Latest news with #Eisner
Vox
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Vox
The bizarre true story of Disney's failed US history theme park
How we tell the story of the United States — and who's included in it and how — has been an ongoing battle in the country for decades. It's one currently being waged by the Trump administration, such as when it scrubbed references to Jackie Robinson and Harriet Tubman from government webpages in the name of clamping down on 'DEI.' And in the 1990s, Disney had a particularly zany idea of how to tell the story of America — one that set off a culture war as the company sought to create an amusement park focused on US history, warts and all. Disney's America, the doomed amusement park, would have contained the story of immigration told through the Muppets' musical-comedy stylings. It would have had sections dedicated to the Industrial Revolution, Native America, and the Civil War. It would, as Disney executives put it at the time, 'make you a Civil War soldier. We want to make you feel what it was like to be a slave.' The ensuing battle over Disney's America would be one of Disney's biggest failures — and a precursor to battles we're still fighting today. To learn more about what Disney tried to do, what ended up happening, and what it all means, Today, Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram spoke with historian Jacqui Shine. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There's much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify. Where does this story begin? It begins with Michael Eisner, who came to Disney as its CEO and chairman in 1984. Eisner is ambitious, aggressive. Over the next 10 years, in what Disney buffs called the Disney Renaissance, the company has this enormous critical and commercial success with a run of animated movies. The juggernaut of this is The Little Mermaid, followed by Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Aladdin. Maybe high on that supply, Eisner announces this plan for what he calls the Disney decade, which is this broad expansion of the company's parks and resorts. The most high-profile project here was Euro Disney Resort, which is now Disneyland Paris. And there's high expectations for the Disney decade and for the success of the Parks program. This doesn't go quite the way that they hope it will. Euro Disney doesn't do well at opening. It loses nearly a billion dollars in its first year. So the failure of Euro Disney leads the company to want to pivot to more US expansion on smaller park projects. In 1991, the head of the parks division brings Eisner and Disney's president Frank Wells to Colonial Williamsburg. This inspires this plan for a history-themed Disney Park, Disney's America. They want to put it in Virginia because they imagine that it can become part of the DC-area tourist economy, and that a Disney theme park that is about American history will fit really well into this context. This is not a project that was supposed to involve Mickey Mouse or any of the Disney icons. Disney was starting work on Pocahontas. Eisner says that he was reading a lot about John Smith and Pocahontas and that internally, the company was interested in democracy as a sort of, as a thematic subject. So Eisner and Disney have an idea of what they don't want to do, and perhaps more importantly, what they do want to do with this park. To build it, obviously you're going to need some land. I imagine Disney just didn't already have a huge parcel of property in northern Virginia-ish. Do they buy some? They do. Between 1991 and 1993, Disney secretly begins buying up parcels of land in the area through shell companies. The guy who was in charge of buying apparently used a fake persona; this was very undercover, this is all happening secretly. It is also less than five miles from a National Park Service Civil War Battlefield: Manassas. This is a place where about 3,700 men died and where there were about 25,000 total casualties. They're doing this secretly. At what point does Manassas find out that Mickey Mouse is buying up their land? Almost everybody finds out in November 1993 when Disney announces the project. I think initially people receive this warmly, because Disney's promising a significant amount of economic development for the region and Disney is promising a complex experience of American history there. The guy who heads the Disney's America project, Bob Weis, says in the press release they envisioned Disney's America as a place to debate and discuss the future of our nation and to learn more about the past by living it. And they are quick to say that this is a project that is not going to whitewash American history. Eisner is interviewed in the Washington Post the next day. He says that the park will present painful, disturbing, agonizing history. We're going to be sensitive, but we will not be showing the absolute propaganda of the country. We will show the Civil War with all this racial conflict. This was a very serious, very powerful, very successful entertainment executive saying, 'We're gonna make a kiddy theme park that will take our most brutal history seriously.' Yes. And I think, like you, a lot of people had trouble with that contradiction. The day after this press release is issued, Disney holds a press conference in Haymarket. At this presser, Bob Weis, who is the senior vice president of imagineering, which is Disney's creative division, says, 'This will be entertaining in the sense that it would leave you something you could mull over. We want to make you a Civil War soldier. We want to make you feel what it was like to be a slave or what it was like to escape through the underground railroad.' This moment, I think, comes to define this conflict in the public eye. It's such a nutty thing to hear a serious person say. Your kids could come to our theme park, home of Mickey Mouse, and find out what it's like to be a slave. I imagine at this point, people are just like, 'I'm sorry, I'm gonna need some more specifics.' Yes. They put out a brochure, which is where a lot of the information that we have about what this would've been like comes from. 