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The Disneyland Report > Disney News > Eisner recalls how Disney took a chance on 42nd St. Disney NewsEisner recalls how Disney took a chance on 42nd St.By Harry Berkowitz More than a decade ago when Walt Disney Co. was considering investing in Times Square, chief executive Michael Eisner pointed out to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani that any effort to clear out adult book shops and prostitution could face a long and awkward legal and civil liberties battle. Giuliani told Eisner to look hard into his eyes, the CEO said yesterday. "There will be no hookers or adult book stores on 42nd Street," Eisner recalled Giuliani vowing. That exchange helped lead to a news conference in 1994 announcing Disney was coming to Times Square. In the years since, Disney's commitment has helped spawn an often-praised and sometimes scorned transformation of the neon-soaked crossroads. Eisner retraced the history of Disney's involvement in Times Square in a breakfast speech before the Alliance for a Better New York at the Plaza Hotel. Before taking over and renovating the New Amsterdam, in March 1993 he toured the once grand but then decrepit theater with his two sons, all wearing hardhats and carrying flashlights. "The grandeur was still there," he said. The company's involvement in Times Square has also included launching Broadway plays such as "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast," and creating a TV studio, complete with an undulating electronic sign, for ABC's "Good Morning America" and an ESPN Zone restaurant. Other companies have followed, including Reuters, Conde Nast, Ernst & Young and Nasdaq, as well as hotels, stores, movie theaters and restaurants. "In my view, 42nd Street and Times Square had become arteries with arteriosclerosis," Eisner said, "and Disney was Lipitor." To read the rest of this article, click here.Return to Disney News. |
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