Oconeean learned job the “Disney Way”

A retired educator living in the Little River Community near Salem read the Associated Press story in yesterday’s Journal and thought the writing was about her. In a way, it was.  Phyllis Mays, retired Code Elementary School librarian, this week recalls a fascinating three-month time in her life 50 years ago after she graduated college. Mays was one of the original employees of the Magic Kingdom at Disney World at Orlando, Florida. Before Disney World became a major theme park on the East Coast, Americans on this side of the country knew only Disneyland in far off California or the TV show hosted by the famed animator Walt Disney. The wire service article highlights a handful of original Disney resort employees who never left. Mays was cast to be a Polynesian hostess, a waitress, and if you look hard enough there’s a very small head shot of her among 1,500 Disney employees and Mickey and Minnie and many of the other famous Disney characters who posed in front of Cinderella Castle for a photograph that appeared on the cover of Life Magazine October 15, 1971—just as Disney World opened to the public. Though only there three months, Mays got to meet some of the entertainment world’s most famous—including the comedian Bob Hope and Annette Funicello, the most famous of the Mouseketeers in the original Mickey Mouse Club.