'Any kind of debate about public history is always going to be about trying to stake some sort of political or ideological claim about the meaning of American history.' You enter at Crossroads USA, and there you board an 1840s train that takes you first to President Square, which they say celebrates the birth of democracy. It's about the Revolutionary War. You follow that to Native America. They say, 'guests may visit an Indian village representing such eastern tribes as the Powhatans, or join in a harrowing Lewis and Clark raft expedition through pounding rapids and churning whirlpools.' We're going to be educating people about Manifest Destiny here. We move from Native America to the Civil War fort, where they say you're going to experience the reality of a soldier's daily life. After the Civil War fort, you go to a section on American immigration. And they're going to build a replica Ellis Island building. Some sources indicate they would've done a show called The Muppets Take America. The next section is a factory town called Enterprise that centers on a high-speed adventure ride called the Industrial Revolution. That involves a narrow escape from its fiery vat of molten steel. Then you go to Victory Field, where guests may parachute from a plane or operate tanks and weapons in combat. You then hit the last two areas, State Fair and Family Farm, to learn how to make homemade ice cream or milk a cow and even participate in a nearby country wedding, barn dance, and buffet. This sounds like one doozy of a brochure. Does it work? Does it convince everyone? Yes and no. Does that slow down Michael Eisner? Is he ready to give up? No. And that is where the fight begins. People hook in, in particular, to this idea that Disney's going to include some element about American chattel slavery. And he is aggressive about saying, No, we weren't going to do that. Why would you think that? He is really persuaded that Disney's big swing can work, that this idea has value and merit, and that the people who are standing against it are misguided. At this point, is this fight relegated to Virginia, or is it getting bigger? This is obviously an international company with a huge cultural footprint. It's getting bigger. One of the things that contributes to this is that the Washington Post does a lot of coverage of this, which makes it go national. And it starts this debate in editorial pages about whether or not Disney can responsibly represent American history and whether or not the Disneyfication of American history is advisable. And what happens when national papers, opinion columns start weighing in on this debate? A few things happen. In early 1994, a strong coalition of opponents develops, including people who are concerned about preserving the environment there. But then the historians get involved. The big guns come out when this group called Protect Historic America launches. This is a group of big-name, high-powered academic historians. This group of major figures stepped forward to say they're concerned about education around the Civil War and about the park's location near Manassas. In very short order, dozens and dozens of historians volunteer their time to write editorials, to comment to the media. They're really fired up about this. I read that this fight also somehow made it to the United States Congress. Why is this even Congress's business? This is one of the interesting things that comes out of Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee hearings. The entree into this is that this involves public lands of national importance. Five hundred people come to the Senate hearing, and Eisner's really combative. He says about the people who are opposed to this, 'I sat through many history classes where I read some of their stuff and I didn't learn anything. It was pretty boring.' At this point you've got historians speaking out about this. You've got op-ed columns being written, it sounds like all over the country. You've got a hearing on Capitol Hill. Are people out in the streets protesting this somewhere? They are. Eisner is on the Hill trying to make nice with DC politicians and invites them to a special screening of The Lion King. But when they leave the theater, there are about a hundred protestors outside. Bigger than this though, in September 1994, 3,000 people march on the National Mall to protest Disney's America. Nationally, public support for the park has dropped to like 25 percent. At the end of September 1994, the company announces that Disney is withdrawing from the Virginia site. It's clear that people don't want it to be sited where it is, and they're giving up. It's over for Disney's America. It is curtains for Disney's America. How do you think what happened in the '90s connects to the kinds of fights we're having about our history right now? Any kind of debate about public history is always going to be about trying to stake some sort of political or ideological claim about the meaning of American history. Right now we see this very direct, very aggressive effort to insist on a positivist narrative about American history. One of the things that I think people found puzzling about the early days of the Trump administration was that the National Endowment for the Humanities cut an enormous amount of active grants. And they issued new guidelines seeking projects, they say, that instill 'an understanding of the founding principles and ideals that make America an exceptional country.' I think partly this is the administration's backlash to efforts in the last decade to bring a more nuanced and complex understanding to structural oppression in US history.
