Today's post can be placed under the heading of, "Tragic Kingdom."
First up, we have two cartoons from The Los Angeles Times. Both are referencing the measles outbreak that affected more than 140 people here in the U.S. and spread to Canada and Mexico, as well. The outbreak was traced back to Disneyland, with a starting time of December 2014. Four months later, the California Department of Public Health reported that there were no new cases within the U.S. (from this particular outbreak), and that nobody had died. The outbreak sparked a national debate over vaccinations, because most of the people that were affected had not been vaccinated.
This first cartoon is by political cartoonist and illustrator, Ed Hall. I like how he incorporated the Disneyland sign, which used to stand at the entrance of the old Disneyland parking lot from 1989 to 1999.
And this one is by political cartoonist, Tom Meyer. It might be a little difficult to make out, but the back of the mom's T-shirt reads, "Moms Against Vaccines."
Next we have an undated article from The Los Angeles Times. I am guessing that it is from the 1990's, but maybe somebody out there remembers this story and will chime in with the year or at least confirm the decade. (Post Update: Meet The World reader, "Chuck" has posted a comment below with a date of April 16th, 1981, for this incident. Thank you, Chuck!)
I cut out this next article when I was very young. It is one of the two oldest newspaper clippings I have related to Disneyland. I believe it is from around the approximate time period of 1974-1976. I remember cutting it out of my Grandmother's local newspaper, The Daily Breeze, which serves the South Bay area of Southern California. I also think I shared this one during "current events" at school.
This incident is much more recent (May 28, 2013). It turned out to be a Disneyland cast member that had put the dry ice into a bottle and placed it in the trash can.
I decided to include this Knott's Berry Farm Log Ride incident that occurred in 2014 (the article is from 2015).
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6 comments:
I like the second editorial cartoon with Doc. That sums it up perfectly.
I have no idea about the year the incident happened in the "Woman Dies After Collapse at Disneyland" article.
Now that's interesting that you remember the "Disneyland plot foiled" article from around 1974-1976 because it seems like the plot right out of the film "Rollercoaster" starring George Segal and Timothy Bottoms which was released in 1977. I wonder if the film maker got the idea for the movie from that news story.
I totally remember the events in the "Toontown evacuated after blast" article. It made the national news. Was that three years ago. My how time flies.
From the "Knott's is sued over ride injury" article, I wonder how after 45 years of operation, this became an issue on the Log Ride? Unless there is a history of that happening and it wasn't caught by the news media.
That was a most enjoyable visit to the Tragic Kingdom. Thanks, TM!
Ken, I just went back and reread the Knott's article. The lawsuit cites 9 other times that something similar had happened on the Log Ride. Now I'm going to be cautious the next time I ride on it. I also just now noticed how the article describes the ride as telling the story of California's gold mining era. I think they are confusing it with the Calico Mine Ride. Oh well! I'm glad that you enjoyed your visit to the Tragic Kingdom!
Fascinating post Tokyo.
In the Disneyland Plot Foiled, just how stupid could that guy have been? Did he really think they would actually put 3 million dollars in containers and then let him simply walk away? Jeez!
Was it ever discovered just why the cast member put the dry ice in the trash can? Was he a disgruntled employee?
SWA, yeah, that does seem pretty dense! I guess he thought they would pay it, if they thought the threat was real. And I'm not sure about the cast member with the dry ice. I should have researched that to see why he did it and what happened to him after!
TM!, Janet Wallace died on Thursday, April 16th, 1981. I don't remember reading about it at the time, but I think it was mentioned in Mouse Tales.
As always, a very interesting post!
Hey Chuck, THANK YOU for that information! So the article is from much earlier than I remembered. It's interesting that there were complaints even way back then, about Disney not calling for the paramedics when a guest was experiencing a medical emergency. I thought that was a more recent thing. Shame on them!
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