Disneyland History- In the original "USS Nautilus Submarine Ride", female cast members would play the role of mermaids between 1965 and 1967. (The "mermaids" would be selected through a rigorous selection process that was set up by the Disney corporation.) The mermaids, were supposed to "seduce" the men to jump into into the water just like in the mermaid folklore. Apparently, Disney did their job too well because the result was that too many men were jumping into the water to chase after the mermaids. (The Disney cast had great difficulty in controlling people who were jumping into the lagoon.)
The heavily chlorinated water in the lagoon was also making the female cast member's skin turn green. It also didn't help that the female cast member's costume bra had a tendency to come off and cause a "Wardrobe Malfunction". (That may certainly cause a lot of men to jump into the lagoon.)
After 1967, Disney decided to stop hiring real people for their mermaids because they were having too many problems with overly excited males jumping into the water, and they wanted to be known as a "family friendly" place. Disney eventually used animatronic robots to replace the human mermaids. The original submarine ride was shut down in 1998, due to the fact that the animatronic robots were breaking down from years of wear and tear. A new submarine ride that was based on Pixar's "Finding Nemo" was opened on June 11, 2007.
A glimpse from YouTube of the original Disneyland Mermaids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHhJM5sJ ... r_embedded
An interview with a former Disneyland "Cast Member" who had played one of the mermaids:
http://randomneatstuff.blogspot.com/201 ... rmaid.html