International Business Times
01-07-2025
- International Business Times
Female Clark County School Counselor Admits to Having a Sexual Relationship with Student, Avoids Prison
A former Floyd County High School counselor pleaded guilty to having a sexual relationship with a student on Monday. Brittany Eisner, 34, a former Floyd Central High School counsellor, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of child seduction and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor between April and May 2024, as reported by WLKY. Eisner admitted to engaging in sexual intercourse or other sexual conduct as defined in Indiana Code with a 17-year-old female victim. The counselor had a sexual relationship with the teen and even provided her with alcohol and vaping products. According to court records, the investigation began when Floyd Central administrators reported concerns to law enforcement. Jeffersonville police launched a criminal investigation shortly after. While the age of consent in Indiana is 16, state law raises that age to 18 when the adult is in a position of authority, such as a teacher or school counselor. The law is designed to protect students from potential abuse of power. As part of the plea deal, Eisner will serve two years on home detention, with one additional year suspended. This means, Eisner will avoid prison time unless she violates the terms of her release. "So total a sentence of three years. Execute to serve on HIP," said Judge Nicholas Karaffa. Eisner will be formally sentenced in July.
Axios
15-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: Guardz locks up $56M Series B for cybersecurity
Guardz raised a $56 million Series B led by ClearSky to help managed service providers (MSPs) better secure small and medium-sized businesses, co-founder and CEO Dor Eisner tells Axios Pro. Why it matters: MSPs struggle with the proliferation of security tools as SMBs face even more attacks. How it works: Guardz's detection and response platform is designed to streamline MSPs' active protection of small businesses' digital assets into a single engine using both AI agents and human expertise. Zoom in: The round also included new investor Phoenix Financial and existing investors Glilot Capital Partners, SentinelOne, Hanaco Ventures, iAngels, GKFF Ventures, and Lumir Ventures. Catch up quick: The new round brings Miami-based Guardz's total funding to $84 million in just more than two years. What they're saying:"What we are seeing is a shift in how bad guys attack," Eisner said. "It used to be they would just attack big companies. Now they are selling attack-as-a-service so other people can use these tools against small businesses."
NDTV
06-06-2025
- NDTV
Sex, Power And A Medieval Murder: Priest's 1337 Death Mystery Finally Solved
A cold case in England appears to be solved after nearly 700 years. A research team from the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology's Medieval Murder Maps project did a comprehensive analysis of the priest John Forde 's murder case details. The priest was killed in May 1337 when some assailants slit his throat on a busy city street. The research team found that Mr Forde's murder was calculated and was an act of revenge by an elite woman. The Medieval Murder Maps project is a database of unnatural deaths in England during the 14th century. Manuel Eisner, who is a criminologist at the University of Cambridge, recently studied the details that can be termed as the reopening of the case after nearly seven centuries. Eisner, the study author, studied coroners' rolls and church archives for his research. The latest findings tell a tale of a gruesome murder - a medieval reality that looks like a Hollywood crime thriller. As per the findings, a woman named Ela Fitzpayne was accused of multiple affairs, including with Forde. She was punished with barefoot walks of shame across Salisbury Cathedral. She was also banned from wearing gold, pearls or precious stones. A large sum was asked to be paid to monastic orders. "We are looking at a murder commissioned by a leading figure of the English aristocracy. It is planned and cold-blooded, with a family member and close associates carrying it out, all of which suggests a revenge motive," said Manuel Eisner as quoted by Cambridge University. "Attempts to publicly humiliate Ela Fitzpayne may have been part of a political game, as the church used morality to stamp its authority on the nobility, with John Forde caught between masters," he said. What exactly happened? Eisner found in another record that Fitzpayne had even conspired with her husband and John Forde to lead a gang of extortionists. It happened around the time of these allegations. The gang is said to have raided a church priory and broken into buildings. They held