FROM: The Adventures of Tom Nabbe Published Every Other Tuesday

The Adventure of Growing Up

Growing up is bittersweet, especially when maturity means unemployment! For Disney Legend Tom Nabbe, hired as a child by Walt Disney to play Tom Sawyer, turning 18 meant no more Tom Sawyer, who stays stubbornly young. What's next for Nabbe?

- Tom Nabbe, April 26, 2011

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I was as well-read as the next kid growing up in 1950's California, but before Walt hired me to play Tom Sawyer at Disneyland, I hadn't read Mark Twain.

I'm not sure if Walt had, either.

I assume he did, not only because the themes of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were important to him and an integral part of Disneyland, but because he grew up in Marceline, Missouri, just a few counties over from Mark Twain's hometown, Hannibal.

Growing Up as Tom Sawyer

Whenever Walt was in the park, we'd walk around Tom Sawyer Island together, but I don't remember us talking much about literature!

We talked mostly about the Park, and how to make it better.

Once, I told Walt that he should put a treehouse on the Island during one of its rehab phases, and he did! I was proud that he listened to me.

But getting back to Mark Twain, I read both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn soon after I started working for Walt. I had to know the characters well, because guests would often ask me to be someone other than Tom Sawyer, and I had to oblige them.

Some guests would think I was Huckleberry Finn, not Tom Sawyer. I played Huck pretty well, too. No one ever thought I was - or asked me to be - Becky Thatcher or Injun Joe. Those two roles I doubt I could have pulled off!

Growing Out of Tom Sawyer

One of the main themes in Tom Sawyer, the book, is growing up.

Inevitably, it happened to him, and when I turned 18, it happened to me. I couldn't play Tom Sawyer as an adult. In Disneyland, Tom Sawyer has to stay a kid forever; Tom Nabbe, however, had to grow up.

It was an uneasy time.

I had been working for Walt since Disneyland opened, but now I was no longer able to do the job for which he had hired me. No one quite knew what to do with me. I was assured that I wouldn't be fired, and that it was just a matter of moving me into another job.

I started dividing my time between playing Tom Sawyer and taking tickets. Then, right after my 18th birthday, I began piloting the rafts as part of Ride Operations.

I was done with school, done with Tom Sawyer, but not done with Disney.

I still had a long, long career ahead of me!

Tom's adventures with Disney spanned the early days of Disneyland, his special relationship with Walt, and his five decades of work for the company. We're just getting started!

More: THE ADVENTURES OF TOM NABBE