The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else

By Kim Masters

Book Overview

A riveting account of Michael Eisners outrageous, thrilling, and often self-destructive tenure as head of the Walt Disney CompanyKim Masters, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Hit & Run, has written a page-turning account of Michael Eisners ascent at The Magic Kingdom. Based on hundreds of interviews with Hollywoods power players, she weaves Eisners story together with those who have crossed his path: Barry Diller, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Michael Ovitz. Masters traces Eisners rivalry with Diller at ABC and Paramount and shows how at Disney, Eisner and Frank Wells rejuvenated the company. Masters also details the fallout between Eisner and Katzenberg (who was responsible for hits like Aladdin and The Lion King) after Wellss untimely death, and traces the move of uber-agent Michael Ovitz from CAA to an executive position at Disney, one of Hollywoods most spectacular failures.Kim Masters, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Hit & Run, has written a page-turning account of Michael Eisners ascent at The Magic Kingdom. Based on hundreds of interviews with Hollywoods power players, she weaves Eisners story together with those who have crossed his path: Barry Diller, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Michael Ovitz. Masters traces Eisners rivalry with Diller at ABC and Paramount and shows how at Disney, Eisner and Frank Wells rejuvenated the company. Masters also details the fallout between Eisner and Katzenberg (who was responsible for hits like Aladdin and The Lion King) after Wellss untimely death, and traces the move of uber-agent Michael Ovitz from CAA to an executive position at Disney, one of Hollywoods most spectacular failures.The Keys to the Kingdom climaxes with the shocking and incredibly personal court battle between Eisner and Katzenberg, involving hundreds of millions of dollars.Kim Masters, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Hit & Run, has written a page-turning account of Michael Eisners ascent at The Magic Kingdom. Based on hundreds of interviews with Hollywoods power players, she weaves Eisners story together with those who have crossed his path: Barry Diller, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Michael Ovitz. Masters traces Eisners rivalry with Diller at ABC and Paramount and shows how at Disney, Eisner and Frank Wells rejuvenated the company. Masters also details the fallout between Eisner and Katzenberg (who was responsible for hits like Aladdin and The Lion King) after Wellss untimely death, and traces the move of uber-agent Michael Ovitz from CAA to an executive position at Disney, one of Hollywoods most spectacular failures.The Keys to the Kingdom climaxes with the shocking and incredibly personal court battle between Eisner and Katzenberg, involving hundreds of millions of dollars. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688174493
• ISBN13: 9780688174491
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Hardball in the Disney executive suite

If you don't recognize names like Ovitz, Katzenberg, or Eisner, this book is probably too insider-oriented to be of interest, because Kim Masters goes into extraordinary detail about Michael Eisner, who perennially brings the wrong kind of attention upon himself due to his stellar pay package. When options are included, Eisner's pay is regularly in the hundreds of millions per year, a figure that defies explanation except...

I'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good

Michael Eisner is routinely credited (and has been handsomely rewarded) with the great Disney turnaround. Was it genius or luck? Kim Master's Key's to the Kingdom-How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip is a well researched and thoroughly entertaining look into the Hollywood scene and the Walt Disney Company in particular from 1984 to 1999. We are given a rare unfiltered peek over the burm and into the inner sanctum of the...

Very informative and a good read.

I found this book to be an interesting read. I have also read Michael Eisner's autobiography and was looking forward to reading more about his tenure at Disney.I appreciated the way that Kim Masters brought a different perspective to the events leading up to Eisner's taking the helm at Disney as well as the time since Eisner took over. There certainly were many things that Masters discussed that Eisner did not cover very...

So sad but SOOooooo true...

Those of us that "love" the Disney Company have been having our hearts torn out for years watching this show of shows in the Team Disney Building. Finally, a book that dares to tell the truth, Michael just plain does not care for the people that work for him. It seems Kim missed the recent quote in the trade papers by Michael saying: "Unless I am completly out of touch, we have the best morale of any major company in America"...

Wow!

A tremendously insightful juggernaut of accounts that takes you on a ride through one of the most fascinating journeys in recent Hollywood history. Kim Masters does a great job of establishing "who's who" and "who did what to who" by detailing key defining moments in the careers and lives of such Disney icons as Michael Eisner, Frank G. Wells, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Ovitz, Roy E. Disney, et al - not to mention former...