Thread by @cabel

Friends… have we solved a theme park mystery? Do we now know What Happened To Rosita?

Ok, let me back up.

In Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, José drops this infamous line, and it has haunted me, and many others, forever.

Let's be honest. This "joke" makes no sense. After naming a bunch of fancy birds, José blurts out "I wonder what happened to Rosita?"

I often wondered if learning the meaning of the joke would make me cringe (a bit like José's accent). It didn't add up. It was clearly SOMETHING.

Imagineering answered the question in their own way by expanding the Tiki Room into the new "Tangaroa Terrace". Besides being a wonderful place to eat a Bao (the perfect theme park food), it added a new outdoor animatronic: Rosita!

Clearly, this is now the official Rosita.

But it's retcon — it never satisfied. There had to be something more to this joke, forever lost to time.

AND THEN… I came across this wonderful thread by @rachsyme (sent to me by my pal @gregmaletic). Rachel read about a wild burlesque act named Dovita…

https://twitter.com/rachsyme/status/1372774738691461120?s=20

…except Dovita was Rosita. Rosita Royce.

And she was a smash hit at the 1939 World's Fair.

Her act? Seven doves landed on her arms and head, and as the music played, Rosita called the birds by name and they carefully removed a piece of her costume.

via 1939nyworldsfair.com/Ponderings/Ros…

Really? What? I think this is THE Rosita? Well, let's look at the evidence.

① Rosita was a hugely popular BIRD act.

And although most articles mention doves, here she is performing with exotic birds — EXACTLY the kind you'd find in the Tiki Room!

② She seems to have been well-known nationwide.

I wondered, would the Imagineers have heard of her? But thanks to the World's Fair, I think so. Her act was huge, and she was in the news constantly. (Mostly for making "demands" that were actually totally reasonable.)

③ She was a perfect "whatever happened to" reference.

The Tiki Room debuted in 1963, and her peak was in 1940, so she'd be remembered by any adult in the room.

Plus, the joke lands a special wink-wink when the adults suddenly remembered her act — in a room filled with birds.

But now, this means we must now face what REALLY happened to Rosita. It's sad.

The job was exhausting — 74 shows a week!? — and she was clearly overworked, leading to a nervous breakdown. She died at 36, with cancer, after slipping on a cigarette butt thrown on stage.

So, I'm convinced. I'm at peace, an old joke finally — maybe? what do you think? — understood.

Despite her tragic story, I take some solace knowing that every fifteen minutes in Anaheim, José just might be remembering Rosita when the rest of the world has long forgotten her.