Dead Men Tell No Tale…. or Do They?: When Walt Disney Used Real Skeletons for Pirates of the Caribbean

Due to an abundance of Disney content creators out there, I will only do stories about Disney or any of their parks sparingly if they are weird or out there. So do not expect too much Disney content in The Wandering Oddball. Disneyland not only has lingerie in its closet but skeletons, too! Also, I will talk about a well-known urban legend towards the end that involves the ride. 

So, I will speedrun through the history of the ride. In 1955, Walt Disney’s ambitious project Disneyland opened to the public. It would not be until 1967 when the Pirates of the Caribbean ride would officially open. The ride not only had 75 audio-animatronic humans and 53 animatronic animals but also had real skeletons. 

What now?!

You read that correctly: real skeletons! When the ride initially opened, all the skeletons on that ride were real. The skeletons in the attraction were all donated from the UCLA Medical Center. Walt wanted to make the ride as convincing as possible and why not make it more believable by having the real deal. Over the years, the skeletons were replaced with fake, realistic-looking ones when special effects improved. In addition, as the movie series came out, they included the animatronics of Captain Jack Sparrow and removed a scene deemed controversial by today’s standards. 

The donated remains were given a proper burial. Disneyland claims no actual human remains are still on the sets; however, employees and guests disagree. 

The Alleged Real Skull

One of the skulls on the bedboard behind the fake skeleton reading with a looking glass is said to be a fundamental human skull. This is not confirmed, as Disney did say there are no real bones on the ride, but it's possible they either overlooked or are lying to keep the squeaky clean image of the park. There are also claims of a few others that are real in the attraction, but I can’t find which ones they are other than the skull I mentioned. Also, this ride has received many changes and updates over the years, so that any remnants could have been replaced entirely. 

What about Walt's head rumor?

For those not familiar with the urban legend, a rumor spread around after Walt’s death that his head was placed in a jar and cryogenically preserved. Some rumors stated his head is somewhere on Pirates of the Caribbean. That rumor is completely false and very easy to debunk. Members of the Disney family stated Walt never wanted to be frozen.  Uncle Walt was cremated and interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.