The Disney CEO largely opts for diplomacy rather than disclosure in his new memoir.
In January 2005, Bob Iger thought he was having a heart attack. Deep into a months-long war of attrition as he sought to win the top job at Disney — and right in the middle of a Clippers game — “my skin began to feel clammy,” he writes. “My chest tightened, and I felt short of breath. Both of my parents had suffered heart attacks at fifty. I was fifty-four at the time and I knew the symptoms.”
Few reading this review will lack familiarity with Iger’s singular accomplishments at Disney, where he was the driving force behind the acquisitions of Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel and, more recently, Fox — though equally few will realize just how much each of these involved a leap in the dark, an imaginative triple axel that would have merited a gold medal if there were such a thing as a Wall Street Olympics.
More importantly, we discover that Iger senior had vertiginous mood swings thanks to his bipolar disorder, for which he received various treatments including electroshock therapy. It’s a stunning revelation, and one can only imagine the devastating effect this must have had on the young Iger, the extraordinary turmoil and profound anguish it caused. Claiming “I don’t carry much pain,” he adds: “I never felt threatened by his moods, but I was acutely aware of his dark side and felt sad for him.
Much has been made of the book’s greatest revelation: how George Lucas felt betrayed by Iger and his colleagues after Disney bought the filmmaker’s company for just over $4 billion in 2012 and cooked up a series of“Just prior to the global release, Kathy [Kennedy, head of Lucasfilm] screeneds for George,” writes Iger. “He didn’t hide his disappointment. ‘There’s nothing new,’ he said.
Almost as intriguing is Iger’s account of his conversation with Steve Jobs in the hours leading up to Disney’s announcement that it had bought Pixar. Eisner had created such a serious rupture with the Pixar/Apple founder that the companies’ relationship seemed doomed, but Iger was clever enough to woo Jobs directly and became one of his close friends.
Readers will be surprised at how human the background to massive deal-making can be. In trying to acquire Marvel, Iger couldn’t track down the company’s elusive leader, Ike Perlmutter. In buying Fox, an agreement was made over a glass of wine at Rupert Murdoch’s vineyard. These are terrific, personal touches, and one can only wish Iger had included more.
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