Magic Kingdom legacy cast member recalls walks with Walt Disney, Imagineer father
Darlene Kingsley grew up the daughter of a Disneyland Imagineer, and some of her favorite childhood memories are of holding Walt Disney’s hand — Uncle Walt, as she called him — on her regular visits to the park.
“This was that person you always felt comfortable to talk with,” she said. “… That was the norm for me.”
Her grandparents also worked for Disney, and so did the family cat, whose likeness appears in the parks today. So it’s no surprise that Kingsley’s dream was to work there, too.
These days, Kingsley, 58, is in guest relations, leading tours around Magic Kingdom. She has worked off and on at Disney World since she was hired as a ticket taker in 1977.
“She has been a living, breathing legacy since the moment she came into Walt Disney Resort,” said her supervisor, Nathaniel Palma.
Kingsley takes pride in her colorful stories, but they aren’t the first thing she brings up with tour participants. When it feels right, though, Kingsley shares her unique connection with Disney, Palma said.
“She’s very humble so at first she doesn’t tell the full story,” said Palma, who peppered her with questions to learn more details about her past.
One of her favorite stories is her talks and walks with Walt Disney, who she said seemed sincere in asking the little girl about her adventures exploring the park, Kingsley recalled.
“He never rushed me along, like it was just him and I,” said Kingsley.
It’s rare for Disney World employees to have had encounters with Walt Disney, who died before his Orlando park opened in 1971.
But “that’s all I knew,” Kingsley said.
Her father, Lawrence Roberts, worked at Disneyland as a Jungle Cruise skipper until he was plucked into the job of imagineer by Walt Disney himself.
After his promotion, Roberts helped build scenes for It’s A Small World in the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair and designed a harness so Tinker Bell and Mary Poppins could glide into the air, Kingsley said.
At the dinner table, he told stories about his day at work — a job he loved but was often frustrated with as he worked on rides that were constantly evolving and changing.
Kingsley’s grandmother supervised custodians at Disneyland; her grandfather built parts for the attractions in the machine shop.
The Kingsleys’ cat also joined the family’s list of cast members. In the mid-1960s, Walt Disney needed a cat for inspiration for the animatronic felines, Kingsley recalls.
Her father volunteered Pandy — the family’s good-natured tabby.
“The cat came into the studios. They scared him, spooked him, watched him, took photos and they created the animatronic of my cat,” said Kingsley.
Kingsley sees Pandy in the two cats that are frozen in fear on a gravestone in the graveyard scene at the Haunted Mansion ride.
And in a more relaxed scene elsewhere in Magic Kingdom, two cats sit on crates in the company of a drunken pirate, just before the fiery village scene in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
“Anytime I visit, my cat is right there,” said Kingsley of Ocoee. “It’s absolutely amazing.”
It’s not unheard of for Imagineers — Disney’s in-house creative team — to leave almost undetectable clues from their personal lives in their work, said Lou Mongello, who has written books about Disney’s history and trivia.
“Imagineers don’t sign their work,” Mongello said. “That’s a small way to leave their little mark.”
Kingsley’s co-workers chose the third-generation Disney employee for a company Legacy Award this year because of her passion and devotion.
Her guest relations job, the one she’s wanted since she was a child, has been fulfilling.
“I think because of my connection to Walt,” Kingsley said, “I know this is where I was going to be.”