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Disney’s Enduring Legacy At The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair

March 4, 2024 by Chuck Schmidt

“The World’s Fair was really a big lesson, a big proving ground in many ways for us,” Marty Sklar, former head of Walt Disney Imagineering and a Disney Legend, said in 2010. “The main thing we learned was that the audience was there for Disney-style entertainment.”

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Thanksgiving 1971 Put WDW’s Upstart Cast Members To The Test

February 19, 2024 by Chuck Schmidt

Walt Disney World opened rather inauspiciously on Oct. 1, 1971. Attendance was downright disappointing on opening day and things remained stagnant during the first few weeks of operation. But by early November, attendance was on the upswing. Then, during the pivotal Thanksgiving weekend, all hell broke loose.

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Welton Becket and Disney’s Use of Streamline Moderne Design

February 5, 2024 by Chuck Schmidt

Even though Streamline Moderne architecture peaked in the 1930s, it lives on at several Disney properties – as does the design influence of Welton Becket.

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MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT DISNEY: The Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad

January 24, 2024 by Chuck Schmidt

Before there was Disneyland, there was a railroad, albeit a small-scale, handcrafted line in Walt Disney’s backyard in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. It can be argued that the very genesis of Disneyland sprang up from that backyard layout – known as the Carolwood Pacific Railroad.

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MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT DISNEY: Any Attraction Designed by Kevin Rafferty

January 8, 2024 by Chuck Schmidt

Members of Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative wing of the company that dreams up the park rides and adventures synonymous with the overall Disney park experience, almost always toil in anonymity.

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When Is Donald Duck’s Birthday, and How Old Is He?

December 19, 2023 by Brian Delpozo

The surprisingly complicated truth behind Donald Duck's "birthday".

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MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT DISNEY: My Main Street Friends

December 18, 2023 by Chuck Schmidt

During my 45-plus years of covering the wonderful world of Disney, I’ve had the distinct honor of striking up relationships with a good number of Disney’s more prominent cast members, whose careers are memorialized on windows along Main Street USA in California, Florida or France. Whenever I return to a Disney park, I make sure to renew acquaintances with my Main Street buddies.

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Whose Castle Is in Hong Kong Disneyland?

December 11, 2023 by Brian Delpozo

Hong Kong Disneyland's Castle of Magical Dreams is completely unique amongst Disney's theme park castles.

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Whose Castle Is in Disneyland Paris?

December 8, 2023 by Brian Delpozo

The "owner" of the castle at Disneyland Paris is a nod to Disney history with a twist.

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MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT DISNEY: The Holiday Season

December 4, 2023 by Chuck Schmidt

As the song goes: It’s the most wonderful time of the year. “It” is the holiday season. And where does that “most wonderful time” take place? Why, Walt Disney World and Disneyland, of course.

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