News Main Street Photo Supply Co. Being Replaced By Plaza Point Holiday Shoppe

[TP2000]

I would say that little nowadays is simple with Disney. As has been pointed out, basically, the inmates are running the asylum when it comes to several aspects of theming. Where does it stop? How many more are going to request they get to implement their vision of what is appropriate for any one of the parks? And then deal with complaints of discrimination if someone says no.

There's the real story here. That one of the park's "resort enhancement managers" (a title we've seen before, and that seems to mean the people who decorate the park and its buildings) was allowed to imbue the new Christmas store with elements from her own life; her lovely wife, her own children, her Latina mother who had a non-WASP maiden name before she married a white guy in 1974, etc.

And they went in so much on that story that they employed someone to write it who apparently never graduated from high school and didn't even know that a person in 1905 couldn't actually visit Israel because Israel didn't exist then. Or that a small town shopkeeper couldn't afford to travel the world in 1905.

But the story was so perfect for the 'Gram, the surname Toro so exotically non-white, that they didn't care.

So how does this work going forward for Anaheim management?

Do middle managers have to transfer to the resort enhancement department in order to put their spouses and families into the show of the latest ride or restaurant re-do? Or can the manager of Haunted Mansion add a funny tombstone to the graveyard to "celebrate" his dead uncle the drunk? Can the new manager of Wine Country Trattoria put up decorations that celebrate his membership in the La Mirada Elks Club? And the manager of the Star Trader has a 9 year old daughter who plays softball in Yorba Linda; her team is horrible, but they really have heart so a photo of a girls softball team should be up near the lightsabers. What about the Dockers-clad manager of the Indiana Jones Adventure who wants to honor that he's the third generation of men in his family who has belonged to the Sons of Norway Lodge in Claremont? Is that too white and too male? Or do they get represenation in the rides and shops and restaurants they manage too?

This is already a mess. Who approved this? And why? And where does it stop? Where do you draw the line, and why is it fair to draw the line there when Dawn got to put up a picture of her and her wife ice skating in a window display on Main Street USA?

 

[TP2000]

Which is odd to me. The imagineer designed these elements to reflect her family/life.

Just to remind folks, because I think it's a troubling piece of this odd Disneyland tale, this backstory was not created by an Imagineer. It was based on the real 2020's life of a manager from Disneyland's "Resort Enhancement" department; that's the group that decorates the parks for Christmas, Halloween, etc.

This was not an Imagineer who did this. It's all based on an interior designer/manager who works in TDA, Ms. Dawn Keehne.

I imagine Ms. Keehne turned over the writing up of the backstory to an actual script writer from Imagineering, but the story details are based on Dawn Keehne's real life in 2021, and Ms. Keehne is a TDA manager.

Although, from the giant glaring errors we've seen in the story, (visiting Israel in 1905 - or worse, time-traveling to Israel in 1948 and bringing merchandise back to sell in 1905, an unmarried Puerto Rican lady who had already immigrated to the interior Plains States within a few years of the Spanish-American war, a Midwest small town shopkeeper who mysteriously travels the world when only 0.01% of the population back then could have afforded that, etc.) the WDI script writer assigned to this project apparently wasn't a good one.

Or, and this is where it gets scary, the fabricated backstory was allowed to be written by Ms. Keehne without an editor. And while she is clearly a talented interior designer (Again, the interior of this store looks fabulous! Brava, Ms. Keehne!), she is clearly not a student of American history or a profesional writer.

Ms. Keehne's mother, Miss Toro in her pre-marriage life, could obviously exist in suburban Los Angeles in the 1970's (and was likely a lovely young woman who danced a mean Hustle in Pico Rivera circa '77). But Miss Toro would not have reasonably existed as a shopkeeper in the small town Midwest of 1905.

For everyone's sake, let's hope this backstory really was written by WDI based on Ms. Keehne's personal life, and it was just written and researched very poorly by that WDI writer who apparently didn't graduate from high school. Ms. Keehne has no blame in this scenario, so it's my favorite.

That's nice and all, but I thought the shop is ran by a cartoon latina?

Shouldn't the design be from the cartoon lady? Do two women ice skating mean something to the fake made up latina character who owns the store?

