Disney Hoaxes
When it comes to fun, merriment and making people
laugh, Disney has indeed led the world with its creative ideas. The big
brand name and the famous multi-millionaire empire of Disney world and
its cartoon characters add official credibility to the hoaxes and spoofs
related to Disney. People are so ready to believe that Disney is always
ready to buy almost anything and everything famous to add to its classic
fun collection of Euro Disney theme park that they readily believe
almost every rumor of selling out the famed treasures to the company.
Here are three incidents that we have fished out for the purpose:
- In 1986, French citizens residing in Paris were quite shocked by the agreement between the government and Disney that the famous Eiffel Tower would be dismantled and reconstructed in the new Euro Disney theme park that was to built in the east of Paris, so that the space that it occupies could be used to built a stadium for 1992 Olympic Games that could accommodate about 35,000 seats.
- In 1995, Russians kept their calm on the report of the Irish Times that the Disney Corporation was in negotiations with the Russian government to buy the embalmed body of the famous communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin that was kept on display in Red Square and keep it in the new Euro Disney theme park to boost their profits. The body was to receive full Disney treatment including being displayed under stroboscopic lights to add pallor to the pallid face, playing of the excerpts from President Reagan's 'evil empire' speech and selling of Lenin t-shirts. The main controversy arose on the dismantling and moving of the mausoleum where the body was kept. While Liberal groups wanted to keep it as empty as it would be as a symbol of the 'emptiness of the Communist system,' Russian nationalists wanted to make it a memorial dedicated to Tsar Nicholas II.
- On 1st of April, 1998, some of the students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hacked its homepage and placed an announcement on it that the prestigious university was being sold to Walt Disney Co. for $6.9 billion. The University would be dismantled and reconstructed in Orlando with an addition of special Disney schools in the campus such as the School of Imagineering, the Scrooge McDuck School of Management, and the Donald Duck Department of Linguistics. There was a photograph too in which the university's famous dome had been fitted with a pair of mouse ears.