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

Carol DeKeyser Masters: I was working in foods and I was alternating as a supervisor in foods and I was actually the first foods girl to become Ambassador.

Up until that time there were a lot of tour guides and hostesses.

Right, maybe one ride operator, but a foods girl had never done that.

Where were you working in foods?

CDM: I was working at Plaza Inn and Plaza Gardens, and then I was supervising at the Tuna Boat and also in outdoor foods which I really enjoyed because I walked from land to land to land and just went to all the carts. I loved it, it was a great job.

What year were you Ambassador?

CDM: 1974.

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

CDM: In the summer of that year we opened America Sings, and it was the year of "Robin Hood" the movie, so we were promoting that and going to Mexico quite a bit, because Mexico opened their own theater dedicated just to Disney movies. So we went down for the grand opening of that and "Robin Hood" was one of the movies, and we took them down with us to Mexico. It was a great time. A lot of fun.

Do you have any favorite memories of being Ambassador?

CDM: Actually, I know one of the other Ambassadors has this same memory, but we had shared it at one time and we were kind of surprised. We had gone into a hospital, in Portland, Oregon, with a little boy who had been severely damaged in a car accident and had a bad brain injury and hadn't spoken for over two years and was in constant rehab. They were having a really hard struggle with him, trying to decide if he was what they call elective mute, or was just not having the brain connections to make words form.

When we came into the hospital and I was holding hands with Mickey Mouse, when we came around the corner all the children would be wheeled to the auditorium so that we could do a show there. When he saw Mickey Mouse he actually said, "Mickey Mouse," and the doctors and nurses all were kind of stunned and fell to their knees and just crying. I was looking around, not knowing... at the time I didn't know the story until after this had happened, so it did move me to tears as well.

It was very, very heartwarming. I just thought Disney just touches the hearts of everybody. Even these doctors who realized how powerful that was.

What did you do after you were Ambassador?

CDM: A little bit of everything, actually. I wanted to experience a lot of different things at the park so I went into Public Relations for awhile and answered Guest compliment and complaint letters which was very fascinating. I escorted movie crews and television crews around the park when they were doing special events, kind of as a supervisor, that they were doing appropriate things, getting any supplies that they may need and special locations cleared out for closed special events.

Then I went to the studios for awhile, then I worked in (Disney) Educational Films. I thought I was going to stay there but they ended up having layoffs, so they said, "You can go back to your job at Disneyland, but we're not going to have openings here for awhile," so I went back to the park and I went to Club 33. I started as a hostess and worked my way up to waitressing and I really enjoyed that just because I could make my own hours and had a lot of seniority, so it was kind of neat. I enjoyed doing that.

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