When Cast Members have fun with parodies, you get Captain Eeyore. This was filmed at Videopolis in the late 1980s.

When I worked there in ODV, we filmed a Star Wars spoof called Vendor Wars. Our villain was Duck Vendor, who wore a helmet just like Darth Vader’s, but with a face mask that was a Mighty Ducks mask painted black. We were allowed to film in the park and in backstage areas after hours - Control One even did all-calls telling maintenance crews to stay away from where we were until we were finished so they wouldn’t be in the shot.

I got to wear Launchpad McQuack’s boots for one scene…the director wanted a shot of a long line at Churros 6 (by the Haunted Mansion), and wanted the line to include several Disney characters. Costuming didn’t trust us enough to let us borrow the actual characters (probably a very wise decision - it was past Mickey’s bedtime and we wouldn’t want him to not be fresh for the guests in the morning), but they did let us borrow their shoes so, with the right camera angle, it looked like we had actual characters.

Sadly, the two guys who were running things (and who owned all the equipment) got into some big fight with each other and refused to work with the other anymore. And since they both had bits of the footage and refused to give it up, Vendor Wars was abandoned with only a couple scenes left to shoot (the Cantina scene was going to be filmed at Acapulco’s across Harbor Blvd, and include Disneyland’s Vice President of Operations, who had given us the needed permission with the caveat that he got to make a cameo).

Vendor Wars never got finished, and the footage we had never got combined. it was still an amazing summer of spending many nights at the park as we filmed from park closing to park opening, then worked our shifts.

So it’s great to see a successful cast member parody live on, even if it’s not one I was involved with!

Those yellows, as we called that vendor’s costume in my early ODV days (until the ODV costume changed a couple years after I started), sure bring back memories. Although those skirts had gone away by the time I worked there…ladies wore pants instead when I hired in in 1994.
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Those yellows, as we called that vendor’s costume in my early ODV days (until the ODV costume changed a couple years after I started), sure bring back memories.

Although those skirts had gone away by the time I worked there…ladies wore pants instead when I hired in in 1994.

(via disfan)

Source: imagineeringdisney.com

Smart vendor. She found a shady spot (which is not only more comfortable for her, but better for he balloons), AND she gets to listen to the PeopleMover spiel. Also, thank goodness Disneyland uses ribbons as balloon strings now, instead of those thin red threads they used to use. Not only did they break more easily, but they were thin enough to really dig into your hand and hurt. They were also a real pain to keep untangled. As a matter of fact, you can see the vendor in this picture is “combing” the strings with the fingers of her right hand to fight tangles. If you didn’t do that almost constantly with these strings, they would get tangled into a knot that Houdini himself would have trouble undoing as the balloons wrapped around each other in the breeze. At that point, all you could do was break the string off above the knot to sell the balloon, leading to balloons with 3-foot strings instead of the approximately 8 feet that is desired. (via vintagedisneyparks)
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Smart vendor. She found a shady spot (which is not only more comfortable for her, but better for he balloons), AND she gets to listen to the PeopleMover spiel.

Also, thank goodness Disneyland uses ribbons as balloon strings now, instead of those thin red threads they used to use. Not only did they break more easily, but they were thin enough to really dig into your hand and hurt.

They were also a real pain to keep untangled. As a matter of fact, you can see the vendor in this picture is “combing” the strings with the fingers of her right hand to fight tangles. If you didn’t do that almost constantly with these strings, they would get tangled into a knot that Houdini himself would have trouble undoing as the balloons wrapped around each other in the breeze. At that point, all you could do was break the string off above the knot to sell the balloon, leading to balloons with 3-foot strings instead of the approximately 8 feet that is desired.

(via vintagedisneyparks)

My favorite part of when we got these menus on the ice cream carts was that, when a guest pointed to a menu item, I no longer had to walk around to the front of the cart to see which item on the menu it was that they were pointing at. The down side was that the roads backstage (or in Frontierland and New Orleans Square, for that matter) aren’t all that smooth, and when they are being transported the fake ice creams tended to fall off and have to be re-welded to the menu board. I wonder if they ever fixed that problem?
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My favorite part of when we got these menus on the ice cream carts was that, when a guest pointed to a menu item, I no longer had to walk around to the front of the cart to see which item on the menu it was that they were pointing at.

The down side was that the roads backstage (or in Frontierland and New Orleans Square, for that matter) aren’t all that smooth, and when they are being transported the fake ice creams tended to fall off and have to be re-welded to the menu board.

I wonder if they ever fixed that problem?

(via disneyinsanity)

Source: Flickr / mkealcoran

Aww, bye-bye balloon! And thanks for reflecting the castle on your way up!
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Aww, bye-bye balloon! And thanks for reflecting the castle on your way up!

(via thedisneyblonde)

Source: disneysupportingroles

The first thing I saw was the popcorn cart in the background. Yup, I’m still ODV at heart.
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The first thing I saw was the popcorn cart in the background.

Yup, I’m still ODV at heart.

(via thedisneyblonde)

Source: disney-magickingdom