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.


Next Batch of Vintage Photos Features Hammer Man and a Scary Clown

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
In the last edition of Still Goofy About Disney, we featured seven vintage photos from Disney’s “very historic past,” as Walt once said … press photos that were, on average, at least three decades old. We decided to reach into our collection again and came up with seven more photos from Disney days gone by. Enjoy the next edition of Disney Memory Lane, Vintage Photo Edition.
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SAILING WITH DISNEY: PART 4: From Park Attractions To Modes Of Transportation In Florida

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
In building Disneyland, Disney’s creative staff had to figure out ways to make realistic-looking bodies of water on fertile soil that had supported orange groves for decades; in planning Walt Disney World in Florida, planners had to learn how to manage water in a way that was both efficient and environmentally sound, as well as devise ways to transport guests on the area's waterways.
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SAILING WITH DISNEY, PART 2: Disneyland, A Place Without Peer, Opens With Several Piers

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
In the sweltering summer of 1955, guests who walked through the turnstiles of Disneyland, under the railroad tracks and into the magical environment of the world’s first theme park, saw things that were atypical for amusement parks of the day. To begin with, there was a perfectly replicated Main Street, circa the turn of the … Continue reading "SAILING WITH DISNEY, PART 2: Disneyland, A Place Without Peer, Opens With Several Piers"
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SAILING WITH DISNEY, PART 1: Walt, The Train Guy, Takes To The High Seas

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
Sailing vessels – from cartoon props to park attractions to resort launches to majestic ocean liners – have been woven into the fabric of the Disney experience almost from the day Mickey Mouse was created. Whether it’s the rickety wooden boat piloted by Mickey in the 1928 animated classic Steamboat Willie or the awe-inspiring Disney Cruise Line fleet, sailing with Disney has always been a unique, fun-filled, family friendly trip over bodies of water … be they great, small or animated.
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