Chapter 9: The Big Breakup (Cont'd)
Excerpt from Man of Iron: The Michael Eisner Story, an unauthorized biography by Anthony Edward Stark
Michael Eisner was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Hospital where cardiologists discovered that he had a 95% blockage in a coronary artery. Already on cholesterol medication and with a family history of heart disease, Eisner had been intending to get another stress test for years now, but hadn’t found the time[1].
He received a quadruple bypass and was released back into the care of his wife Jane after a short recovery stay at the hospital.
“One hell of a week,” he faintly told her, looking to her like a near corpse.
As he recovered in his Bel Aire home, Jane, in turn, ran interference, keeping visitors and reporters away. In one case, she angrily chased away Capital Cities CEO Tom Murphy, who’d come, he said in “good faith”, to check up on an “old friend”.
“You are the fourth-to-the-last person that he wants or needs to see right now, Tom,” she told him.
Recovery was slow and frustrating that summer. He tried to relax, exploring everything from yoga to meditation, but the quiet moments only brought his mind back to Katzenberg and Iger. His wife and doctors urged him to rest (he had plenty of money saved up and a generous severance package from ABC and didn’t need to work) but he knew in his heart that the tedium and anger would consume and kill him[2]. He needed to find purpose. He needed a second chance. And most of all, he wanted revenge against those whom he felt had betrayed him.
But first of all, he needed a job.
He called up Lew Wasserman at Universal, but Wasserman was still angling for a potential merger with ABC and regretfully turned him down. His friend Barry Diller offered him an ill-defined executive billet at Triad’s corporate office “at least until a leadership slot opens up in one of the studios”, but to Eisner that felt like a demotion and charity-job and knew that Hollywood would see it as such. Warner Brothers wasn’t looking for a creative executive at the moment and John Peters was clearly the rising star there. He considered Disney-MGM, but knew that he’d be back into a junior executive position.
But one obvious place remained. Columbia Entertainment had been struggling, particularly on the movie side. While CBS was doing well under Brandon Tartikoff, Columbia Pictures was fighting to stay relevant after some noteworthy underperformers like
The Rocketeer. Only the successes of
Dances with Wolves,
Unforgiven, and the surprise hit
Forrest Gump had kept the studio solvent amid a long series of losers and underperformers. Rumor had it that the studio was losing over $500 million a year. Eisner had little doubt that Turner was looking for a replacement for Columbia head Dawn Steel, whose fate was deemed “sealed” by Industry Insiders.
Eisner called in a few favors and flew to Atlanta for an interview with Ted Turner, who immediately liked his “game”. Eisner showed him the returns that he’d earned, the growth of both Paramount and Hollywood Pictures under his leadership, and the many creative and fiscal accolades that he’d earned.
Turner was duly impressed, and seemed unbothered by his untimely release by ABC. “Mikey, this is a cruel and cutthroat business that we’re in. I’ll give you a chance. If you deal me a straight hand each and every time, we’ll get along swimmingly, I’m sure.” He didn’t have to say what would happen if Turner ever felt that Eisner was
not dealing him a “straight hand.”
Turner ultimately offered Eisner the Chair and Presidency of Columbia Pictures (replacing the outgoing Dawn Steel, who’d had a “challenging” working relationship with Turner) and also made him the CCO of Columbia Entertainment[3]. It would require leaving LA and relocating to Atlanta.
“There you go, son, a whole new mountain to climb,” said Turner, extending his hand.
Eisner, without hesitation and uncharacteristically without consulting his family[4], accepted on the spot and shook Turner’s hand, doing his best to match the force and firmness and maintain eye contact. He now had yet another blank slate to remake in his own image, and plenty of marginalized former allies at Hollywood/ABC to bring over with him. Eisner smiled.
Turner smiled. “Great handshake, Mikey. Welcome to Y’allywood!”
[1] All per our timeline. He avoided the heart attack in our timeline (the one in this timeline was relatively mild with no major ischemic damage) but still had emergency quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing growing chest pains following the death of Frank Wells, leading ultimately to a stress test that revealed the 95% blockage. With Eisner in surgery shortly following the recent death of Frank Wells, the future of Disney was briefly left in doubt.
[2] Closely mirrors his experiences in our timeline following his 1994 emergency quadruple bypass, where he recovered surprisingly quickly after getting back in the action, in direct defiance of doctor’s recommendations. The thrill of the job was, for him, the best medicine, in our timeline and this one alike.
[3]
@Shiny_Agumon called it!
[4] For all of his mercurial reputation as a studio head, Eisner is famously devoted to his family.