These are all valid questions. And this is where it gets messy very quickly. But I don't think even Ms. Keehne has the answers there.

 

[TP2000]

Just for the record, I think the little ice skating picture looks cute. It's sweet. And appropriate.

I'm still not getting Lesbian vibes from it. But it's cute.

 

[Sharon&Susan]

Haven't seen these decorations in any of the photos or videos of the store that I've seen. So looks like it'll be an entire year until they're out...

 

[TP2000]

I’m sorry if it hurts anyone but this take is just… reality. Not sure what heterosexual couples who can’t get pregnant have to do with my post.

As a member of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community, I knew exactly what you meant.

And it didn't offend me in the least. Carry on.

 

[TP2000]

View attachment 595222
Haven't seen these decorations in any of the photos or videos of the store that I've seen. So looks like it'll be an entire year until they're out...

Yeah, good point. They opened this "holiday" shop 10 days before Halloween, and they don't have a single Halloween anything for sale. But tons and tons of Christmas stuff, with four things for Hanukah on a corner shelf that only "careful observers" can find.

It seems to me, if they absolutely had to open this shop on October 21st instead of November 1st, they could have had a bunch of Halloween stuff for sale for the first ten days. Then on the night of Sunday, October 31st transform this into a Christmas shop for park opening on November 1st. And all the blogs and fawning websites that covered it two weeks ago can go crazy for it all over again. Miss Toro, how do you do it?!?

Who am I kidding? It's a Christmas shop that opened in October, but you just aren't allowed to call it that.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

now I have to sit here and pretend that heterosexual and homosexual couples are the same.

Isn’t what you’re really saying is the fact that until evolution or divine design changes things, it still takes a biological male and a biological female both making a contribution to create a child?

 

[Californian Elitist]

Honestly, the sexuality conversation should be dropped. Time to move on.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I think the real issue is underneath the proposed inclusivity is the desire to lower costs again. A mid-level store manager creating something that an Imagineer used to is probably lots cheaper than it used to be. Chapek strikes again!

 

[el_super]

I think the real issue is underneath the proposed inclusivity is the desire to lower costs again. A mid-level store manager creating something that an Imagineer used to is probably lots cheaper than it used to be. Chapek strikes again!

Merchandise has always had their own decorating team, responsible for seasonal window display changes and even bigger projects like whole store refreshes (like this). They are there, day to day, and best know the locations. Unless there was going to be a major structural change, WDI typically wouldn't be involved.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Really? I stand corrected.

 

[mickEblu]

Isn’t what you’re really saying is the fact that until evolution or divine design changes things, it still takes a biological male and a biological female both making a contribution to create a child?

While true that wasn’t my main point and taken out of context it doesn’t really make sense as to how pertains to the conversation that was being had.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Yeah, good point. They opened this "holiday" shop 10 days before Halloween, and they don't have a single Halloween anything for sale. But tons and tons of Christmas stuff, with four things for Hanukah on a corner shelf that only "careful observers" can find.

It seems to me, if they absolutely had to open this shop on October 21st instead of November 1st, they could have had a bunch of Halloween stuff for sale for the first ten days. Then on the night of Sunday, October 31st transform this into a Christmas shop for park opening on November 1st. And all the blogs and fawning websites that covered it two weeks ago can go crazy for it all over again. Miss Toro, how do you do it?!?

Who am I kidding? It's a Christmas shop that opened in October, but you just aren't allowed to call it that.

There is actually a small selection of Halloween merchandise inside.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

While true that wasn’t my main point and taken out of context it doesn’t really make sense as to how pertains to the conversation that was being had.

Then I misunderstood you. Oops.

 

[mickEblu]

Then I misunderstood you. Oops.

Oh, no worries.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Are people who attend Disney parks, some of the most gay friendly places on earth, really that upset about a window display with 2 women holding hands?

I can’t recall the last time I went to a Disney park and didn’t see real gay couples holding hands.

Why would a window have any more affect on children than reality right in front of their face?

 

[denyuntilcaught]

Are people who attend Disney parks, some of the most gay friendly places on earth, really that upset about a window display with 2 women holding hands?

