16 Facts About Jack Lindquist

Jack Lindquist was an American business executive who served as president of the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California from 1990 until he retired in 1993.

Jack Lindquist was a Disney employee from 1955 until his retirement, and was a marketing executive in the theme parks division for almost thirty years, including a stint as the first advertising manager for Disneyland.

Jack Lindquist appeared in the Shirley Temple Black film, The Little Princess, and Laurel and Hardy's Nothing But Trouble, as 'The Kid'.

Jack Lindquist then attended college at the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Theta Xi Fraternity.

At a mid-sized Los Angeles based advertising agency, Jack Lindquist represented the client Kelvinator appliances, promoting the company's washers, dryers, refrigerators, and other appliances on television and radio.

Two months after the park's official opening, Jack Lindquist received a phone call from early management at Disneyland asking for suggestions of an available advertising manager.

Jack Lindquist suggested himself and was in turn offered the job.

Four years later, Jack Lindquist assumed the role of Vice President of Marketing for Walt Disney Attractions.

In 1982, with the addition of the park, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, Jack Lindquist was again promoted to Executive Vice President of Marketing and Entertainment, overseeing not only the parks in the United States, Japan and France, but for the company's outdoor recreation activities.

Jack Lindquist worked with General Motors, who was a new Disney Participant at the Epcot park at Walt Disney World, Florida, and worked out a deal where the Disneyland park gave away a total of 106 General Motors automobiles throughout the 30th Anniversary year.

Today, what was started by Jack Lindquist, using anniversaries as a marketing tool, have become a common marketing practice at many other theme parks.

In 1994, Jack Lindquist was named trustee of Chapman University in Orange, California and in 2002 received Emeritus status, yet continued to speak twice a year at the university to students studying marketing strategy.

The artifacts on display feature only a small portion of the entire collection of awards and rare memorabilia that Jack Lindquist donated to the university for safekeeping and archiving.

Jack Lindquist's eventual reach was worldwide, having trained three generations of young leaders within Disney, who went on to lead attractions around the globe, both inside and outside of the Disney organization.

Many amusement industry executives credit Jack Lindquist with founding and greatly expanding the arts and sciences of attraction promotion.

In Disneyland's Mickey's Toontown, in the yard of Goofy's Playhouse, there was a pumpkin in the Jack-O-Lantern patch that has the face of Jack Lindquist to pay tribute to him.