Mickey Mouse's entourage has put on a few pounds.

To accommodate the ballooning bodies of American workers, the Magic Kingdom is redesigning some of its costumes for ride operators, shop clerks, waitresses and other employees.

A couple of decades ago, the park's wardrobe department stocked only a narrow range of sizes. Today, the uniforms for women extend from size 2 to 30. And men's trousers have stretched to 58-inch waists.

The super-sizing of costumes is the latest wrinkle in the park's unending quest to balance Walt Disney's storybook vision of perfection against real-world practicalities.

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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:51 pm
by MinnieMe
Guess they are just following suit. I mean, can you imagine if they were firing people (or not hiring) because they were fat? The number of lawsuits would be unbelievable.

They're making bigger uniforms because America is fatter... and.... ?

I don't even understand why this is really a story worthy of publication. Musta been a slow day for the LA Times.

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:39 pm
by Escapay
Hmm, I wonder why it's focusing solely on Disneyland. Lord knows we've had our share of, er, larger castmembers at WDW.

Anyways, even though they're finally getting larger costumes for castmembers, it doesn't mean you'll see a lot of them. More often than not, the castmembers I knew who were...bigger than one-size-fits-all were always in the foods. The majority of them are almost always either in the kitchen, or bussing tables, or working at ODF. You hardly see oversized castmembers manning the attractions or merchandising.

Escapay

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 7:45 pm
by Fidget1234
Some of the old CMs who have been w/ WDW since they first opened (yes they are still there! :) ) have told me that when they first opened, costuming didnt have ladies size bigger then a 12 & mens waist size didnt come larger then a 42.
Yikes!