I can’t recall the last time I went to a Disney park and didn’t see real gay couples holding hands.

Why would a window have any more affect on children than reality right in front of their face?

That's the thing - it doesn't! Point, blank, period.

 

[KeithVH]

That's the thing - it doesn't! Point, blank, period.

Agreed. Could totally care less about the whole sexuality discussion part of this thread. Can't wait to go to see this store since it's something new. The real point that some people have been making is the way TDA managed the oversight of the project and the precedent set for other cast members who could make a case for doing things their way. It's not about ethics or morality - its about maintaining a consistent experience across locations AND parks; enabling the company's vision, not some manager's.

 

[TP2000]

Are people who attend Disney parks, some of the most gay friendly places on earth, really that upset about a window display with 2 women holding hands?

I can’t recall the last time I went to a Disney park and didn’t see real gay couples holding hands.

Why would a window have any more affect on children than reality right in front of their face?

That's a valid point. While I think parents have every right to determine how, and what age, the concepts of human sexuality get brought up with their children, there are some things beyond their control.

Like two burly men cuddling in the row ahead of you on Pirates of the Caribbean. That would have caused their immediate eviction from the park by security in 1970, would have caused shocked complaints and a manager to scold them in 1990, but by 2020 is now entirely acceptable behavior for any couple on a romantic dark ride.

Here's the question I still have in 2021 though... Would the resort enhancement manager assigned to redesign the shelving and decor for this new store have been able to have this much influence on the storytelling if he had been a straight, white, married man with three biological children?

Maybe the story here is that Disneyland enhancement managers have always put personal Easter Springtime Eggs into their projects that had veiled references to their wives and children and families, and for the first time they are letting a Gay 2SLGBTQQIA+ manager do that in a store's redesign? If that's the case, Disney certainly didn't make that clear in their own media statements and press releases.

Aside from the veiled little references to Ms. Keehne's homelife in the decor, the bigger piece here is the creation of a fake backstory about Miss Evelyn Toro, the new proprietress and time-traveling Puerto Rican shopkeeper of incredible wealth.

If the TDA project manager for this redesign had been a white man, would he have been allowed to create a fake backstory based on his white middle-class mother from Seattle, Miss Karen McWhiteness, who owned the shop and was the manager other 1900's Karens could complain to? Somehow I doubt that.

 

[TP2000]

Here's more information from the OC Register on how Ms. Keehne used her mom to create the backstory for this shop in coordination with a writer from Imagineering. Her mom sounds like a real cutie, but the story is set in the wrong place and the wrong time. The story writing is lazy and pandering.

This would have made for a fabulous backstory (with better research and fixing the sloppy historical errors) on Buena Vista Street circa 1930, not Main Street USA circa 1905.

And again, whatever WDI script writer that was assigned to this wasn't paying attention in high school history class, and/or is forbidden from accessing the WDI Research Library in Glendale. And thus we have a Puerto Rican time-traveler of unprecedented wealth who owns a shop in small town America of 1905.

Disneyland places woman of color at center of new holiday shop’s backstory

The new Plaza Point holiday shop opened Thursday, Oct. 21 in the former Main Street Photo Supply Co. on Main Street U.S.A. in the Anaheim theme park.

www.ocregister.com

“My mom just lives for the holidays,” Dawn Keehne told the Disney Parks Blog. “She’s an eternal child at heart and decorates the house for weeks before Christmas.”

Evelyn Keehne brought her holiday traditions, recipes and stories from Puerto Rico when she came to the United States and wove them into the family’s big, festive Christmas celebrations in Simi Valley, according to her daughter.

Imagineering incorporated Evelyn Keehne’s real-world love of the holidays into the fictional proprietress backstory for the shop.

Dawn Keehne kept the tribute to her mother secret until the pre-opening employee preview of the new Disneyland store on Thursday morning — which left Evelyn Keehne in tears.

“I can’t believe this,” Evelyn Keehne told the Disney Parks Blog. “To see my Puerto Rican heritage represented here is amazing. When my father came back from the war, Puerto Ricans weren’t even allowed in stores or restaurants in New York City. So to see this at Disneyland, a place where everyone, and every child, can see it, well, that’s pretty amazing for all Latinos.”