If it hadn't been for Bruce Jenner in his helicopter, Jay Stein might have been put in charge of the Disney theme parks.

Jerry Weintraub had managed artists including Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, and John Denver. The Universal Amphitheatre was frequently the venue for his clients. Later, he organized and managed large arena concerts. He then became a successful television and movie producer.

When Weintraub called Jay in July 1985, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Jay had known the producer for many years. The two played tennis weekly, and Jay considered Weintraub a good friend. Also, Jay was always on the hunt for new ideas and new properties to exploit, and he relied on his relationships with producers to give him an edge. Weintraub told Jay that he wanted to meet privately as he had something crucial he wanted to share with him.

Jay prodded for more information, but Weintraub said that he could not discuss it on the phone. Jay told him that he was busy with the pre-production for Florida and could not afford the time to drive all the way out to Weintraub’s house in Malibu. Weintraub then reluctantly divulged that somebody wanted to meet him. Jay agreed, and they set a date to meet.

When Jay arrived at Weintraub’s house on the Pacific coast’s Paradise Cove, he was met by Weintraub’s wife, singer Jane Morgan, and she led him to Weintraub who was sitting outside alone, overlooking the ocean on that beautiful warm day. Morgan offered Jay a drink, and he ordered one of whatever Weintraub was drinking. Jane poured some lemonade and then left.

“Why all the mystery,” Jay asked. Weintraub just smiled and said, “He just called, and he’s running a little late; he will be here shortly.” Ten minutes later, in walks a very tall, thin, patrician-looking man wearing glasses. It was Frank Wells, president of the Walt Disney Company. Jay recognized him immediately. Weintraub made the introductions, and they began about thirty minutes of talking about Wells’ failed attempt to scale Mount Everest in 1983.

Jay was clueless as to why this meeting was taking place. Finally, Wells started talking about Disney and how their Florida parks were performing. He asked Jay numerous questions about how they do things and was effusively complimentary. Then Wells smoothly switched gears and said they were having some “leadership” issues. He told Jay that the man they had running their parks was a long-time loyal employee who was a good soldier, but he lacked imagination and creativity.

Wells was referring to Dick Nunis. Nunis had started at Disneyland just before the opening as one of the trainers and rose to the position of chairman of Walt Disney Attractions. Wells began to trash Nunis, saying that Nunis only knew how to do things one way, and was hesitant to introduce anything new. They were looking to make a change. Wells asked Jay, “How would you like to come work for the Walt Disney Company? You can build the park you want. What would you do differently in our parks?”

During the conversation, a helicopter was circling over Weintraub’s house. Jay noticed Wells beginning to show signs of sweat under his shirt. He was growing very uncomfortable. He finally asked Jerry, “What the hell is going on with that helicopter? Why is it circling your house?” Weintraub began to laugh, “It’s nothing Frank. It’s Bruce Jenner. He does this all the time.”

Now the helicopter was hovering with its pilot looking in their direction. At this point, Wells stood up and said, “I don’t want to continue our discussion at this time. That helicopter is bothering me! I just don’t like it.” Weintraub again tried to convince Wells it was only Jenner “doing his thing.” Wells was not persuaded. The meeting lasted only a couple of minutes longer before the nerve-racked Wells felt like he was being set up. They all quickly shook hands, and he left abruptly.

Once Wells had left, Jay asked Weintraub what the purpose of the meeting was. Weintraub replied, “They were trying to steal you away.” Jay was not so sure about the offer. He never heard from Wells or Disney again. Jay has kept this meeting a secret until now, for this book. Only Tony Sauber and Bob Finkelstein knew of the offer.

There were several occasions over the following years when Jay was publically criticizing Disney and Michael Eisner often responded, “Stein is only mad, angry because we did not hire him.” Every time these remarks came up in print, Jay expected a call from Sheinberg or Wasserman demanding an explanation. They never called, nor did any of Jay’s employees ever question if this were true. Eisner’s credibility within the ranks of MCA was so small and insignificant that everybody just ignored his remarks.

On July 6, 2015, Jerry Weintraub passed away. The day before, he and Jay had breakfast, and they reminisced about the meeting with Wells. Jay speculated on what would have happened if Wells had not been interrupted and had put a firm offer on the table. Jay’s first action would have been to go to Sheinberg and tell him about the offer. He felt that would be the honorable thing to do. If asked to stay, Jay would only ask for two conditions. First, MCA would have to match the Disney offer. More importantly, Sheinberg would have to give Jay an iron-clad commitment that they would build the Florida park with or without a partner. Unfortunately, for Jay, the search for that elusive partner would have to continue.

Continued in "JayBangs"!

When word got back to Disney CEO Michael Eisner that Jay Stein was building a new theme park just down the road, Mickey's white gloves came off and the battle was on.

The man in charge of selling Universal Studios Florida to the world was David Weitzner. Weitzner was trying to extricate himself from the employ of Jerry Weintraub and the Weintraub Entertainment Group. He got a call from Jon Sheinberg, a friend and the son of Sid Sheinberg. Sheinberg told him that there was a top marketing job at Universal and asked if Weitzner was interested. He had worked at the studio twelve years before, and his friend Tom Pollock was running the film division. What could be better?

Instead of meeting with Pollock, Sid Sheinberg had Weitzner meet with Jay. Suddenly, Weitzner realized he was not interviewing for a job heading the marketing department at the film division but the Recreation Division. A day later he met with Jay again; they talked, or as Weitzner describes it, he listened for about an hour. Most of the conversation centered on Universal City. Jay liked that Weitzner came from the film-making side of the business, just like him. Then Jay suggested they take a short drive to MCA’s Planning and Development offices on Lankershim Boulevard to look at some models and artists renderings of the Orlando park.

