Michael Eisner was in my local paper recently, in an article about his being invited to speak at a local college's business school.
His lecture: "How To Turn A Warm Family Business Into A Global Corporate Machine That Occasionally Kills Guests While Waiting To Board The Columbia Or Riding Big Thunder" was not well attended, thankfully.
On seeing Einser's name, after choking back a bit of rising bile, I warmly recalled Roy Disney's campaign to have him ousted as chairman of the Walt Disney Company back in late 2003. Roy and his supporters set up "SaveDisney.com" and put on a media blitz to have Eisner removed by the board.
Here's a video Roy made at the time.
At the top of this post is a bumper sticker I got from an old friend of Roy Disney's.
He helped sail one of Roy's precious racing yachts, The Pyewacket IV, in a race event in Cork, Ireland, among other places.
After regaling me with stories of Roy and his sailing, I mentioned Eisner and the old SaveDisney campaign.
He said to me, "I still have some of the bumper stickers Roy was handing out."
"Really?" says I. "Might I have one??"
He gave me two.
I scanned one in and posted it above for you fine people.
Thankfully, the Eisner era came to an end before much more damage could be done to the Park.
I was definitely a shareholder carrying a pitchfork and a torch back then.
Then there's that park he helped build next door.
The folks at Disney now have to spend $2 billion just to make Eisner's "California Adventure" even remotely Disney-worthy.
It's like they were trying to make Walt spin in his grave when they originally designed that place!
It even had "Carney" rides and games, which Walt said he did not want!
I'm sorry, but I can ride a ferris wheel, swings, parachutes (ahem, "Jellyfish"), the cat and mouse coaster (er, um, "Mulholland Madness"), or throw balls at milk bottles at my local fairgrounds.
To be fair, I'll give them Soarin', Tower of Terror, Grizzly Rapids and Screamin'.
Okay, that's four (4).
Heck, I have that many readers for Goodness' sake!
Oh, and nice park layout.
I've never seen so many random walkways and shadeless expanses.
It's like Magic Mountain without the mountain or the youthful gang members.
Better yet, let's build a theme park in California that has as its main theme---California.
That's like going to Rome and visiting "Rome-land," instead of exploring The Eternal City itself.
Think that Golden Gate bridge thingy over the entrance to DCA comes anywhere close to the real thing??!!
And Whoopi Goldberg was not exactly my image of the "Spirit of California."Why not Rosie O'Donnell?
Barbara Walters?
Cher?
Sorry, I promised myself I would not to launch into one of my tirades.
Requiescat in pace, Roy.
---Mike
