New Michael Eisner biography paints dark picture

Michael Eisner

April 3, 2000
Web posted at: 2:48 p.m. EST (1848 GMT)

By Paul Clinton

(CNN) -- Michael Eisner, the CEO of the Walt Disney empire, is one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry.

His decisions can affect what we see on television (ABC and ESPN) and at the movies (Walt Disney Studios, Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Studios and Miramax Studios -- a Disney subsidiary). Via his Disney theme parks and cruise ships he also influences how we play.

A new unauthorized biography by Kim Masters, "The Keys To The Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip," examines Eisner's rise and the fall-out from some of his business dealings.

"To get ahead in the rat race you have to be very tough," says Masters, a contributing editor for Time Magazine and Vanity Fair, "but whether you have to be mean and disrespectful to people, as well as being tough, is a valid question."

It's a question she raises -- about Eisner and others in Hollywood -- again and again in her 469-page book.

A legitimate subject

Media mogul David Geffen recently unsuccessfully fought the publication of "The Operator," Tom King's controversial biography about him. But Eisner has kept largely mum about Masters finished work, saying he has no intention of reading it.

Masters finds that hard to swallow. "I couldn't do it," she says. "If he's got that kind of will-power, my hat's off to him."

Masters defends her decision to write the book. "Every time you turn around, Disney is in your life, and the guy who is behind all that, I think, is somebody who should be looked at."

But Masters wants to make clear that her tome isn't a fluffy "tell-all" about Eisner. Instead, she attempts to put Eisner's life and work into context by exploring the complex network of powerbrokering that sustains the entertainment industry.

"Eisner doesn't work in a vacuum," she says. "I tried to paint a picture not just of Eisner. He's been a part of a couple of huge dynasties."

Kim Masters, author of "The Keys To The Kingdom"

The pitfalls of empire-building

The history of Eisner's tenure at Disney hasn't always read like a fairy tale.

When he joined Jeffery Katzenberg and Frank Wells in taking over the Disney corporation in 1984, it was a sleeping giant that was undervalued and performing poorly.

Ten years later, the company was on top of its game with billions of dollars in profits.

That changed abruptly in 1994 when Wells, who many said was the glue that held Disney together, died in a helicopter crash while on a skiing vacation.

Soon after, Katzenberg left, and profits and morale took a nose dive.

"One of the reasons I wrote this book," says Masters, "was to illustrate the impact that the death of this one guy had in the community. When Wells died, it set off a spiral of ambition. It ultimately lead to Katzenberg being let go as head of the studio after a 10-year run -- he was pushing for Wells' job."

What followed, Masters says, was a scramble among Hollywood moguls to control competing studios. "The shuffling of chairs is just extraordinary," she says.

One result of that shuffling was the ill-fated addition of talent agent Michael Ovitz to the Disney team. "He did a short 14-month stint at Disney." Masters explains. "It was a very bad episode for Eisner when he fired him and the money he paid him to go away became public."

The book also details the protracted legal battle between Katzenberg and Eisner over the amount of profit shares owed Katzenberg from his tenure at the Mouse House. Katzenberg won an undisclosed amount thought to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

'Never have a friend'

Masters also examines Eisner's lack of relationships in a town built on relationships.

"He used to tell staff who worked with him at Paramount, 'Never have a friend in this town,' and he's kind of lived by that," she says. "If you asked people who have been in this community for years to name his friends, I think most of them would be hard pressed to come up with two."

While other entertainment executives take pains to cultivate loyalty among the people they work with, Masters says, "Eisner is not about loyalty. His relationships almost invariably seem to end up in some kind of blowup."

No book about a Hollywood mogul would be complete without some deep dish about movie stars, and Masters serves it up. She takes readers behind the scenes to battles on movie sets featuring people such as Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Richard Dreyfuss, Bill Murray, Warren Beatty and Madonna -- just to name a few.

But Eisner's drive takes center stage throughout the book.

At one point Masters quotes a memo Eisner sent out when he worked at Paramount. "We have no obligation to make history," it says. "We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money, is our only objective."

Eisner is one of the highest paid executives in America. Is the price of that success worth it? You be the judge.

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