Name: C.J. Hirschfield
City: Oakland
Position: Executive director of Children’s Fairyland, the 63-year-old storybook theme park in Oakland
J.: How does one wind up executive director of Fairyland?
C.J. Hirschfield: I had a previous career in cable television — for more than 20 years, I ran the public access channel in San Francisco. And then I decided I wanted to do something that was closer to my heart. I’ve always been heavily involved in volunteering and advocating for kids, and literacy.
So when this job opened up [11 years ago] at Fairyland — I’d taken my daughter here, and loved it, and I always thought it had a lot of potential. It was a big change for me, but it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
J.: Is it true that Walt Disney drew inspiration from Fairyland when he was creating Disneyland?
CJH: Yes, Walt did visit the park. We opened in 1950, and we were the first storybook theme park in America. [Disney] hired away our first executive director and our puppeteer, took them down south, and opened Disneyland in 1955.
J.: Any other folklore?
CJH: We have a little building that we now use for arts and crafts that used to be the smallest post office in America, until they couldn’t afford to keep the postmistress there any longer.
J.: What about the live stage shows? The puppet show is just about the oldest anywhere, right?
CJH: Yup, it’s the longest-running puppet theater in the U.S. A young Frank Oz was a teenage apprentice there before going on to fame and fortune with the Muppets and as Yoda.
With the children’s theater program, I have kids who came in at 8 years old who are now college students, and I’m employing some of them this summer. Listening to them talk, you can really see the change that theater made in their lives; whether they end up in theater or not, it improves their confidence. Every day, we are introducing little children to live performing arts for the first time. That’s incredible to watch.
J.: Anything else about Fairyland that people might not know about?
CJH: Over the past 11 years, I’ve seen that this is truly a therapeutic place. I’d never thought of it in those terms before. We have an extensive outreach program to low-income and at-risk kids, whose goal is just getting some of these young kids into a place that’s sweet and safe and allows them to play and be imaginative.
We’re rolling out new programs all the time: We just launched a program for working with autistic and special-needs kids, with horticultural therapy. I’ve seen kids who wouldn’t look you in the eye, but you watch them meet a pony or a pig, and there’s just this amazing transformation. I love watching that. I love feeling that we’re a force of good in our community.
J.: What do you think the park’s location brings to Fairyland?
CJH: Well, for one, I can walk to work! We’re really committed to celebrating the richness of Oakland. Part of that is being culturally competent and conscious of all the different folks we have in the community. When we do our winter holiday celebration, we celebrate Diwali, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Hanukkah. We pick theater productions from different cultures. I’m excited we just found a story to do from the Hmong community. Our talking storybook boxes [operated with “magic keys”] all give you the option of listening to the story in English or Español.
J.: That’s great. Some of those keys are still floating around at my parents’ house from about 20 years ago.
CJH: Oh, they should still work.
J.: You grew up in L.A., but you’ve been in the Bay Area for three decades. Any favorite Jewish food spots here?
CJH: For potato pancakes, I like Saul’s, but you know who else has good ones? Rick and Ann’s in Berkeley. And, I guess, my house. I make some pretty killer latkes and brisket.
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