Between Books - On the Disney Beat

On the Disney Beat: Over 30 years of Chronicling the People and Places in Walt’s World by Chuck Schmidt collects the author’s recollections of covering Disney as both a newspaper reporter and blogger.  Schmidt provides an overview of his journalistic career starting as a copy boy at the Staten Island Advance, a position on the bottom of the ladder which would eventually lead to positions as reporter and editor.  Serving as Sunday news editor, Schmidt decided to write travel features on Walt Disney World.  These articles would kick off meaningful relationships with Disney Legends including Charlie Ridgeway and Marty Sklar and executives such as Jay Rasulo.  On the Disney Beat is a result of these relationships and interactions with chapters including profiles and interviews of these and other Disney personalities such as Tony Baxter and Bob Gurr along with descriptions of press events that he attended.  The book also contains images of some of the items given to Schmidt at press events. 

For me that piece that I found the most interesting was the press events.  I had read about these events from the Disney side in Charlie Ridgeway’s memoir.  But here Schmidt takes us into these events on the side of the participant.  It becomes clear fast that these events took great care to pamper the attendees.  And it becomes equally clear that these events created a great amount of good will.  Schmidt takes us beyond the design of these publicity events to an understanding of their effectiveness.  We also get to know Ridgeway and his spirit through one who interacted with him, and with effectiveness of his personality shines outward.  

The other “star” of the book for me is Marty Sklar.  Sklar along with being a featured personality in the book also wrote the “Forward”.  Through Schmidt the reader gets to experience a growing relationship and friendship with the Disney Legend.  And it is clear that Schmidt has great respect for Sklar.  The Legend’s personality feels generous and fun-loving as the reader dives into the Sklar focused chapters.  

Another enjoyable account is how Schmidt came to learn of a shared connection with Rasulo.  This connection leads to an interview with the executive.  And one has to wonder if you could still setup an interview so easily with a high level company executive today.

On the Disney Beat is clear and easy to read.  It does provide a variety of topics with Schmidt’s passion for Disney being the heart of the book.  Personally, I would suggest picking up a Kindle copy just to save a few dollars.  And for me it is the kind of book that would be easy to read on a phone since one can easily drop in and out of chapters due to the variety. 

Chuck Schmidt in On the Disney Beat gives us a look into Disney publicity events as a participant.  And he details how he became a friendly with a number of Disney personalities.  In many ways readers will either be jealous of the adventure or follow along vicariously through Schmidt as he interacts with many of our heroes.  

Review Copy Provided by Theme Park Press  

Between Books - In Service to the Mouse

Jack Lindquist within In Service to the Mouse: My Unexpected Journey to Becoming Disneyland’s First President shares experiences from his 38 years of marketing and leading Disney parks.  The book chronicles his experiences from the opening day of Disneyland (as a guest), an entry level employee, his various roles marketing Disneyland and eventually being named the first President of Disneyland in 1990.  The book consists of five sections that represent different periods of Lindquist’s Disney career.  Within each division are chapters consisting of two to eight pages focusing around one theme or in some cases one anecdote.   

This memoir shares the tales of a Disney legend and treasure.  Lindquist represents part of a group that remembers Walt Disney the person and helps link the parks and movies under the Disney brand to the man and innovator.  Personally I love reading these sort of memoirs.  As Lindquist notes his time for remembering is getting shorter daily and I love that these stories are being collected so my children and their children may better know Walt Disney the man and the men who helped create the initial magic of Disneyland.  The chapters are short and easy to read.  They benefit from chapter titles and editing that keeps each chapter focused around that title.  In many ways the text is very similar to Charles Ridgeway’s Spinning Disney’s World in the sort of stories told, in fact both men mention each other and have some overlapping memories.  But In Service to the Mouse benefits from better organization.  Lindquist is very honest about successes and failures.  For example he notes his personal belief that a second park needed to be opened in California but adds that Disney’s California Adventure Park was a failure and why.  He also laments bad choices in merchandising and pricing while also adding that while the Michael Eisner and Frank Wells regime repeatedly raised park prices it was due to the undervaluing of Disneyland tickets in the years before they joined the company.

I really enjoyed this memoir.  It provides insight into key historical moments in Disney history while also sharing humorous stories that Lindquist experienced.  Personally I loved Lindquist’s stories around discussions with foreign nations about sponsoring Epcot World Showcase Pavilions filled with misunderstandings and government politics, his interactions with Michael Eisner and Lindquist’s role with acquiring the Anaheim Angels for Disney.  The memoir made me nostalgic for a Disneyland that I never visited, lamenting the loss of the Juniors pricing category as I prepare to pay adult prices for a child on future visits (allow me to step off my soap box now).  Lindquist successfully gives life to a Walt Disney I never met, a Disneyland I never visited and a Mickey Mouse that Lindquist gave over 38 years of his life to serve. 

Postscript:  Typically I would not comment on customer service.  However, I cannot ignore my experience purchasing In Service to the Mouse.  Instead of purchasing the book from Amazon.com or another retailer I chose to buy the book directly from http://www.inservicetothemouse.com/ due to the opportunity to buy an autographed copy for my collection at a reasonable price.  I was quite surprised a few hours after ordering to receive an email with a $5 refund.  I was told in the accompanying note that in a few days that they were launching a holiday sale and they were allowing me to purchase the book at the discounted price.  Honestly, I was fully prepared to pay the full price of my original purchase and would not have been angered by seeing a discount a few days later.  But the small refund gave me an example of the type of magic Mr. Lindquist spent 38 years creating. 

Between Books – Spinning Disney’s World

Charles Ridgeway in Spinning Disney’s World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent details his 30 plus years publicizing Disney parks around the world as both a full time cast member and a consultant.  When Disneyland opened for its press preview in 1955, Ridgeway was there as a member of the press.  And he often covered Disney news stories for the Los Angeles Mirror-Press as a reporter who lived near the Anaheim park.  In 1963, Ridgeway became a Disney cast member in Public Relations, a field he did not feel a good fit for his journalistic background.  Instead of taking on a short term job, he instead found himself embarking on a 3 decade career promoting Disney parks and attractions to the press.  Ridgeway would later relocate to Florida to promote the opening of the Walt Disney World Resort.  This would be followed by promotion of three additional parks within the resort, anniversaries, and attraction openings.  Ridgeway would also help expand the parks worldwide using the lessons learned from promoting the American parks to spread the word about Disneyland Paris and later in a part-time role Hong Kong Disneyland.  Throughout the book, Ridgeway makes it clear that his success was based entirely on building personal relationships. 

I have heard Ridgeway interviewed on podcasts and have enjoyed listening to him share stories of his work for Disney.  So my anticipation of this book was fairly high.  Sadly that was tempered by poor organization.  None of the chapters have titles or coherent themes.  You may be reading on one topic and then have the chapter suddenly switch themes with little to no transition.  Later a similar topic may be brought up again in an unrelated chapter.  Overall, one gets the feeling that this book is an elder sharing his stories and opinions around a dinner table, not in a book.   A little reorganization could really have helped improve this book and helped keep focus on Ridgeway’s stories.  What I took away from this book is the importance of personal relationships in getting good publicity for the Disney parks.  Ridgeway fostered those relationships which lead to reporters, editors, producers and even celebrities talking favorably without prompting about Disney.  In many ways this makes sense as it is often the interactions that Disney fans had with cast members and the attractions on a personal level that have had the most impact on our fandom.