BILL KURTIS: Support for NPR comes from NPR stations and the Economic Development Authority of Fairfax County, Va., home to more than 350 cyber companies and 9,100 technology-related firms. Details at powerofideas.org. Lumber Liquidators, a proud sponsor of NPR, offering more than 400 styles, including hardwood, bamboo, laminate and vinyl with flooring specialists in hundreds of stores nationwide. More at lumberliquidators.com or 1-800-HARDWOOD. And Progressive Insurance, offering a way to buy home insurance with their HomeQuote Explorer tool. Custom quotes and rates are available online. Learn more at progressive.com or 1-800-PROGRESSIVE. Now, that's progressive.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We're playing this week with Liz Miele, Mo Rocca and Faith Salie. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
(APPLAUSE)
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. Right now it's time for the WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAITWAIT to play our game on the air.
Hi, you are on WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME.
LYNN OLINS: Hi, Peter. I'm Lynn from Connecticut.
SAGAL: Hey, Lynn. Where in Connecticut? I know that state well.
OLINS: Fairfield.
SAGAL: Fairfield - I know Fairfield. Who doesn't know Fairfield? What do you do there?
OLINS: I'm a nice, Jewish girl that's a science teacher in a Catholic school.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Really?
FAITH SALIE: So do you teach transubstantiation as, like, a chemical equation?
OLINS: You know, we haven't yet. I teach middle school. But we can get to it next semester.
SALIE: Yeah. I think they're ready.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well, Lynn, welcome to the show. You're going to play the game in which you'd have to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Lynn's topic?
KURTIS: Zippa-dee-do-what-now?
SAGAL: Disneyland is not all magic and giant, happy rodents. It has its secrets. This week, we learned about something Disney might not have wanted us to know about. Our panelists are going to tell you about it. One of them is telling the truth. Pick that person. You'll win our prize, the voice of your choice on your voicemail. Are you ready to play?
OLINS: Oh, yes.
SAGAL: OK. Here we go.
OLINS: So excited.
SAGAL: First, let's hear from our new panelist, Ms. Liz Miele.
LIZ MIELE: You may think costume Goofys and Space Mountain operators at Disneyland are just out-of-work actors trying to make ends meet. But a new survey finds Disneyland has higher concentration of employees with Ph.D.s than UC Berkeley. Thousands of students each year are graduating with advanced degrees and have expertise in more fields than there are jobs available. One popcorn dispensary is a civil engineer. A lady selling park tickets has her master's in media studies. But patrons are starting to complain. One Yelp review reads, my daughter told Jasmine she wants to be pretty like her someday. And Jasmine trapped my daughter in a 30-minute conversation about gender inequality...
(LAUGHTER)
MIELE: ...And how society limits women's value based on appearance and to fight back. She then signed her autograph book, real princesses save themselves.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
MIELE: Another complaint read, one of the pirates at the "Pirates Of The Caribbean" ride announced over the intercom, real criminals are the banks and white-collar crime.
(LAUGHTER)
MIELE: My son just started crying, and he was scared. And he asked, what's going to happen to my savings account?
(LAUGHTER)
MIELE: In response to the complaints, Disney has sent a memo to all, quote, "cast members" saying, no one goes on vacation to learn, guys. We are all here to help make overpriced memories. If you are feeling unchallenged by work, may we recommend sudoku or fixing the economy on your lunch breaks?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Overeducated Disney employees causing a bit of a problem. Your next story of the dark world of Disney comes from Mo Rocca.
MO ROCCA: There is, in fact, an apartment atop Cinderella's castle at Disneyland. But this week, the existence of a long-rumored fallout shelter in Disneyland built expressly for the late Jerry Lewis was confirmed. A construction crew digging underneath the "Pirates Of The Caribbean" ride crashed right into what Lewis dubbed Cinderfella's castle...
(LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: ...Named after his sidesplitting 1962 film comedy "Cinderfella." Lewis, a close friend of Walt Disney's, was given permission to build it soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Lewis, it is said, hoped to lure his "Nutty Professor" co-star Stella Stevens there and, in the event of a nuclear Armageddon, spend all of eternity with her. She rejected his advances.
He then tried to lure his "Rock-a-Bye Baby" co-star Connie Stevens to Cinderfella's castle, but she also turned him down. Disney spokesman Mike Beechey (ph) said, we don't condone the use of any fallout shelter as a tryst house on our property. It will be filled with cement immediately. One person who did come and spend time there - close Jerry Lewis friend Yusuf Islam, a.k.a. Cat Stevens. It is said that Jerry Lewis co-wrote the song "Peace Train" there. It's not funny until you realize it's true.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: The discovery of a bomb shelter built for Jerry Lewis known as Cinderfella's castle at Disneyland in California. The last story of the secret of Disney, comes from Faith Salie.
SALIE: Disneyland offers grown-ups a way to feel like a kid again. But what if you'd like to feel like a gang member? Disneyland's got that, too. About 100 Disney social clubs have popped up with names like Tigger Army, Walt's Most Wanted and Sons of Anakin. These gangs strut through Tomorrowland like there's no tomorrow, flashing tats of Tinkerbell or Gaston and sporting denim vests festooned with pins of their mascot. They're like Hell's Angels with fast passes.
It's a small world for these outlaws, so the gangs have always played it cool, boy, real cool, picking up litter in the park and holding charity events. But now there's a lawsuit filed by the president of the Main Street 55 Firefighters Social Club, John Sarno, against a gang called the White Rabbits led by a dude named Jakob Fite.
The first rule of Fite's club is to attempt mafia-style extortion. Fite tried to make Sarno an offer he couldn't refuse. The White Rabbits demanded $500 protection money from the members of the Main Street 55 who were walking to raise money for real firefighters. Sarno refused to pay. And Fite warned him he'd never set foot in Disneyland again. Fite then raised questions about Sarno's character on his podcast devoted to Disney's subculture. And Sarno claims the White Rabbits hopped around in gang T-shirts that slandered him. He's suing for compensatory and punitive damages and says he's too scared to return to the happiest place on Earth.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: All right. One of these is a deep, dark secret emerging from the world of Disney. Was it from Liz Miele, that many of the employees are showing off their advanced degrees at Disney, sometimes, to the - shall we say - unhappiness of the customers - from Mo Rocca, the discovery of Jerry Lewis' personal bomb shelter known as Cinderfella's castle - or from Faith Salie, the dueling gangs of Main Street in which gangs of which Disney fans are threatening each other with extortion and violence in the mean streets that are entirely made up.
OLINS: I'm going to go with Faith's story.
SAGAL: You're going to go with Faith's story.
OLINS: Yes.
SAGAL: Is that what you said? Of the dueling gangs? Well, we spoke to a reporter who was on top of this breaking news.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LAUREL WAMSLEY, BYLINE: The head of one of these Disneyland's social clubs is suing the White Rabbit for threatening mafia-like tactics.
SAGAL: That was Laurel Wamsley...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: ...The Two Way. That's NPR's breaking news blog. She's talking about mafia-like tactics used in the happiest place on Earth by the social clubs there. Congratulations, Lynn. You got it right. You earned a point for Faith. You've won our prize, the voice of your choice on your voicemail.
OLINS: Thank you so much.
SAGAL: Thank you. Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GANGSTER OF LOVE")
JOHNNY WATSON: (Singing) 'Cause I'm a gangster of love. Say, I'm a gangster of love... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.