First off, I did make an error. I meant to write about Diane Disney Miller. Sorry, in the late Friday night post when all I head intended to do was to check my e-mail, I got the daughters wrong by mistake. I try to be as accurate as possible (well, as far as rumors go), and I wasnt this time.
An interesting dynamic is occurring. Lillian Disney gave the city of Los Angeles over $50 million to build the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown. The projects was mired in the usual city squabbling for years. After the passing of Mrs. Disney, the project more or less ended up in the lap of Diane. People have been commenting that through the efforts to get the Concert Hall moving again, Diane has begun to assume the mantle of Disney and as guardian of the memory of her father.
She was never a very public person before, but over the last eighteen months or so she has become very visible. At first it was in support of the Hall, but its grown beyond that now. Even before all the corporate marketing hype about the 100th Birthday of Walt, she had begun to speak about her father and make some pointed remarks about the current state of his company.
In one interview, she talked about the day her father took her to
Disneyland to see the opening of the Materhorn. She talked about how excited she was, much like children of today are to see Disneyland. And she spoke about how magical (her words, by the way) the Materhorn mountain looked, much more magical then something like a giant Ferris wheel. Now these comments were made the week after California Adventure opened; a place whos prominent landmark is a giant Ferris wheel. Everyone in the company knew what she meant.
It should also be mentioned that Diane represents the Walt side of the family. Her husband, Ron Miller, and the her side of the family was forced out in the Roy E. Disney orchestrated take-over of the company. Relations between the two sides have never been all that warm (even in the later Walt & Roy days), and a far amount of snipping always occurs. By the way, youll notice there arent any of Walts personal belongings on display at the anniversary exhibit at WDW. The family refused permission, so Marketing made do with company-owned items.
The last interesting piece is the current financial situation. With the passing of Lillian and Sharon, most of the Walt stock is now concentrated with the Miller family. And in the recent weeks, both the Bass Brothers were forced to sell and all of the large institutional investors have sold off their stock. That leaves Diane controlling a massive and powerful block of stock. And she sits on the Board as well.
So, you have a big powerful stockholder with family ties to the company, you have an ineffective current management in a five-year downturn, you have a lot of institutional investors upset that the stock isnt moving, and you have a lot of people around Hollywood talking openly about what theyd do with Disney. The exact same situation that Roy (before that only referred to as the idiot nephew) all those years ago.
Oh, and there are a lot, A LOT, of rumors about goings on behind the scenes
