Behind the Castle Walls
My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth
by Bob Chapek
Gallery Books, 272 pp., $30
Roll the Calls
A Memoir
by Ari Emanuel
Knopf, 432 pp., $35
IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE TWO MEMOIRS more different in tone, style, or substance than Bob Chapek’s Behind the Castle Walls and Ari Emanuel’s Roll the Calls.
There are superficial similarities.
asserted
IT → roll → Calls
These are two men who reached the height of power in one of the most prestigious industries in America.
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who → reach → America
Bob Chapek was the head of Disney for a turbulent stretch encompassing the rise of COVID, the streaming boom, and a palace coup by his predecessor and successor, Bob Iger.
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Chapek → encompass → predecessor
Ari Emanuel, meanwhile, is the most famous agent in the world, thanks to Entourage, and a man who has built William Morris Endeavor into a world-bestriding colossus that handles boardroom brawls and literal bloodsports through its TKO Group, which owns both UFC and WWE.
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which → build → UFC
After reading the memoirs, you can’t help but feel for Chapek.
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you → read → Chapek
He’s a guy who has, in all likelihood, done more to change the actual business of Hollywood through his work at Disney than Emanuel, an inveterate dealmaker who came into agenting after that industry’s biggest innovation, packaging, had already been created by Michael Ovitz and the other CAA sharks.
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innovation → ’ → Ovitz
And yet Chapek’s out of the game (Ovitz too), while Ari remains, eternal, undying, unyielding.
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Ari → ’ → game
That’s because Ari is not just an inveterate dealmaker—he’s also a vicious knife fighter.
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he → ’ → ?
Don’t get me wrong: I think Chapek absolutely got hosed by Bob Iger, the longtime Disney CEO who, as COVID was burning through China, suddenly decided he needed to step down.
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he → get → China
Chapek stepped up, got hit with the one-two-three punch of theaters, parks, and cruise lines shuttering simultaneously to combat the novel coronavirus.
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theaters → step → coronavirus
The potential lifeline, streaming, was a money-eating monster for most of his tenure, as spending on content far outstripped subscription revenue while the company desperately tried to build a viewer base that could compete with Netflix.
uncertain
that → eat → Netflix
And all the while, Iger was in the background undermining Chapek with talent and in the foreground undermining Chapek politically, throwing him directly under the bus during the “don’t say gay” fight in Florida with Ron DeSantis.
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Iger → undermine → DeSantis
Chapek’s story of rising up the ranks of Disney is an interesting one, if what interests you is the way the business side of showbiz has changed through the years.
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side → rise → years
(I do, in fact, find that interesting.)
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that → find → fact
He entered the company not through the TV and film side or the hugely profitable parks division.
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He → enter → side
He got started in products.
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He → start → products
And realized pretty quickly that the intellectual property needed to be treated like any other product.
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property → realize → product
The biggest play he made was creating a massive new revenue stream via home video, and there were two key innovations he championed.
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he → make → video
If you’re of a certain age, you remember ads for VHS films in those fancy, foamy clamshells warning that you’d better buy whatever classic was in stores now—Cinderella, Dumbo, whatever—because soon it was “going back in the vault.”
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it → ’re → vault
And once it’s back in the vault, well, you may never be able to buy it again!
uncertain
you → ’ → it
The threat of scarcity sent families scrambling.
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threat → send → families
Who knew WHEN those movies might be available to buy again?
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movies → know → ?
You don’t want your daughter to have to live a life without Sleeping Beauty, do you?
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you → want → Beauty
If you’re of that certain age, you’ll likely remember these as well.
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you → ’re → these
I don’t even say this as a critic; I say it as a kid watching them at the time.
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I → say → time
There were no good songs; the animation was shoddy, chintzy.
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animation → be → ?
Return of Jafar didn’t even have Mrs. Doubtfire doing the genie’s voice!
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Doubtfire → have → voice
It felt like a real ripoff.
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It → feel → ripoff
But these things sold like hotcakes, and to Chapek (and, frankly, Disney shareholders) that’s all that mattered.
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that → sell → Chapek
And here’s where we start to hear a little of that whine:
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we → ’ → whine
“Despite its commercial achievements [irrelevant, your honor, move to strike], critics labeled The Return of Jafar as cheap and poorly produced.
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critics → strike → Jafar
[U]nnamed sources expressed concerns in the press about the film’s inferior quality and its potential negative impact on the brand.”
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sources → express → brand
Disney jumped into the sequel business with both feet in the decades to follow.
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Disney → jump → decades
And this is how he gloats: “But it was Bob from flyover Indiana, educated at a state school, who disrupted the business and kept the studio afloat.
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who → gloat → studio
It’s a pattern that recurs: Chapek boosts profits in parks and on the cruise lines by maximizing revenue from big spenders; the company benefits; he complains about a lack of respect from the coastal elites.
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he → ’ → elites
And look: I get why Chapek is mad!
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Chapek → look → ?
Iger absolutely did undermine him because Iger wasn’t ready to retire but wanted to avoid taking fire during the cuts that COVID would inevitably entail.
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COVID → undermine → that
But it’s all so . . . unbecoming.
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it → ’ → ?
Reading this, you just kind of intuitively understand why Chapek was never going to last long at the top of the Hollywood food chain, a land of massive egos and ruthless backstabbing.
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Chapek → read → egos
Frankly, I empathize with him.
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I → empathize → him
…and 44 more, not listed.
The Aporia
