Greetings family and friends! Today's memorable character is little known theme park pioneer John Waite......Bill
We sat with John at a Mice Chat Halloween event dinner at Knott's Berry Farm about 10 years ago and got to know him through the years at the annual "Haunt". We were about the same age and stuck together for the tours and haunted houses. He had an apartment within walking distance to the park and would spend his days at the place he loved. John passed a few years ago....Dad
Memorable Character
JOHN WAITE - THEME PARK PIONEER
John Waite isn’t a Disney Legend, he’s not responsible for any classic
rides and his name is not mentioned in theme park history, but much
like Tom Hank’s Forrest Gump character, he was there and unaware
that he was making a difference. A college graduate fresh out of the
military, John was offered a job in Walt Disney’s Burbank Studio’s
mail room in 1956 where he was assigned to the traffic department on
the second floor of the Animation Department delivering mail to Walt
Disney and to the future “nine old men” who had just completed Lady
and the Tramp and were getting Sleeping Beauty underway.
After a short stint delivering mail John was promoted to the Publicity
Department and was transferred to Disneyland where he was put to
work for Van Arsdale France, developer of the parks employee
training programs. Under France’s direction, he helped organize the
parks Guided Tour program and training for Micky Mouse and the
other costumed characters. When France decided to leave Disney to
work on Freedomland, a new theme park on the East Coast, John
decided to take a job at UCLA’s Theater Departments Central Stage
Group while working summers as a ride operator at Disneyland.
During this time he spent evenings and weekends working on plans
for a western log flume ride attraction that he modeled in the
basement of the UCLA campus theater. When Walter Knott, rebuffed
his proposal, John took his flume ride idea to Bud Hurlbut, builder and
operator of Knott’s Berry Farm’s Calico Mine attraction only to learn
that Hurlbut had already created the concept, licensed it to a
manufacturer and was seeking several million dollars in funding to
build it at Knotts. Impressed by his enthusiasm, Hurlbut put John to
work as a ride operator on his Cordelia K Steamboat concession at
Knott’s Lagoon, and once Hurlbut’s Timber Mountain Log Ride was
completed in 1969, John was tapped to be supervisor for both it and
and the Calico Mine ride where his responsibilities also included
scenery, effects, and lighting. John was called on to “dress” the two
attractions for Knott’s Berry Farm’s very first Halloween Haunt event.
Using off-the-shelf Halloween props and calling upon his staging
experience at the University Theater, John was able to create
frightening effects and unknowingly establish the standard for all
future international theme park Halloween events.
We have spent many memorable evenings with John at Knott’s Berry
Farm during past Halloween seasons sharing meals, hearing stories,
and experiencing many of the scary attractions with him that have
evolved from the humble beginnings that he initiated more than fifty
years ago. There are no John Waite plaques at Knott’s Berry Farm or
dedicated Window’s on Disneyland’s Main Street USA but he was
there out of the limelight doing his job and making a difference.
-Bill 3/23
