Chuck Schmidt

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 2015. He resides in Beachwood, N.J., with his wife Janet. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren.


Strong Relationships With Major Corporations Have Allowed Disney To Flourish

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
The Walt Disney Company has been a money-making juggernaut for decades, what with its theme parks, movies, television shows, a cruise line and Broadway shows. Partnering with Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars more than a decade ago has only solidified the company’s status as a Wall Street darling. But it wasn’t always that way. Thanks to corporate sponsorship during its lean years, Disney has been able to ride out tough financial times.
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Disneyland Paris: A Beautiful Place, Save For The Duct Tape, Broken Glass, Barricades and Line Cutters

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
We arrived here in Disneyland Paris on April 30 with lofty expectations. After all, the resort is in the middle of its 30th anniversary celebration. What we found was a resort awash in construction projects, with more areas boarded off for our “future enjoyment” than we cared to count. What was even more disturbing was a seeming lack of care when it came to general upkeep.
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RETURN TO DISNEYLAND, PART 3: From The Matterhorn Bobsleds to a Runaway Railway: Doing The Impossible, Six Decades Apart

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
Over the years, members of Disney’s creative team have, on occasion, been asked to do the impossible. And most often than not, they have accomplished the task ... with spectacular results. "One heck of an assignment," is how Disney Legend Bob Gurr described his work on the Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction at Disneyland. "Like fitting a ship in a bottle," was Kevin Rafferty's way of describing his work on Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway in the Chinese Theater at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
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