Disney's trackless vehicles are guided by computers, which allow these next-gen attractions to be kept very much under control even as they often appear to riders to be something akin to berserk billiard balls.
Chuck Schmidt, bitten by the Disney bug at an early age, remembers watching The Mickey Mouse Club after school in the mid-1950s. During his 48-year career in the newspaper business, he channeled that love of Disney as the Sunday News and Travel editor for The Staten Island Advance. Chuck has written or co-authored seven books for Theme Park Press, including Disney's Dream Weavers, On the Disney Beat, An American in Disneyland Paris, Disney's Animal Kingdom: An Unofficial History and The Beat Goes On. Chuck has shared his passion for all things Disney in his Still Goofy About Disney blog on AllEars.Net since 2016. He resides in Beachwood, N.J., with his wife Janet. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren.
Epcot was in the midst of a massive and long-overdue overhaul earlier this year when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. If nothing else, the delay in the opening of attractions such as Ratatouille and Guardians of the Galaxy and the overall upgrade of the park has afforded us the opportunity to pause and take a look back … to some of the attractions that were on the drawing board, but never made it to the park.
Disney Legend Bob Gurr, a man who is revered in the world of theme park attraction design, calls himself a “failure at retirement.”
Even though the Walt Disney Company is based in California, New York and Disney have had a long association, one which continues to this day. One could go as far as to say that New York City is the Walt Disney Company’s second home.
Dave Bossert's latest work, "3D Disneyland: Like You’ve Never Seen It Before" [published by The Old Mill Press], is scheduled to be released in November.
“I regularly tell people that if you'd have asked me 10 or 15 years ago that I'd be writing books, I would have laughed,” Bossert said during a recent interview. “And here I am with the '3D Disneyland' book. I think it’s my seventh book.”
To Stay Afloat Financially in the 1950s, Disneyland Closed on Select Days During the Slow Season
Posted onIt may be hard to fathom, given the staggering attendance figures we saw at the Anaheim, Calif., resort before the pandemic wreaked havoc, but closures at Disneyland were fairly common during its first few years of operation.
During my nearly four decades of writing about Disney, I’ve had the honor and privilege of meeting some wonderful people … all of whom proudly wore Disney cast member nametags. Many of those interesting folks are profiled in the new book "The Beat Goes On."
Imagine that. I’m a YouTube sensation. When nearly eight million viewers watch something with your image on it, that makes you an Internet star, right?
New Book Details How Celebrated Disney Animator Ub Iwerks Re-Invented Himself — As An Inventor
Posted onHow do you go from the most revered animator in the cartoon world of the 1920s to one of the most innovative minds in the movie and theme park industries decades later? Simple. You re-invent yourself. "Walt Disney's Ultimate Inventor: The Genius of Ub Iwerks" is a new book by Don Iwerks, Ub's son and fellow Disney Legend.
Pictorial Souvenir Booklets (a Long-Standing Disney Parks Tradition) Are a Victim of the Times
Posted onI took home three keepsakes from our first visit to Walt Disney World in 1972:
A vintage Mickey Mouse T-shirt; the Information Guide they handed out at the gate, and a copy of A Pictorial Souvenir of Walt Disney World.
The T-shirt is currently reposing in a landfill. The Information Guide is tucked away in a box of similar guides I’ve collected over the years. The Pictorial Souvenir? It remains a constant source of information and, frankly, wonderment.
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