February 28 - Jack Lindquist

Image courtesy disneyparks.disney.go.com

On this day, in 2016, Jack Lindquist passed away in Anaheim, California. Born half a country away, in Chicago, Illinois on March 15, 1927, Jack’s family soon moved to Southern California. Starting as a young child, he began a career as a film extra. Over the next 15 years, he appeared in the background of several Our Gang pictures, the Shirley Temple classic The Little Princess, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and many other films. He graduated from Hollywood High School just as World War II was winding down (victory had been realized in Europe; V-J Day was still a couple of months away) but enlisted in the Air Force anyways and served two years before being honorably discharged. He then earned a degree at the University of Southern California on the G.I. Bill and jumped head first into the world of advertising in the Fifties.

Image courtesy flickr.com

One of his accounts was for Kelvinator, the home appliance maker. They also happened to be a sponsor of a new theme park Walt Disney was building over in Anaheim and asked their ad man if he wanted to get a peek at the place while it was under construction. Jack was also invited to be Kelvinator’s guest for the opening day ceremonies of Disneyland on July 17, 1955 (he took advantage of both offers, by the way). Two months later, Jack’s phone rang. It was park management wanting to know if he knew of anyone who was available to be their advertising manager. Jack glanced around his office, said How about me? and was offered the position (once again he took advantage).

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As Disneyland’s first Advertising Manager, Jack found himself in the right place at the right time. His promotional inventiveness helped drive Disneyland’s growth, which in turn gave him more responsibilities and more room to be inventive. Many of the promotional techniques that Jack came up with for the park have not only been reused by Disney over the years, but have become standard practices for the entertainment industry as a whole. For instance, when the park wanted to have a special event on New Year’s Eve 1955, it was determined that about 6,000 guests would have to attend to make a go of it. Because there was no guarantee that many people would show up on December 31, Jack enlisted several stores around town to pre-sell tickets. 5,000 people bought tickets to the event while shopping at places like Wallichs Music City and Desmond’s Men Store. Combined with the 3,500 tickets pre-sold at Disneyland’s own gates, the first New Year’s Eve party was a success before it happened. Pre-selling tickets to events is the norm nowadays, but only because Jack proved it worked.

Image lifted from ebay.com

In 1961, after several  teens had been killed in car accidents on their way to and between various high school graduation parties, a group of mothers approached Disneyland about holding one big (and therefore presumably safe) party in the park. Jack saw an opportunity and opened up the party to eight different high schools around the area. 8,500 students attended the first Disneyland Grad Night, which not only has been held annually every year since, but expanded to other Disney theme parks (I worked one at Pleasure Island back in the day) and beyond. Most industry parks now hold some sort of yearly student event, but, again, only because Jack proved it worked first.

Jack created now commonplace promotions time and time again over his career. You don’t think a 30^th anniversary is as important as a 25^th or 50^th? Jack’s promotion of Disneyland’s 30^th, the beginning of which he linked to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, increased attendance by a third over the year before. Now every five years is a big deal (and sometimes the anniversary of just a single attraction is worth celebrating, too). Don’t think the Super Bowl has anything to do with Disney? In 1985, Jack helped create one of the most famous tag lines in advertising history: What are you going to do now? I’m going to Disney World! (or Disneyland if you live on the West Coast). How do you get people to commit to designating more money to spend in your park? Create your own currency. In the pre-gift card world, Jack’s idea for Disney Dollars in 1987 was not only whimsically brilliant, it also drove per capita sales up.

Image courtesy disneyparks.disney.go.com

Jack’s influence on Disney culture (and, by extension and example, the entire industry’s culture) continued to grow throughout his career. By 1965, he’d become the Director of Marketing. In 1972, he was the Vice President of Marketing for Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In 1976, his title was Vice President of Marketing for Disney Attractions and six years later, overseeing an expanded universe that now included two parks in Florida and one in Japan (with more on the way), Jack was named Executive Vice President of Marketing and Entertainment. In 1990, he returned to his roots and became the first President of the Disneyland Resort, where he immediately began advocating for a second park (it would be eleven more years before that dream came true). Three years later, on November 18, 1993, Mickey Mouse’s 65^th birthday, Jack retired after 38 years of tirelessly striving to make Disney parks some of the happiest places on earth. As a going away present, Jack received a window in Main Street, USA’s City Hall that reads “J.B. Lindquist – Honorary Mayor of Disneyland – Jack of all trades, Master of fun.”

Image courtesy disneyparks.disney.go.com

In 1994, Jack became a trustee at Chapman University in Orange, California. For most of the remainder of his life, he would speak at least twice yearly to the school’s advertising students about his experiences with Disney. In 2013, he donated his considerable collection of Disney memorabilia to Chapman for safe keeping and archiving. A (very) small portion of that collection can be seen on rotating display in Chapman’s Leatherby Library.

Also in 1994, not only for his innovative years of service but also in honor of the generations of company leaders he’d trained and inspired, Jack was declared an official Disney Legend. When he passed away nearly 22 years later, Jack was remembered as one of the kindest, most humble, most dedicated Disney originals that ever lived. He was 88.