I’m still very much out of pocket today, due to three shows. Usually I keep my weblog life and my non-weblog life separated but I do want to share this with readers.
Yesterday, I stood next to the place where more than 50 years ago magic was born.
I was in L.A. yesterday performing in Griffith Park at a Roots & Shoots event put on by the Jane Goodall Institute, doing my family show in my other incarnation. Jane Goodall herself was there, giving a speech, and the event was especially notable for its huge number of young people.
Normally, I wouldn’t post about a “gig.” But there was something special about it.
It was held near the park’s famous Merry Go Round. They say that more than 50 years ago a man named Walt Disney sat there watching his daughter on that very same merry go round. He would take her there often. That special day, in that wonderful park in L.A. with the little, wonderous merry go round, he began to think.
He began to think about creating a special place for kids — not like the somewhat sleazy carnivals or amusement parks that then dotted many urban landscapes. The Merry Go Round helped trigger and idea.
And you know what special places were built in Anaheim, CA (HERE) and Orlando, Florida (HERE)….out of that spark of an idea…from Walt Disney watching that merry go round.
FOOTNOTE: Disney sent a bunch of young, energetic volunteers to help out at the event. They wore bright yellow t-shirts with the logo “Disney VoluntEars.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.