Friday Frivolity: Arizona Couple Excluded from Mickey Mouse Club

Thanks to OCU 1L Lynne Neveu (left) for sharing with me this cringe-inducing story. According to Seth Abramovitch of The Hollywood Reporter, Scott and Diana Anderson are both sixty, and they have been together for forty-four years. They own a golf course in Arizona.

Little known to those of us who think of Disney parks as places to take the children for occasional trips, Disney has an exclusive venue for Disney VIPs (that is, people who shell out a lot of money) called Club 33. The Andersons worked at it for twelve years before they were invited to join the Club, and they paid $50,000 (or $40,000, the story is not entirely internally consistent) for their first year of membership. Club 33, in case you were wondering, is located above the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and they serve hard liquor there, a fact that will play a role in the rest of our story.  There is also a venue in California Adventure called the 1901 Lounge — I hope that’s because there you can also get absinthe and laudanum, or perhaps some old timey Coca Cola with all the original ingredients, but I digress. The Andersons visited these elite establishments upwards of eighty days a year.

But then tragedy struck. Mr. Anderson was cited for public intoxication at one of the venues. He protested that his symptoms were explained by a vestibular migraine brought on when he had a sip or two of red wine. Disney expelled the Andersons from the club forever. To make matters worse, Disney had Snow White’s stepmother (right) deliver the news. The Andersons claim that Disney was retaliating against them for having accused another Club member of sexual harassment.  $400,000 in legal fees later, a jury sided with Disney.

Initially, it seemed that the Andersons were going to continue to fight, but now they have decided to take the high road. The article in The Hollywood Reporter includes a lengthy, dishy interview with the couple. Some highlights include:

• Annual fees for membership is $32,000, which the Andersons, who spent twelve times that amount trying to say in the Club, now say is “just insane”;
• “Club 33 is really a glorified annual pass”;
• And yet, Club members get booted out if Tom Hanks decides to have Thanksgiving Dinner at the venue, and don’t get them started on Katy Perry!

And then the real dishy stuff begins:

• Club members get up to 100 park tickets, which they (not the Andersons, of course) then sell to Muggles;
• Club members (not the Andersons, of course) raid the Club for the latest merch and then sell it to . . . Muggles;
• Club members used to have access to Walt Disney’s rooms, with original furnishings, and they could even use his bathroom, but now it is all roped off (I wonder why . . . ) and the furniture has been replaced with replicas;
• “It’s a cult, and Walt’s the messiah,” say the couple, who brag about using Walt’s toilet.

The couple had been disciplined by the Club before. After a member of their party knocked over a drink, the Club refused to offer them any more alcoholic beverages. Mrs. Anderson had words, at least one of which began with “f,” with the manager, which resulted in a suspension.  Was Mrs. Anderson drunk? Impossible! Because “everyone knows” that she waters down her drinks.

Heard enough? Imagine how the reporter feels.  The interview, which I have reduced to bullet points, had already been edited for length and clarity and still was the length of a short Bildungsroman. And yet I still have so many follow-ups!

And that’s the news from the Happiest Place on Earth, where the men are strong, the women’s drinks are watered, and the children . . .  are not allowed entry.