Jack Lindquist (March 15, 1927 – February 28, 2016) was an American business executive who served as president of the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California from 1990 until he retired in 1993.
He 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.
His eventual reach would extend worldwide, having trained and/or greatly influenced others who would become amusement industry leaders, both inside and outside of the Disney attractions.
[citation needed] He then attended college at the University of Southern California (USC), where he was a member of the Theta Xi Fraternity.
With Disneyland's first New Year's Eve event, Jack Lindquist conceived the marketing and sales of advance ticket purchases that would be sold at local participating stores, outside of the park.
In response to a high school night the preceding year, in which students were involved in a tragic automobile accident, Jack Lindquist and co-worker, Bill Schwenn, met with several women from local high school Parent-Teacher Association(PTA) groups to discuss the opportunity for a safe graduate evening party within the Disneyland park.
A popular marketing campaign that Jack Lindquist also pioneered, which is now repeated industry-wide among parks, started with the anniversary tie-in.
In a desire to capture some of the millions of visitors attending the 1984 Olympics that were to take place in Los Angeles, Lindquist realized that the year would also be the 30th anniversary of the Disneyland park.
[8] Jack Lindquist later helped to create one of today's most recognized commercial tag-lines, and celebratory tradition, when the New York Giants won Super Bowl XXI in 1985, and quarterback Phil Simms was the first to utter the phrase: "I'm Going to Disneyland."
"[4][9] Upon reading of the rise of the British pound in the financial section of a newspaper, Lindquist was inspired to create a real currency for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
The room contains two large display cases featuring portions of Lindquist's personal collection of awards and rare memorabilia.
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.
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.
[14] Though the pumpkin was removed during the 2023 refurbishment of the area, it was incorporated into a framed Halloween photo of the Goof Troop cast inside Goofy's Playhouse.