What Weitzner saw erased the slightest doubt about joining Jay and his team. He thought the elaborate presentation that the team had been using was the most amazing thing and a marketing executive’s dream. He recalled Jay’s smile, which seemed to say, “I told you so.” Weitzner was named the president of Worldwide Marketing the next day.

One thing that made the transition smooth for Weitzner was his close and personal relationship with Steven Spielberg. They had worked together in the past when he was responsible for the marketing campaign for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) During one brainstorming meeting with Weitzner, Sheinberg, and Jay, Spielberg suggested the phrase that bests defined the Universal experience: Ride the Movies. At Universal, the theatrical experience would be extended. Not only would visitors see the movie, but they would also become participants. It was a eureka moment.

Weitzner turned to Steve Hayman, Hal Kaufman, and Bruce Miller from the advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding to develop the marketing plans. Kaufman, a copywriter, described the challenge of going against the strongest brand in the business. He said what Disney did well was selling the forest. If one of the Disney parks burnt down tomorrow, they would be able to advertise “come feel the warmth” and people would visit. Universal’s strength was selling the trees; promoting one attraction at a time. Each attraction was marketed like the release of a major motion picture.

In preparation for a marketing presentation to MCA and Cineplex management before the opening of the Florida park, Jay told the team from Foote, Cone & Belding to lead the effort, and that the meeting participants did not know anything about marketing. He warned them they will be peppered with questions but whatever happened, Jay informed them that he did not want the participants to get a hit off his marketing team. He did not even want one to get out of the infield. One more thing: they were on their own. Jay put the fear of God into his marketing team just before they walked into the conference room. Jay did not want to change the marketing plans, and it was Foote, Cone & Belding’s responsibility to sell it. Jay was proud of the ideas, and he did not want the others to screw it up.

On one side of the table were the top brass from MCA. On the other was the team from Cineplex Odeon. Questions came from the left and the right including Sheinberg asking why there was no advertising for Texas since he just had relatives move into Corpus Christie. In the end, the presentation was successful. Jay turned to Bruce Miller and with typical understated faint praise said, “You did okay.”

After at least a dozen flights from Los Angeles to Orlando, all on Delta Airlines, which had the only two daily non-stop flights, Weitzner noticed that the Disney executives all sat on one side of first-class while the Universal executives sat on the other side. Both teams were trying to cast a wandering eye at what was on the competition’s computer screens. This “us against them” attitude was fostered daily by Jay and to a lesser extent, Sid Sheinberg.

It was on one of these flights that Weitzner came up with a brilliant plan. He noticed that Delta had a monthly in-flight magazine called Sky Magazine. At the time, Delta was known as the “official airline of Walt Disney World.” Weitzner saw the opportunity for a marketing home run and secretly and successfully negotiated an exclusive three-year agreement for thirty-six covers of the magazine. Later, Weitzner said he was sure the salesman who made the deal thought he had died and gone to media heaven until he found out the buyer was none other than Universal Studios.

A few weeks later, at one of the monthly Joint Venture board meetings in Orlando, Weitzner waited for just the right moment, suddenly stood up, and threw down on the table a mocked up copy of the first three-page gatefold with the rendering of the new theme park. Weitzner secretly had the Foote, Cone & Belding team mock up the advertisement. Not even Jay knew what was coming. The response was everything Weitzner hoped for.

When word got back to Michael Eisner, he was less than pleased. Prompted by Jay, the Sky Magazine ads allowed Universal to “tweak the mouse” monthly. After the first year, Wasserman called Weitzner into his office. He told the young executive to cancel the final two years of the contract. Wasserman felt that they had made their point.

Another marketing coup was the billboard campaign. The marketing team secured the best remaining advertisement sites along I-4 and other freeways in the Orlando and central Florida area, especially those roads leading from the airport. One of the things that puzzled Jay was that Disney did not do billboard advertising for their parks. At the very least, once they knew Universal was coming to Orlando; Disney could have acquired the best remaining billboard sites and preempted the marketing campaign.

Universal began to install incredible, one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional billboards with movement. Starting in 1988, central Florida got its first glimpse at the upcoming theme park wars when E.T.’s head and animated 30-foot long fingers cast in three-dimensional Plexiglas beckoned from a Florida interstate. The caption read, “Fly with me in 1990” and at night his eyes would light up. They called these “spectaculars,” and they featured most of the attractions and shows for the yet-to-open Universal Studios Florida. Every few months they would introduce another one. Each billboard cost more than $25,000 each to build. People were so impressed; they would pull over to the side of the road and take photos. Since Universal had locked up the best locations, Disney could not fight back.

Jay had based his strategy on General James H. Doolittle’s 1942 bombing raid on Tokyo just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid caused negligible material damage to Japan, but it succeeded in its goal of raising American morale and casting doubt in Japan on the ability of its military leaders to defend their home islands. He confessed that he might have overpaid to get some of these billboards, but they got the job done. Every time Michael Eisner drove from the airport to the Disney property, there was no way to avoid them. Disney knew Universal was coming, ready to fight, and fight hard. So successful were the billboards in capturing the public’s attention and the amount of press throughout the country and the world, both Disney and Sea World would soon copy the concept.

Continued in "JayBangs"!