A good Biography illustrates the whole life of its subject. By that, I mean not only that you see cradle to crave, but also that it depicts the affects of time and events in their life. It portrays their inconsistencies and foibles along with their strengths and triumphs. And what’s more, there are life lessons to learn in the depictions of the individual’s actions and reactions in the events and moments of their life.
One such biographical story with business life lessons is told in Neal Gabler’s Walt Disney, The Triumph of the American Imagination. The story highlights the beginnings of The Mickey Mouse Club.
Gabler tell us that, “the biggest boost to Mickey Mouse, aside from sound itself, occurred not through Walt’s promotions, which were scattershot, but through those of Harry Woodin, the young manager of the Fox Dome Theater in Ocean Park, a Los Angeles suburb.
On his own initiative late that summer (1929) Woodin had organized a Mickey Mouse Club, filling his theater on Saturday afternoons with children who took a Mickey Mouse pledge, performed in an impromptu Mickey Mouse band, and then watched Mickey Mouse cartoons.
Woodin had invited Walt to one of the matinees and Walt said, ‘he got quite a kick to see about one thousand kids cheering for MICKEY MOUSE.’ But Woodin himself, not unlike Walt Disney, had larger aspirations. He convinced Walt that what he was doing locally he could also do nationally.” (page 139)
It doesn’t take a lot to grow or kill a product, service or artistic creation. Often seemingly imperceptible shifts in momentum or emotion cause explosive growth or immediate death. These shifts are the result of thousands of small decisions like this one Walt made in Ocean Park.
Had Walt been a product of this time though, instead of seeing the boost such an initiative would lend to his promotions, he’d might have seen the need to protect his rights and the rights of all creators rather than bringing Woodin into his fold and leveraging his local organization and events.
I can see a busload of Intellectual Property lawyers descending upon the Fox Dome theater and it’s hapless manager, delivering court injunctions and summons before Woodin could sing, “M*I*C*K*E*Y*M*O*U*S*E!”
You think I exaggerate? Well then think back just a month ago. On September 8, the Judge announced that JK Rowling had prevailed in her Copyright lawsuit against what has been described as one of her “most ardent fans.”
Steven Vander Ark is the creator of one of the most popular Potter/Rowling Fan Websites. He apparently went too far when he decided to publish the content of the website as a Lexicon of Potter Series characters.
The result of the suit was to divide Potter Series fans into pro-Rowling and pro-Vander Ark camps. When it was reported that Vander Ark broke down and cried on the stand, press reports showed sympathy for his position.
Rowling released a statement on September 8, saying that she "took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favorably. I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work."
Walt thought differently. He found a plethora of avenues to promote his own original work and let others worry about promoting and protecting their own.
Almost 80-years later, Mickey Mouse is an icon that yet another generation of young kids can recognize from a silhouette of a cartoon head with those trademarked ears. And it is estimated that more than 10 million people a year visit Disneyland and Disney World.
I don’t know if time will be as kind to Rowling’s original work. The Potter craze seems to be wearing a little thinner and it seems that she is in the thirteenth of her fifteen “Warhol” minutes.
Oh, there are plenty of fans left, but they seem a bit less ardent. For many, the passion is reserved for the love story of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. I very much doubt that Stephanie Meyer will be sharing either her market share or the royalties with Rowling in gratitude for her selfless protection of Author’s Rights.
Maybe, just maybe, Potter has octogenarian legs like Mickey. But honestly, you don’t keep those legs when you divide your fan base and represent authors at the expense of your most ardent fans.
I’m betting the only way Harry Potter still has any relevance in the marketplace of 2088 will be if Disney’s brilliant Imagineering staff turns Rowling’s original work into a Disney ride.
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