Word: miller
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...longtime heir apparent at Disney was Ron Miller, Walt's shy but well- meaning son-in-law, who was made chief executive in 1983. Miller gamely tried to push the company out of Walt's shadow, primarily by starting Touchstone Pictures to enable Disney to produce adult fare without compromising the company's image. In 1984 the Touchstone label produced Disney's first hit in more than a decade, Splash, in which Daryl Hannah played a frisky mermaid. But by then the company's profits and stock price were already plunging. The same day that Disney released the film...
Flustered and unfamiliar with the ways of Wall Street, Miller's regime wound up paying Steinberg $52 million in greenmail to sell back his Disney stock and let them alone. But the company's weakened condition gave Roy Disney the leverage he needed to push for a new slate of leaders. One of his informal advisers had been Frank Wells, a former vice chairman of Warner Bros., who had taken time out from show business to climb the highest mountain on each of the seven continents (he had to turn back 3,000 ft. below the summit of Mount Everest...
This time creativity carried the day, and the Eisner-Wells team took charge in September 1984. The Disney board ousted Miller, while voting Roy to the post of vice chairman. The Eisner-Wells duo flew immediately to Fort Worth to enlist support from Sid Bass, whose family was amassing a stake in the company (currently 17%). Bass was so impressed with Eisner and Wells that he promised to hold the stock for five years, an unusual commitment that would make Disney far less vulnerable to further takeover troubles...
...spirit, all these blockbusters -- among the top grossers in movie history -- were closer to the cartoon classics than the late-'70s Disney product was. Without its founder, the studio floundered, producing modest cartoons, lame sequels and sci-fi thrillers without art or heart. However conscientiously Ron Miller ran the shop, he was no match for Lucas and Spielberg. As if by osmosis, these young outsiders had learned the master's lessons of film artistry and audience manipulation. Miller was Disney's son-in-law, but Lucas and Spielberg were Walt's true heirs...
News Editor for this Issue: Noam S. Cohen '89 Night Editors: David J. Barron '89 Martha A. Bridegam '89 Spencer S. Hsu '90 Copy Editor: Andrew M. Fine '91 Editorial Page Editor: Gary L. Susman '89 Features Editor: Ben R. Miller Photo Editors: David K. Eldan '89 Stephen E. Findley '91 Sports Editor: Julio R. Varela '90 Business Editor: Amy J. Merritt...