Charles Ridgway--A Name on One Main Street Window - Walt Disney Boards - Message Boards & Forum Discussing The Genius Of Walter Elias Disney!

NDM1 · #1 (**permalink**) 04-18-2009, 08:16 AM

Charlie Ridgway ... the Legend behind the window
Posted by Chuck Schmidt April 17, 2009 9:45AM
Categories: Goofy about Disney
Whenever I find myself walking down Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, I make it a point to peek up at one of the windows about halfway down the street, on the left-hand side as I'm heading toward the castle.

Peter Kruse
The cover of Charlie Ridgway's book: "Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent."
As many WDW fans are aware, the folks at Disney have a unique way of honoring their most revered castmembers -- they inscribe their names on the windows above, always in a tongue-in-cheek, humorous vein.

What I'm looking for as I stride along the most popular street in America is the name of the man I had the pleasure of meeting in 1994, a guy who worked hand-in-hand with Walt Disney himself and who was a major contributor to the success of nearly every Disney park around the world. Up on that window it reads simply:

Ridgway Public Relations
Charles Ridgway, Press Agent
No Event Too Small

As a long-time member of the press myself, I had the privilege of working with Charlie on several occasions during the 1980s and 1990s. His press and publicity department would invite me (and a few thousand other media types) to a press event celebrating a Disney milestone, I'd cover the bash, report about it, and then mail him a tearsheet of my story. And every time, he'd send me a personal note of thanks.

LUNCH WITH A LEGEND

In 1994, my family and I were vacationing in WDW and Charlie invited us to lunch during our stay. "I have a pretty big crew," I warned him. "No problem," he said. "I'll meet you folks at City Hall." We hooked up inside City Hall, the building that doubles as the Magic Kingdom's guest relations area, and he was everything I expected him to be -- warm and gracious; a true gentleman. He escorted us through a door near the firehouse which led us to a backstage area usually off-limits to park guests.

He had an official Disney van waiting, but we couldn't help notice that the area was a beehive of activity as castmembers in full costume, a variety of colorful floats and several large character balloons were all lining up for the start of the afternoon Mickey Mania parade.

Peter Kruse
My I.D. badge from the Walt Disney World 15-Year Celebration press event in October of 1986.
We all climbed into the van and he personally drove us to the Yacht Club Galley in the brand new Yacht Club Resort, which was one of several recently opened hotels on WDW property. The reason for Charlie's invitation, I quickly learned, was his desire to get the word out about all the new hotel options available at WDW.

"We're just now starting to catch up with the demand for hotel rooms on property," he explained. When Walt Disney World first opened in 1971, just the Contemporary and Polynesian hotels and the Fort Wilderness Campground were available to guests who wanted to stay close to the action. And needless to say, those hotel rooms were booked for months in advance.

"Which meant," Charlie said, "that an awful lot of folks were staying off-property." But that problem was rectified during the 1990s -- a period of time dubbed "the Disney decade" by then-CEO Michael Eisner -- with the opening of several new hotels. From 1990 to 1994 alone, WDW opened the Yacht and Beach Club, Port Orleans, Dixie Landings, the Swan, the Dolphin, Old Key West, All-Star Music, All-Star Sports and the Wilderness Lodge. The Boardwalk, the Disney Institute, All-Star Movies and the Coronado would debut over the next few years.

Peter Kruse
A thank-you letter I received from Charlie Ridgway in 1993.
Of course, with a bonafide, soon-to-be anointed Disney Legend sitting across from me, I couldn't help veering off-topic and I tried my best to pick Charlie's brain for any tidbits of Disney lore he might have to offer.

"What was Walt Disney like?" I asked. "He could be tough," he said, "but he was a great man to work for." The conversation drifted to the actual property selection of Walt Disney World and Charlie admitted to me that Disney had, in fact, considered the area of the former New York World's Fair as a possible site for the new East Coast version of Disneyland.

"But we came to the conclusion that it's too cold up there during the winter," he said. All along, he went on, Disney World was supposed to be more than just theme parks -- a true vacation resort was envisioned, with year-round activities like golf, swimming and boating.

I dropped more than a few hints about WDW's Utiladors -- that famous underground world below the World were all the Magic Kingdom's castmembers and services come and go out of sight -- hoping to snatch an invite to that private domain. But he wouldn't bite.

All too quickly, our lunch was over. We said our good-byes and, other than hearing about Charlie's retirement from Disney the following year and his being named a Disney Legend in 1999, all I had to remember him by was his window on Main Street.

SPINNING DISNEY'S WORLD

But then my wife Janet surprised me last year with a copy of Charlie's book "Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent," which I read from cover-to-cover as I was recuperating from surgery.

The book is a wealth of behind-the-scenes insight that only a true insider like Charlie could tell. Among the many great tidbits involves the way people have come to refer to the World Showcase pavilions in Epcot Center. "I think I had a hand in calling those showcases by the name of the country instead of using the country name as an adjective as was the practice at most World's Fairs," he writes. "So instead of the French pavilion or the Mexican pavilion, people now say, 'I am going to France for dinner' or 'Let's go see the film in Canada.' Makes it sound like you are traveling the world, doesn't it?"

Of all his public relations triumphs at Disneyland, Walt Disney World or the other Disney parks worldwide, perhaps his most off-beat came when he had 50 white Peking ducks march down Main Street during Donald Duck's 50th birthday celebration. To accomplish this bit of PR quackery, Charlie made sure that Donald himself was present at the birth of each of the ducklings.

Since the first thing the little guys saw was Donald, they'd instinctively bond with him and follow him anywhere ... even down Main Street with thousands of people looking on. And in a final stroke of genius, Charlie later arranged to have the ducks donated in pairs to zoos around the country, ensuring even more publicity bang for the duck ... eh, buck.