That Time Tommy Walker Was Kidnapped and Nearly Murdered

Because of this man--Darlene Farley, pictured here in his mugshot as a 19-year-old--Disneyland may very well have never had Date Nites, Dixieland at Disneyland, 76 trombones led by Meredith Willson for the Disneyland '59 event, the 1960 Winter Olympics ceremonies (at a "Disney level"), or even synchronized fireworks and music. That's because on February 23, 1956, Farley kidnapped Disneyland entertainment director Tommy Walker (pictured below) from his home in West Anaheim and held him for a harrowing night around the city.

Tommy rose to prominence while at the University of Southern California, where he was the band's drum major and (simultaneously) the football team's placekicker. Along with Dick Winslow (another character also later involved with Disneyland), Tommy wrote the "Charge" trumpet anthem used by USC and then the Los Angeles Dodgers and seemingly every other athletic team in the country. After graduation, he stayed at the university as the assistant band director, and later the director. He came to Walt Disney's attention during the halftime show for the 1955 Rose Bowl, Walt attending because Disneyland had a float in the parade that year. Walt invited him to orchestrate the Park's grand opening six months later, and Tommy stayed on for the next twelve years.

Presumably Tommy was at work that February day. Since I have written a Disneyland Almanac, I can provide some color for the day. The Park was scheduled open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and had a whopping 979 guests show up, due to the 0.16 inches of rain which fell. I know Tommy would have different feelings, but that's a date I'm going to mark to go back to.

Tommy and his father Vesey--another historic Disneyland employee as leader of the Disneyland Band from 1955 to 1968--lived on the same suburban street in West Anaheim, in houses constructed the same year Disneyland opened. I just drove on the street past their houses two days ago, so I can attest to the quiet nature of the neighborhood.

Farley, a man unknown to Tommy, showed up at his door that Thursday night, blood-spattered and slightly drunk. Conveying that he had been in an automobile accident and needed a tow truck, Tommy drove him to his father's house. (Tommy apparently did not have a telephone.) This accomplished, Tommy drove Farley to Farley's house, where he returned to the car with a .22 caliber rifle.

Farley had Tommy drive him to the garage where Farley's car had been towed. Failing to get the mechanics to immediately fix his car, Farley ordered Tommy to drive him to a girl friend's house. The Associated Press account provides the chilling details Tommy told police:

When Walker refused to call for the girl, Farley ordered him to drive down a lonely road.

The police account said Farley then commanded Walker to stop the car, get out and stand in front of the headlights.

Walker said he tried to cover his heart and head with his hands as Farley's voice came from the darkness:

"You've been nice to me. But I killed my brother and I liked my brother a lot more than I like you."

Then the gun fired, The first shot splattered in the mud at Walker's feet. The next two whizzed past the ex-drum major's head.

This quasi-execution failed, Farley ordered Tommy in the car, stating they were going to Mexico. They stopped in a bar where Tommy was "well known" (I really wanted this to be the Doll Hut, but that didn't exist until 1957). Unfortunately, Tommy couldn't communicate to friends that he was a captive. Farley had Tommy drive him back to the garage where his crashed car was awaiting repair.

En route police officers spotted them and decided the pajama-clad Walker and his bloody companion looked suspicious.

The last newspaper article I saw about this indicated that Farley was set to stand trial in Orange County Superior Court on May 27, 1956. He was charged with two counts of armed robbery and kidnapping; the kidnapping charge could have brought a possible death or  life imprisonment. I admit to not having looked into the court record; if anybody out there does, PLEASE let me know the outcome of the case!

I was just so struck by how early this was in Tommy's career. Anything entertainment-related at Disneyland from 1955 to his resignation in 1966, he had a hand in. More personally as a former Tour Guide, he was in charge of Customer Relations at the time the Guided Tour program came into being. But leaving his Disney contributions aside, Tommy was a major entertainment figure in the 1960s through the 1980s. He continued to do Olympics ceremonies (including the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles), Fourth of July shows, balloon events, Super Bowls, Presidential Inaugurations (including Richard Nixon's second in 1973 and Ronald Reagan's first in 1980), and the Statue of Liberty's centennial celebration in 1986, among so many others. Tommy died way too young, at age 63, during open-heart surgery in Birmingham, Alabama.

Tommy's contribution to Disneyland's history is impossible to quantify. Like other extraordinary members of the early Disneyland, Inc., team, he made Disneyland what it was and shaped expectations for the generations to come. It's amazing to think that one terrifying, oddball night could have derailed so many good memories we've all had through the years. But as my current research is showing, Disneyland wasn't a complete fantasy environment, walled off from the "real world." It was and is very much a part of it, and I feel that makes it all so much more meaningful.

