DisneyLand Soon To Be Fun Again

Call it an unexpected consequence of the bad economy: A recent round of staff reductions at Disneyland could result in the return of embarrassing episodes of public nudity at the Happiest Place on Earth.Way back in 1997, a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times chronicled a scintillating Internet phenomenon involving the Anaheim theme park’s Splash Mountain log ride: Photos of women flashing their breasts at an automatic camera that snapped souvenir photographs during the final 50-foot drop were “unzip-a-dee-doo-dahing” their way around cyberspace, earning the ride the dubious nickname “Flash Mountain.”At the time, Disneyland officials blamed a rogue employee for leaking the obscene pictures of topless women onto the Web and instituted tighter photo editing procedures to prevent further breaches. (NSFW websites dedicated to Flash Mountain still exist — we’ll let you do your own Google search.)Over the ensuing decade, objectionable pictures of breast-baring women were “washed away” by Splash Mountain photo editors before they were projected on preview screens at the end of the ride, according to David Koenig, author of “More Mouse Tales: A Closer Peek Backstage at Disneyland.”Now, flash forward to 2009. Starting in May, the Splash Mountain photo editor positions will be eliminated as part of cost-cutting measures at Disneyland, according to MiceAge columnist Al Lutz.