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For the moment, curiosity seekers at Euro Disneyland must confine themselves to a preview center, where displays and models of the coming attractions are on view, along with a brief promotional film. At the souvenir shop next door, a simple sweatshirt, silk-screened with a ring of European flags encircling Mickey Mouse's face, sells for $39. A fast-food restaurant specializes in Texas-style chili.
In the coming months, Disney will be hiring more and more employees, known in the corporate lingo as "cast members." They will have to abide by the company's strict appearance codes: men cannot have mustaches, beards or exposed tattoos, nor can they wear jeans. Women cannot wear any obtrusive jewelry or have "unusually colored" hair or long fingernails. "We're after a conservative, professional look," says Disney vice president Thorolf Degelmann. The company is looking for multilingual men and women from all over Europe who will be able to communicate with the non-French Europeans who are expected to visit the park.
French applicants will most likely oblige Disney's notions of a clean-cut appearance. But will their acquiescence spell the beginning of the end of French culture as we know it? Only the most virulent cultural chauvinists think so. Says Christian Cardon, head of the interministerial government delegation that is supervising the Disney project: "French culture cannot be threatened by Disney. Just because an amusement park will open, university students are not going to stop studying Sartre."