Word: planetful
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...able to run and walk with the other kids," that baby, all grown up, now says. So she wore corrective leg braces, wore them to bed, wore them to school. There she is teased because of her name, even though Venus is the goddess of beauty. "Venus is a planet," kids tell her. Even when her own family chooses sides for basketball games, she is left on the sidelines. But in the fourth grade the braces come off, and her body, in celebration, grows to 6 ft. 4 in. and 190 pounds. She becomes an athlete, a college star...
...Granted, Planet Hollywood is not your average hash house. As the stars step from their limos and navigate the red carpet, the crowds erupt in full frenzy. "I absolutely have to see Bruce Willis!" shouts Arthur Signoralli, 32, a mechanic. Marjorie Bates, 61, and her husband have driven 45 miles from Columbia, Tennessee, to celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary at the big opening--outside, not at the party inside. Her long-lens camera at the ready, the excited Bates says, "I want to see everybody! My husband wants to see Cindy Crawford...
...scene would be repeated the following week in Seattle, with cyberczar Bill Gates adding his virtual glamour, and soon in the most touristed spots in the U.S. and a score of other countries. And Planet Hollywood is far from the only franchise where it will be happening. Motown Cafe, the Official All Star Cafe, Harley Davidson Cafe, Country Star, Rain Forest Cafe and Dive! are all out to sate the public hunger for theme dining. These multimedia spectaculars, designed to stimulate every sensory-nerve end--possibly even the palate--are undergoing a second, rapid phase of growth some 25 years...
Wall Street investors too have a craving for concept. Last April Planet Hollywood's creators, Robert Earl and his principal partner, filmmaker Keith Barish, took the company to the markets via an initial public offering of its stock. With its high-dazzle celebrity partners generating headlines, and with a then dazzling IPO market (see story page 60) generating buyers, the price went into another orbit. Some 11 million shares were offered at $18 each, topped $26 (you and Arnold Schwarzenegger--co-owners!), and held firm in a shaky market. That values the company at almost $2.8 billion--91 times...
According to its IPO prospectus, the 14 units Planet Hollywood opened last year averaged revenues of $14.3 million each. Its restaurant at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, claims the world's highest gross, at $45 million in 1995, its first year. Revenues are expected to top $50 million this year...