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I'm not really sure if this is where this post should go, but this is the place that made the most sense. Please move this if it is neccessary.
This post is a long time coming. Why I didn't write it sooner, I'm not entirely sure. But I'm writing it now, so here we go. From 2003 - 2006, I was a waitress at the Tam O' Shanter Inn. For those who don't know, it was the first Lawry's restaurant, opened in 1922 in the Atwater Village area of Los Angeles (between Glendale and Hollywood). It is a prime rib house, and has a Scottish theme. In it's heyday it hosted celebrities and civilians, alike. Over the course of 80+ years it was torn down, renovated and renovated again. I did a story about the place when I first started working there for Jim Hill Media. I can't find the link, but this was the closest I could find: To this day, "The Tam" has two celebrity tables: John Wayne's table (number 15), and Walt's table (number 31).
If you go to the Tam and ask to sit at Walt's table, you will be taken to a lovely table in the main dining room, also known as the flag room. It's in the corner, right beside the fireplace. Above it is a false stained glass window with a little statue of a knight sitting in the sill. It's the perfect table for a celebrity/visionary, as you can sit in a corner, barely noticeable, and still be able to see everything that's going on.
I know it's hubris, but I like to think that if it weren't for my little story, Disney would never have put that special feature, "At Walt's Table", on the Cinderella DVD. After all, I had never heard of the Tam being linked with Disney history before I'd pulled into their parking lot on a whim, seen all the John Hench artwork and immediately applied for a job there. I once waited on a group from New York who'd come because they'd specifically read my story. And when I found out people from Disney were going to take pictures of the table, I got up really early that day and made everything extra pretty. But they didn't show up.
Nope, they decided to show up on a day I had a fever and was too sick to go into work. All of those Disney legends and legends-in-the-making went in... and used the wrong table!
Oh, I was so upset when I saw the feature that they had used a round table in the center of the room! It wasn't even a table from that room, no! They used a table from another room and pretended that that was the original table. I guess they were trying to put an Arthurian spin on the whole thing. But the whole thing ticked me off! I told a fellow waiter about the whole thing, and he said, "Maybe we've had it wrong the whole time? Maybe they're right?" I stomped my foot on the floor for emphasis with each word, and I said, "No! They're messing with history and it's not right!" At that point I think he thought I was a looney bird and changed the subject.
It just kills me. I know that there are now families who go to the Tam, and they say they want to eat at Walt's table. So the sweet hostess takes them to table 31, and then the family gets atitude and says, "No, Walt's table!" And they'll point to table 33 or 37 (because I swear the table keeps moving in the feature), and they'll proudly exclaim "That one". As though they know better.
So just so you know, Disney was wrong. They purposely used the wrong table because the center one made a better show. Think of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", when that dude chooses the fancy cup because it looks like the cup of a king, when he should've chosen the cup of a carpenter. Yup.
I feel better now. The truth is out, now.
This post is a long time coming. Why I didn't write it sooner, I'm not entirely sure. But I'm writing it now, so here we go. From 2003 - 2006, I was a waitress at the Tam O' Shanter Inn. For those who don't know, it was the first Lawry's restaurant, opened in 1922 in the Atwater Village area of Los Angeles (between Glendale and Hollywood). It is a prime rib house, and has a Scottish theme. In it's heyday it hosted celebrities and civilians, alike. Over the course of 80+ years it was torn down, renovated and renovated again. I did a story about the place when I first started working there for Jim Hill Media. I can't find the link, but this was the closest I could find: To this day, "The Tam" has two celebrity tables: John Wayne's table (number 15), and Walt's table (number 31).
If you go to the Tam and ask to sit at Walt's table, you will be taken to a lovely table in the main dining room, also known as the flag room. It's in the corner, right beside the fireplace. Above it is a false stained glass window with a little statue of a knight sitting in the sill. It's the perfect table for a celebrity/visionary, as you can sit in a corner, barely noticeable, and still be able to see everything that's going on.
I know it's hubris, but I like to think that if it weren't for my little story, Disney would never have put that special feature, "At Walt's Table", on the Cinderella DVD. After all, I had never heard of the Tam being linked with Disney history before I'd pulled into their parking lot on a whim, seen all the John Hench artwork and immediately applied for a job there. I once waited on a group from New York who'd come because they'd specifically read my story. And when I found out people from Disney were going to take pictures of the table, I got up really early that day and made everything extra pretty. But they didn't show up.
Nope, they decided to show up on a day I had a fever and was too sick to go into work. All of those Disney legends and legends-in-the-making went in... and used the wrong table!
Oh, I was so upset when I saw the feature that they had used a round table in the center of the room! It wasn't even a table from that room, no! They used a table from another room and pretended that that was the original table. I guess they were trying to put an Arthurian spin on the whole thing. But the whole thing ticked me off! I told a fellow waiter about the whole thing, and he said, "Maybe we've had it wrong the whole time? Maybe they're right?" I stomped my foot on the floor for emphasis with each word, and I said, "No! They're messing with history and it's not right!" At that point I think he thought I was a looney bird and changed the subject.
It just kills me. I know that there are now families who go to the Tam, and they say they want to eat at Walt's table. So the sweet hostess takes them to table 31, and then the family gets atitude and says, "No, Walt's table!" And they'll point to table 33 or 37 (because I swear the table keeps moving in the feature), and they'll proudly exclaim "That one". As though they know better.
So just so you know, Disney was wrong. They purposely used the wrong table because the center one made a better show. Think of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", when that dude chooses the fancy cup because it looks like the cup of a king, when he should've chosen the cup of a carpenter. Yup.
I feel better now. The truth is out, now.
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