Thanks for the fireworks, Tommy. They're about to go off outside my window.

(Photo courtesy Stuff from the Park)

Disneyland Statistics: Interesting Subject

"Hi, folks! It's a little quiet around here today. You see, during the winter, Disneyland is closed each Monday and Tuesday..."

- undated Main Gate announcement

It's been a little quiet around this blog, too, but I'm finally ready to announce why: in November Zauberreich Press will publish Jason's Disneyland Almanac, the first daily history of Disneyland. The contents of the publication won't surprise anybody with even a cursory familiarity with my blog: Park hours, weather, Walt-era attendance, openings, closings, debuts, endings, events, milestones and other noteworthy occurrences. I collaborated with Kevin Yee, with whom I previously co-authored the Disneyland trivia books Magic Quizdom: Disneylandia Minutiae Semper Abusrda and 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland: An Unauthorized Look at the Little Touches and Inside Jokes.

I've talked about many elements of the book in blog posts of days gone by. I've blogged about Park hours on more than one occasion. I blogged about my attempts to gather weather information shortly after I added that to the thesaurus. I've additionally blogged about the difficulties inherent in thesaurusing entertainment events. With that in mind, I wanted to give you readers some insight into the cover design and the preparation of the manuscript.

For many of you, the design will be instantly recognizable. However, I have at least two friends who have not seen the movies, so some explanation is in order. I always thought of this book as a companion to keep in your time traveling DeLorean. With the Park hours, the weather, and events, you could choose the perfect day to visit the Park. The cover design is, of course, very reminiscent of Grays Sports Almanac from Back to the Future Part II:

I imitated the design as much as possible while trying to stay true to what Jason's Disneyland Almanac actually contains. I regret that we still lack Park hours for 773 of the 20,257 days covered by the Almanac, but am very hopeful that these will be found before future versions are published.

For the place of the sports figures, we considered Disneyland icons, but that wouldn't quite match up with the contents of the Almanac. While each figure on the Grays cover represents a different sport found within, we would need to have some objects that represented Park hours, openings, and events. Instead we went with the style of Park Operating Calendars used from the 1960s at least through the 1980s. Here is an example of an authentic January-March 1982 Park Operating Calendar:

The four calendars on the cover are for Disneyland's opening, Kevin's birthday, my birthday, and the most recent time period covered by the Almanac. I spent a lot of time re-creating the look of the calendars in full for the cover, but they are mostly obscured in the final composite. Below are my original creations for the four Park Operating Calendars:

July-September 1955

January 1970-March 1970

January-March 1982

October 2010-December 2010

I considered creating these for every three-month period of the Park's history, but then came to my senses.

I also wanted to share some samples from the book, so you know just what to expect. After a few pages of explanation of how the material for the book was assembled and how you should evaluate the information, there are 317 pages of daily Disneyland history. Below are three two-page spreads, chronologically scattered. The first covers the time around the opening of Disneyland '59:

The beginning of celebrations for Disneyland's 25th Anniversary:

And the opening of Disney's California Adventure in 2001:

Now, if you've been paying attention, you might notice that the Almanac includes attendance data for 1955-1966. Amazingly, the Anaheim Heritage Center at the MUZEO has in its collection Roy O. Disney's Disneyland Attendance Summary, July 18, 1955-December 31, 1966 binder. Not just daily attendance, it's a record of hourly attendance for most of this period. When matched up with the weather and other events, the attendance data provides a remarkable view of Disneyland in Walt's life (although two weeks, beginning February 28, 1965, and May 29, 1966, are missing from the binder).

The least-attended day in this period was a rainy January 20, 1962, when a mere 389 Guests showed up to experience a Disneyland that only opened for three hours that day (can you imagine?). There were, in fact, thirteen sub-1,000 visitor days in Walt's life, and quite a few days when the Park simply didn't open because of the rain. The high attendance during this time was July 4, 1964, when 60,917 visitors came to Disneyland.

I've had a lot of fun putting this book together, but I know it's only a start. We do not always have an exact date that an attraction opened or that a store closed. We have been as specific as our knowledge permits, but occasionally have had to indicate that something happened at the more general month or year level. This reflects the inherent uncertainty in trying to precisely reconstruct the past.

We are producing a limited edition of 150 hardbound copies (with dust jackets) and an unlimited run of softcover copies (sans dust jacket). Check back for further information on pricing and availability. And if there's a future Jason's Disneyland Almanac almanac keeper out there, the order for the hardcover edition of the book was submitted on September 29, 2011 at 2:46:57 PM, PDT.