Scott Wolf: What were you doing before you were Ambassador?

Marva Dickson Thomas: College. I was in college, in fact it was the fall after I graduated that I became Ambassador. I was a tour guide, started there a couple of summers previously so I served as a tour guide which, at that point, many Ambassadors had been hostesses or tour guides. We had one, Shari Bescos Koch, and she was at the front gate (as a ticket seller).

What year were you Ambassador?

MDT: 1971.

What kinds of things happened with the park the year you were Ambassador?

MDT: I think the most memorable was the very first time Disney ever did a halftime show, a live staged halftime show. They were promoting their movie "The Aristocats" at that time. They got the option to do the halftime show for the Rams/49ers game. This is when there was still Kezar stadium in San Francisco. They had choreographed an entire show with marching bands and characters, they filled the complete stadium on the field. They had Scatman Crothers, he was one of the voices (in "The Aristocats"), and he and I went mid-center field. So we were prompted, we had various scripts.

That was the first thing I ever did, that was probably the most frightening thing I ever did, and it was the most memorable thing. After that, I said, "I can do anything."

The first thing you ever did in front of so many thousands of people!

MDT: And it was live international TV. They had filmed it and it was on TV live. Everything that was choreographed was based on our words, so if we didn't get our script right, then you might have the marching band going off on the side there. Knowing that, standing at the sidelines, I almost felt physically ill. I said, "I think I need to leave now." (laughs)

It really does mobilize you and that was probably the best training, trial by fire. It all went off fine and I know they taped it and it was on television, but that was before the days of the videos and digital. I'd love to find that film. I'd love to find their halftime show.

But, the halftime show went off well and I think they've since done more, but that was the very first, and live TV so it was cool. It was fun.

Other than that, do you have any other favorite memories of being Ambassador?

MDT: Yeah, that was my most stunning and scary, so that will always stay in my mind, and I think our trip to Mexico. We did a trip, again promoting a film, it was promoting the re-release of "The Love Bug." We did parades. Everywhere we went in Mexico we did parades. We were in the Jeep Safari that Volkswagen had with a top, a convertible. So we would go thru the towns and the people would just come from everywhere to line the streets for us.

And going in and visiting the kids in the hospitals, especially those kids who were very ill. Their eyes when you walked in were kind of glazed over. When the characters would come in, it's like all of a sudden they got life again in their eyes, and those moments were where you saw the true magic of Disney at work. It was just very pure. Pure entertainment and liveliness in the form of the characters for these young kids, so I loved that.

Another one was just traveling with Mickey. Frankly, what I got a kick out of was the characters behind the scenes were real characters. They were fun. Lots of fun traveling with them.

And Imelda Marcos... she and her husband were still the President and First Lady of the Philippines. I remember her and her retinues. She had quite a retinues of people. I remember through the park... she was the one who loved shoes. She had one person there with a variety of shoes. She carried her shoes with her, so that was kind of fun, too.

What did you do after you were Ambassador?

MDT: I was only the seventh Ambassador so I was very early in the program. At that point, they really didn't have the broad diversity that they have now. So we could have returned to being a hostess or a tour guide and I thought, "I just graduated from college. I have been at the pinnacle. Where do you go from there?" I thought with the community involvement, Disney even back then was very involved in the community, I would love to go into the community of Orange County, so I went into radio and I worked for a radio station, and that was through some of my many contacts and referrals at Disneyland.

You carry your training with you. You don't leave it when you leave Disneyland. We've all mentioned today (at an Ambassador get together) that whatever we were, whoever we were, the Disneyland experience stretched us so we became different people. We never really were the same after that. All for the good.

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