Scott Wolf: When did you first find out about the Ambassador program?

CSL: It was for the tenth year celebration.

Did you try out for the first Ambassador?

CSL: Yeah I did. I wasn't good enough to even make it in the fifteen. Oh, there were like 250 or 500 girls that came out. The Fantasyland Theatre was packed with women, seated and standing outside, waiting to go through the first interview process.

What was the process to become Ambassador?

CSL: We had an application form, then basically we went into the Fantasyland Theatre and went through the first audition, and truthfully I don't remember who were the first people to interview us. Then I think they dropped it to about fifty. After fifty they started doing some serious Cast considerations. I lost out on that one.

Did you attend the ceremony?

CSL: Yes, it was in front of the castle with the dancing cake. It was the tenth anniversary so we had the dancing cake, cake slices.

Oh, the cake that's in the tenth anniversary TV show. So you didn't know who would be Ambassador yet?

CSL: We just knew that someone was and they announced it. Of course I was thrilled that it was someone from Guest Relations (the department Connie was working in.)

So you knew Julie (Reihm)?

CSL: Julie and I had worked together.

So what happened from then to the following year?

CSL: I had a great time, I went back to Guest Relations, I was taking tours and had a wonderful time meeting people and then it was time for the next Ambassador and they basically said, very low key, if you're interested please apply. So we filled in the forms and they called us in and we went through the interview.

I can't remember if there were six or eight of us in the finals, and then we went to the studio. We thought we were just having a great day. "We're going to the studio!" We went around and we met a lot of the vice presidents and directors, and again I was sort of naïve, I thought this was just like they're giving us dessert. I'm getting to see the studio, we're having lunch at Walt's table in the commissary.

With Walt?

CSL: No, but he did come over and speak with us. Actually, he sat with Roy at his table. We were just giddy, and after lunch Arlene, one of the finalists asked one of the directors, "Are you interviewing us?" And I just went, "Shh!" Oh dear. And he said, "Yeah, but you're not supposed to know that." I went, "Well, I guess you've gotta be you no matter what you're doing," but maybe I would have pinkypied (lifts her pinky on her cup) a little bit more or something like that.

Do you think there were other times they were watching you?

CSL: Observing us? I think very possibly. Oftentimes you'd see directors in the park, like at the porch of the Golden Horseshoe as you'd go by with the tour. You'd pull your tour over and talk and you'd look up there and there was Tommy Walker or Dick Nunis, standing on the Horseshoe watching you. I'm sure they observed us.

Did Walt ever follow your tours?

CSL: No, I never had that good fortune and I'm sure I would have seen him. Of course when he'd come in the park, the excitement would be electric. There was a "Code R" for Roy and "Code W" for Walt which was security's code, so when they'd drive through the gate security would say, "There's Code W out." You could just feel this electricity amongst the Cast Members. They knew when they were here. It was awesome.

Is it true that when the lamp in his apartment (over the firehouse on Main Street) was on it let the Cast know that he was in the park?

CSL: He was always in the apartment. If I would see the light on I knew Walt was in the park so I would come across Town Square going to the Tour Guide lounge and I would always, always look up there. So it was really sad after he passed away and there was no more light. I always was thrilled to see the light go on in Walt's apartment.

Did you have a ceremony for when you became Ambassador?

CSL: Not really. It was very low-key.

How did you find out?

CSL: Special delivery letter to my house. When they delivered it to the door my grandmother was there. It had a special meaning because my grandmother was not well enough to come out to the park and I just carried it back into her room with two fingers and said, "It's a special kind of a letter from Disneyland." So we just all sat there and looked at it for a minute, and that's how I found out.

The tour guides made a beautiful flower arrangement with Hawaiian flowers because I love Hawaiian flowers, bird of paradise, pikaki, and they had that for me. It was kind of low-key, they weren't sure they were going to keep the ceremony, they weren't sure they were going to keep the Ambassador program because of other extenuating circumstances. Jack (Lindquist) had faith that I could do it I guess.

After you found out you were the Ambassador, what was the next step?

CSL: Next step was to go to the studio and they cut my hair. That's part of the package of the contract that you sign, they can change your physical image. My hair was about waist length, I was doing Hawaiian dancing at the time and had darkened it to dark brown because there's not a lot of work for Hawaiian dancing when you're blonde, so we went to the studio and La Rue (Matheron) cut my hair and Jack Lindquist is sitting there saying, "I think it needs to be a little shorter." I'm fighting tears. I've never had a guy see me with my hair all goopy, and he said, "Maybe a little shorter," and then somebody else said, "Yeah, I think we've got to do a little shorter." Pageboys were very popular, but my hair is a thinner, finer hair and it would not hold a pageboy, and it was dark and heavy and didn't look real good.

Then they sent me back to the studio and they kind of said to LaRue, "Give her something a little more contemporary." La Rue was used to working with a script. Here's a script, this is what the character looks like, so I was an unknown factor, so they finally found a shorter hairstyle.

Her name was La Rue?

CSL: She did the hair for "Gnome-Mobile." She said, "I'm cutting your hair and we're putting extensions on everybody for "Gnome-Mobile" and I'm cutting your hair." That was the only thing she had to say to me was, "I'm whacking all your hair off and we're putting extensions on the others."

Did they also do makeup and everything with you?

CSL: Yes, I had a makeup artist work on the makeup which involved a little heavier eyeliner than I was used to wearing because of the minimalist approach that we use in the park. It was fun.

What was Jack like to work with?

CSL: Wonderful. He was very creative. I always had the feeling he was thinking of things beyond the moment, he was engineering something on down the road. A really smart man, very very nice, too.

What about Frank Forsythe? I know he was involved in the Ambassador program. What was his participation?

CSL: First of all, Frank Forsythe was an ex-Marine. He was in the Bataan Death March. So you understand, he was kind of a diamond in the rough. He was a very craggy looking fellow because of his years as a Prisoner of War left a lot of physical scars.

He was an excellent writer, he handled the military presses and had enormous capability to forgive people for a lot of mistakes. I found that very generous of him. I don't know that I could have been as gracious as he was.

He travelled with us on a lot of the first tours representing the company, so if I was put into a situation perhaps not to my advantage or to the park's advantage he could field it for me.

Was he considered the manager of the Ambassador program?

CSL: I really don't know what his official capacity because we didn't use titles a lot then because it kind of restricted you. He worked directly with Jack, but I don't know his official title or if he even had one.

I loved to hear Frank's stories, too. He was really an interesting man, and we never got him to write his book.

How would you sum up your year as Ambassador?

CSL: It's like a year of pixie dust. Other than having your kids which nothing can beat, it's the best thing that can happen.

More from Connie:
Favorite Ambassador memories

Remembering Walt


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