Kathy Mangum: The Unexpected Road to Imagineering

And when I graduated high school and was going to college locally...

I had a lot

of friends that I went

to

high school with that worked at Disneyland.

And so I went and applied for a job, part-time job.

They needed people to work weekends and spring breaks and Christmas breaks and, you know, summers.

And that was perfect so you can go to school.

So I got a job at Disneyland in 1976 working out in the park in Adventureland.

And the funny thing about this 1976 year is how many of us worked at Disneyland.

How many of us that ended up knowing each other as Imagineers.

Imagineers,

right.

We started telling stories.

We knew people in the kitchen at Plaza Pavilion and

working the Matterhorn.

A little background history of 1976 Disneyland, dishwashers and vendors and sales associates.

And we were all later doing big attractions.

All of our paths probably crossed when we were clocking in at Harbor House Gate.

Which is now long gone, I think.

That's

true.

How did you feel the difference between someone who had gone to Disneyland as a kid and suddenly going backstage and being at the wardrobe building and putting on a costume and being there, being an insider?

And back then, you showed up in your civvies and you got your costume.

Checked out your costume.

And when I graduated high school and was going to college locally...

I had a lot

of friends that I went

to

high school with that worked at Disneyland.

And so I went and applied for a job, part-time job.

They needed people to work weekends and spring breaks and Christmas breaks and, you know, summers.

And that was perfect so you can go to school.

So I got a job at Disneyland in 1976 working out in the park in Adventureland.

And the funny thing about this 1976 year is how many of us worked at Disneyland.

How many of us that ended up knowing each other as Imagineers.

Imagineers,

right.

We started telling stories.

We knew people in the kitchen at Plaza Pavilion and

working the Matterhorn.

A little background history of 1976 Disneyland, dishwashers and vendors and sales associates.

And we were all later doing big attractions.

All of our paths probably crossed when we were clocking in at Harbor House Gate.

Which is now long gone, I think.

That's

true.

How did you feel the difference between someone who had gone to Disneyland as a kid and suddenly going backstage and being at the wardrobe building and putting on a costume and being there, being an insider?

And back then, you showed up in your civvies and you got your costume.

Checked out your costume.