few months before he died, and he was telling me a story about these gold plates. I thought it was a movie pitch at the time, but when I thought about it years later, I think he was trying to teach me a lesson. He talked about how Lafitte hid treasure towards the end of his life, gold plates, and other things. Walt always talked about the future.”
Kurt continued, “I was young at the time, so I didn’t really understand what he meant. Several years later, Gore Verbinski approached me about the first Pirates movie they were making, and he wanted my opinion of it. I remembered the talk I had with Walt and I told Verbinski about what Walt said about Lafitte. He was pumped about it—since Lafitte was someone who inspired Walt to build the attraction, he was a legendary and historical figure, and a major part of Disneyland history. I thought for sure they were going to include Lafitte in the movie, but they ended up not including him at all.”
“Who shut the idea down?”
“I have no idea. Jack, what’s wrong?”
“I will tell you everything next time I see you, right now I’m running out of time.”
“Hey Jack, one more thing,” Kurt paused, “something that always stuck with me was the last thing Walt said to me after that talk. He said that he’d made the discovery of a lifetime and that he didn’t think he’d be around for much longer.”
Jack paused to think, but he couldn’t figure out what Walt would’ve been referring to.
“Thank you Kurt, I appreciate it.”
“You got it Jack.” The legendary actor disconnected the line.
“Luke, get Johnny Depp on the line for me.”
“Sure, Jack.”
Jack racked his brain. Walt was obviously referring to the tunnels when he wrote the Way Down Cellar reference. He was trying to tell Kurt something, but what?
“Jack I have Mr. Depp on the line for you—and I haven’t been able to reach anyone at your dad’s house—I’m getting worried about him.”
“Ok, keep trying Luke.”
“Jack! How’s it going my friend?” Johnny’s unmistakable voice came through Jack’s earpiece.
“Johnny, I need your help. Why was Lafitte excluded from the Pirates franchise?”
“Jack, did you take my advice and find that underground tunnel?”
“You don’t even know the half of it, Johnny.”
“Ha!” Johnny’s voice was distant and cutting out, “I think your dad put an end to it. He had the final call on everything since the movie was based on the attraction.”
“Why did he stop it?”
“No clue, Jack. Probably for the same reason he stopped a lot of things. If things weren’t going to be done exactly the way that Walt would’ve wanted it, your dad put an end to them.”
Jack paused to think.
“Jack?”
“Thanks Johnny, I need to call you back.”
“Wait, Jack, I do remember something. Someone in upper management at the Park was seriously pushing for the inclusion of Lafitte based on something that Kurt Russell had said. I vaguely remember seeing your dad at the Studios talking to Verbinski, it looked like they were arguing and it got pretty heated. Verbinski was frustrated with the whole thing.”
“Gaur.” Jack said softly.
“Who?”
“Never mind, thanks Johnny, you’ve been a big help, I appreciate it.”
August 11, 2010
Main Street, U.S.A.
Disneyland Park
Jack limped out of what was left of the Control Center. The security nerve center of the Disneyland Resort containing millions of dollars of state of the art equipment was no more.
“Jack!” Bill Gaur appeared out of the ashes. Gaur had been in senior management overseeing attractions since the 70s.
“When did you get here? Have you been here all day?”
“I’m off today. I’m here with my wife and kids. I saw Ruddy at the front gate, and he told me what happened.”
“Ok, well we’re kind of busy right now, make sure no one finds out about this, we need to keep this extremely quiet.”
“I can help you figure out how to get inside those
Rebecca Godfrey, Ellen R. Sasahara, Felicity Don