Tragic Kingdom

by Sam Adams

books

Spanning two decades of corporate intrigue, James Stewart's DisneyWar (Simon & Schuster) suggests that Disney may take the term "family company" too much to heart: It's one thing to gear the company's product to a G-rated audience, and quite another for its inner workings to take on the character of a particularly uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner. In large part the story of the rise and fall of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who relinquished the title of chairman after a disastrous no-confidence vote at a 2004 shareholders' meeting in Philadelphia, DisneyWar describes Eisner as a visionary megalomaniac whose inability to share credit or power cost the company in the '90s much of the success it achieved in the '80s. Disney's souring relationship with Pixar, which at one point accounted for 97 percent of the motion-picture division's income, and ABC's decision to pass on Survivor and CSI while programming Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to death were just the most glaring in a string of bad decisions spawned by a focus on short-term gains and executives' need to seize the advantage, however briefly, in an atmosphere of constant uncertainty. DisneyWar peaks with Stewart's descriptions of Eisner's relationships with purported "partners" Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Ovitz, whose high-profile terminations cost the company hundreds of millions and incalculably more in public confidence. (Stewart does praise Eisner, though, for rebuffing merger offers from AOL, whose union with Time Warner ranks as one of the all-time business blunders.) Stewart's narrative approach provides you-are-there clarity, although at times all he can do is render the confusion more lucidly.

James Stewart reads Tue., Mar. 22, 7 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341.