tragedy on the matterhorn

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Sally Korsh is a retired commercial Real Estate lawyer who lives in Weston, Connecticut. She was born in Pasadena, California and grew up in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. As a child and teenager, Sally visited Disneyland approximately fifteen times due to her geographic proximity to the park in the 1960s and 1970s. She attended college at the University of California at Santa Barbara and law school at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. As a young adult, she visited Disneyland rarely. Her interest in Disney and visits to the parks were renewed upon her 1992 marriage to Kevin Korsh and the birth of their daughters, Johanna and Karina. Although Sally and Kevin moved to Connecticut shortly before the birth of their daughters, her parent’s lingering physical proximity to Disneyland resulted in approximately ten more visits to the park as a young mother with her family in the early 2000s. Her lifelong hobbies include Golden Retriever adoption and nature conservation.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: the Matterhorn is a steel roller coaster at the Disneyland park in Anaheim, California. Its physical appearance is based on that of the Matterhorn, a mountain in the European Alps.
Social Context: The interviewee first heard this legend as a young teenager during one of her many visits to the Disneyland parks in the 1960s and 1970s. A friend first informed her of this legend. As the legend has persisted in the informant’s memory over the following decades, she told it to her friends and then children as a cautionary warning about personal conduct on the Matterhorn. She performs this folklore in the proximity of the Matterhorn.

Item:

The Tragedy on the Matterhorn is a legend of a park visitor’s death on the Matterhorn roller coaster that presumably occurred at some point during the 1960s, based on the informant’s first recollection of the lore. Since it is grounded in presumed historical fact and features human characters in the contemporary human world, it can be classified as a legend.
The following is a transcript of the legend as it was told to the collector in February 2018. Some words and phrases have been omitted from the original to allow for easy reading.

Transcript:

“Well, going to the park [Disneyland] was pretty popular with me and my friends in Middle School and High School. On one of those visits I got a little spooked by this story my friend told me. As we were in line for the Matterhorn, he told me that somebody once was decapitated on the ride by trying to stand up and raise their arms on the roller coaster. It freaked me out a bit and I was always sure to keep my hands by my sides every time I went on it from then on. And you know that when you [the collector] were finally tall enough to go on it I told you this story and held you pretty darn closely to make sure everything was all right. You [the interviewer] were pretty young!”

Informant’s Comments:

Sally affirms her love for roller coasters and assures that although she always is worried about being safe, she will always love the Matterhorn.

Collector’s Comments:

The collector would also like to affirm that although this lore does serve as a needed cautionary tale for safety on roller coasters, the Matterhorn is indeed a thrilling and positive attraction at Disneyland.

Collector’s Name: Karina Korsh

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive