Tag: Jack Lindquist

DISNEYLAND AT 70: Jack Lindquist Went From Sweaty Bystander To Disneyland’s First President

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
Jack Lindquist had the opportunity to walk around Disneyland a few weeks before opening day as a representative of Kelvinator, which was one of Disneyland’s many corporate sponsors. He began his self-guided tour by walking out to Town Square, where he saw the railroad station, the opera house, a fire station, and City Hall, all nearing completion. His eyes then glanced at a large department store, called The Emporium, then the Upjohn drug store, the Kodak photo shop and the Carnation ice cream parlor. Then he looked straight up Main Street USA in awe “of a real fairytale castle under construction,” he said. “At that moment, I realized that this Disney guy wasn’t building some nickel-and-dime amusement park. This was an entirely new concept in entertainment. It was damn exciting.”
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Disney Dollars Were The Brainchild Of Disney Marketing Guru Jack Lindquist

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
The Disney Dollars initiative was the brainchild of Disney Legend Jack Lindquist, who was among other things, a marketing genius. He joined the Disney fold in 1955, working in Disneyland’s marketing department, where he dreamed up some of the park’s most famous promotions, including Grad Nites, Vacationland Magazine, The Magic Kingdom Club and the Disneyland Ambassador Program. “I got the idea for Disney Dollars by reading the financial pages,” Lindquist said. "It dawned on me that Disneyland was big enough to have its own currency."
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MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT DISNEY: My Main Street Friends

Posted on 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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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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A Stroll Down Memory Lane: Marty Sklar’s Disneyland-Themed Retirement Party

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
When Marty Sklar retired from the Walt Disney Company on July 17, 2009, after 53 years of service, he received the type of sendoff that was worthy of … well, Marty Sklar. The night before his official retirement date, family, friends and colleagues gathered for a party at Walt Disney Imagineering’s Glendale, California, campus. The night was filled with laughter, nostalgia and good-natured fun … with a smattering of emotion sprinkled in for good measure.
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A Peek At Some Of EPCOT’s Proposed (But Never Built) Attractions

Posted on by Chuck Schmidt
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.
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