America 1982-Chapter 441 - 67: Boiler Room Tucker
Tommy had not paid attention to these Hollywood past events before, nor did he care much about who between Steve Ross and Barry Diller dominated Hollywood in the recent decade, but another Jewish name that slipped out of Herbert’s mouth felt like thunder to him.
Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Michael Eisner.
That is, the proud protégé of Barry Diller mentioned by Herbert, who, after falling out with his mentor, was aided by Warner’s Steve Ross, who persuaded the Disney board to offer him the job as Chairman and CEO of the company.
This Jewish movie mogul had been invited by many business schools around the world to lecture, including the business school at Boston University where Tommy studied, where Tommy even bought a copy of his autobiography signed by the author himself at the lecture.
In his twenty-one years at the helm of Disney, he took over a film company that was barely holding its place among Hollywood’s Big Six, with a market value just breaking two billion US Dollars, and turned it into a Disney kingdom by the time he resigned, with annual revenues exceeding three billion, a market value nearing fifty billion, a global presence, multiple theme parks, and nearly a thousand Disney stores.
Michael Eisner’s twenty-one years at Disney were referred to as the Disney Renaissance, second in importance only to Walt Disney’s founding of the Disney brand, as recorded in the company history on Disney’s own website.
In other words, this autocratic madman who never relinquished control, even bypassing the Disney board, laid the foundation for Disney’s rise in the new century, setting the stage for Disney’s post-resignation acquisitions for 7.4 billion US Dollars for Pixar, 4 billion for Lucasfilm, 4.2 billion for Marvel, and even 71 billion for Fox, a staggering financial domination nearly achieving sole dominance over Hollywood.
The Disney board even sincerely dedicated a monument to him as a living person. The headquarters building in Burbank was named the Michael Eisner Building by the Disney board, even though Michael Eisner had been forced to resign by the board at that time.
Even at the unveiling, the Disney board had a protocol company craft the invitation, meticulously reviewing every word on it, and extended a formal invitation to Michael Eisner in the hopes that he would grace the Disney headquarters with his presence and personally thank him for everything he had done for Disney over the years.
It’s worth noting that the Disney Company belonged to the Disney family, and the board was dominated by members of the Disney family. Yet, on the issue of naming the headquarters building, even their founding grandfather hadn’t received such treatment, but it was given to an outsider, indicating Michael Eisner’s influence and the Disney family’s recognition of him.
However, Michael Eisner did not grace the unveiling ceremony of his monument with his presence. He was as aloof as when the Disney board forced him to resign. After signing the agreement to resign, he left the Disney headquarters office where he had worked for twenty-one years without any lingering attachment, decisively and even willingly gave up the series of benefits he was still entitled to after resigning, such as corporate jet travel, health insurance, housing subsidies, retirement allowances, etc., severing all ties with Disney.
Of course, Tommy had no thoughts about these famous Jewish moguls of Hollywood nor cared how they schemed against each other, in part because he wasn’t interested, and because his current status and fortune didn’t allow him to entertain the idea of dominating Hollywood.
Moreover, the main issue Herbert was discussing with him wasn’t about coaxing him to invest in movie-making, but rather Turner from CNN hoping to invest in Tommy’s BT Entertainment Production Company in the name of Warner, and then produce some reality shows that viewers would be willing to pay to watch, a matter completely unrelated to the machinations of Hollywood.
As for the trust Tommy spoke of to Herbert, it was actually an issue of control. Many producers are troubled by investors who suddenly interfere, as investors always feel that even though they don’t understand the specifics, their ability to earn a fortune means their brains must be sufficient, and their business acumen must be right, hence during the production process, if they suddenly come up with what they think is a brilliant idea, they want to give seemingly very stupid instructions to the more professional production team.
If the show is successful, everyone is happy, but if it bombs in ratings, the production team’s reputation suffers.
So Tommy insisted on discussing the issue of trust first. As for the real profits, that would come after Mister Turner from CNN managed to only invest money without any fuss and absolutely refrained from interfering with Rick Russo’s work, Tommy Hawk’s highly regarded gold-tier vulgar reality show producer, and then they could discuss slowly.
If not even trust could be assured, there was no need to expect that the other party could deliver any other benefits.
Turner from CNN was certainly a successful businessman, but even successful, he had issues with being too domineering and lacking trust in his subordinates or partners, always accustomed to exercising authority, then stepping in to micromanage.
For example, he was the owner of the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball. Ideally, the daily management of the team should be handled by the club’s general manager and the team’s performance by the head coach. As the team owner, after delegating these tasks to professional managers and coaches, one would only need to watch the home games from the front row and have regular meetings with the manager to understand club attendance, revenue, and other issues.