livestock to ransom. As per Eisner, the Forde's murder could have been a show of strength in order to remind the clergy of the power of the nobility. The records suggest that Ela's lover Forde was a member of the crime gang, but ultimately became a part of her denouncement by the church, which could have been the reason behind his murder, with one of the killers recognised as Fitzpayne's brother. Two others were her recent servants. "Attempts to publicly humiliate Ela Fitzpayne may have been part of a political game, as the church used morality to stamp its authority on the nobility, with John Forde caught between masters," Eisner said. "Taken together, these records suggest a tale of shakedowns, sex and vengeance that expose tensions between the church and England's elites, culminating in the mafia-style assassination of a fallen man of god by a gang of medieval hitmen," Eisner added.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Team Trump reportedly contacted the IRS about a ‘high-profile friend of the president'
Election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell has been in the news quite a bit lately. A few weeks ago, for example, the MyPillow founder expressed an interest in launching a Republican gubernatorial campaign in Minnesota. A couple of weeks later, someone described as a 'correspondent' for Lindell's media operation appeared at a White House press briefing and asked a cringeworthy and overly sycophantic question about Donald Trump, sparking widespread ridicule. This week, the conspiracy theorist was back in the news, telling a judge he's struggling to pay court-imposed sanctions because his finances are 'in ruins' and 'nobody will lend me any money anymore.' But things aren't all bad for Lindell. As The Washington Post reported, he apparently still has friends in high places. A Trump administration official in March asked the IRS to review audits of two 'high profile' friends of President Donald Trump, including MyPillow chief executive and conservative political personality Mike Lindell, according to two people familiar with the request and records obtained by The Washington Post According to the report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, David Eisner, a Trump appointee at the Treasury Department, contacted senior IRS staff last month about an audit Lindell was facing. Soon after, the same official reportedly contacted the tax agency again, this time about a Republican state senator in Kansas named Rick Kloos. Eisner reportedly used the phrase 'high profile friend of the president' to describe Eisner and Kloos, and wrote that each was 'concerned that he may have been inappropriately targeted.' A related report in The New York Times noted that the IRS did not act on Eisner's outreach, but the efforts 'alarmed agency staff that President Trump hoped to use the tax collector to protect his friends and allies from normal scrutiny, concerns that have only grown as the Trump administration clears out agency leadership and pushes it to carry out Mr. Trump's directions.' And therein lies the point: If the IRS is going to survive and maintain its integrity, it must maintain its independence. The agency cannot be a political weapon — though, in the Harvard case, there's reason to believe Trump sees it as a partisan tool — and just as notably, it can't offer special treatment to the president's pals and those politically aligned with the White House. Nina Olson, who served as the national taxpayer advocate across multiple Democratic and Republican administrations, told the Post of the allegations, 'That's so inappropriate. In my 18 years as the national taxpayer advocate with over 4 million cases that came into the Taxpayer Advocate Service, in that time with taxpayers experiencing significant problems with the IRS, I have never had a Treasury official write me about a case.' A spokesperson for Trump's Treasury Department made no effort to deny the claims, instead telling the Times that Eisner 'acted appropriately' and simply shared 'relevant information' with the IRS. (Eisner did not respond to requests for comment, the Post reported, and a representative from the IRS declined to comment.) Kloos' attorney, meanwhile, told the Post that the Kansas legislator is 'certainly not a close friend of the president'; he doesn't know why Eisner contacted the IRS on his behalf; and he's been engaged in a yearslong court fight over his organization's tax-exempt status. As for Lindell, he suggested that this is all just a misunderstanding and that the Treasury Department had 'misconstrued' his request, which he said actually stemmed from a problem he was having with the Employee Retention Credit. I don't imagine we've heard the last of this one. This article was originally published on
