The Feral Cats – and Fleas! – of Disneyland

One day in 1956, Walt Disney, Ken Anderson and set designer Emile Kuri slipped into Sleeping Beauty Castle to figure out the plans for a proposed Sleeping Beauty walk-through.

According to Sam Gennawey’s ‘The Disneyland Story’, “Kuri was in a white suit, and when they open the door they found dozens of cats. Within minutes, Kuri’s white suit was black with fleas. All three men turned around and ran.”



Disney historian Jim Hill would later write, “It took several weeks to capture and relocate the cats, not to mention thoroughly fumigate the enormous structure, which is why the grand opening of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty walk-through as pushed back to late 1957.”