Growing up in New York City, Michael Eisner was a fan of Giants football games — but not because they were easy to watch.

During some of their bad seasons, the Giants often fell far behind by the fourth quarter. A friend, John Angelo, would suggest leaving early, according to Eisner's memoir, "Work in Progress."

Eisner would have none of it.

"The Giants have to score four times and get a field goal, but there are five minutes left, and they're going to do it," Eisner told his pal.

The Giants didn't do it. But Eisner tried to stay positive.

"I was always convinced things would turn out well in the end," Eisner wrote. "As I grew up, I discovered that I was more comfortable dealing with crisis than I was with too much success."

Good thing. Eisner took over Walt Disney Co. (DIS) in 1984, when it was short on profit growth, short on hit shows and looking for a rebirth 18 years after the death of legendary founder Walt Disney.

Eisner's efforts would turn around the American icon and put it on the path to growth. Sales would rise from less than $2 billion in 1984 to more than $34 billion in 2005.

"Michael took a deeply undervalued franchise and — particularly in the first dozen years — in a rational manner . . . (built) the franchise to be one of three or certainly four great media companies in the world," said David Londoner, a former Wall Street analyst who covered the industry and Disney during much of Eisner's time there.

Although Eisner might have led a modern megamedia company, he used old-fashioned values such as hard work, tenacity and being careful with the checkbook.

Grasping Customers

Eisner had the guts to go against convention. He had a sixth sense crucial to entertainment-firm chiefs: knowing what the masses like.

"He demonstrated great skill and creativity," said Hal Vogel, author of "Entertainment Industry Economics" and an analyst who's covered the industry for three decades.

The first half of Eisner's time at Disney receives more accolades than his second, which ended in 2005. He had a falling out with key executives and shareholders tired of his leadership, says James Stewart, author of "Disney War."

Still, it's hard to argue with the company's growth.

The stock reflected the boom, rocketing about 3,500% from his start in September 1984 to its peak in the spring of 2000. Employee numbers went from 28,000 to more than 133,000 during his tenure.

"He did a great job," Robert Daly, a former co-chairman of Warner Bros. and an Eisner friend, told IBD. "Look at where Disney is today compared to where Disney was when he took over."

Eisner writes that he came from comfortable beginnings. His family had a nice apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He went to private schools. He wore a tie and jacket to dinners. Still, Eisner said "money wasn't to be treated frivolously" in his home.

Eisner jumped at his first post-college break into television at NBC in 1964. He would get a slight promotion to a new job at CBS. Even after another step up, he began to "hunger for something bigger," he wrote.

He sent letters to anyone who might hire him.

"I received form letter after form letter of rejection — more than 75 in all," he wrote.

Eventually he got his break as an assistant to ABC's Ted Fetter, who was in charge of specials. It was the fall of 1966.

By the time Disney came calling, he was president of Paramount Pictures.

Eisner made the move and immediately became Disney's chief executive and chairman. Frank Wells, vice chairman of Warner Bros. Inc., joined him as president.

Wells gets credit from Daly and others for helping Eisner be an effective leader in the early days.

Wells would die in a helicopter crash in 1994.

"I think the two of them were a great team," Daly said.

When Eisner took over, Disney was hungry for fresh leadership.

Walt's shadow was long, and the company was sometimes caught between its history and the changing dynamics of the media industry.

"The problem was that America's viewing public had changed, but Disney hadn't," wrote Ron Grover in "The Disney Touch." Profit had fallen from $135 million in 1980 to $93 million in 1983, he writes.

Eisner took the tack of changing what needed to be fixed while using Disney's reputable name and library to drive up sales and profit.

One thing that had to be corrected: pay scales. "To attract the kind of executives the company needed, Eisner and Wells told the board, they would have to loosen the purse strings," Grover wrote.

The new salaries would "have made Walt wince," he wrote. But they were especially needed in the movie studio, which had turned out the forgettable "Trenchcoat" and "Running Brave."

Vogel says Eisner knew what grabbed the average buyer.

"Steve Jobs (Apple's (AAPL) chief executive) had the same kind of intuition about the consumer," Vogel said.

As part of that effort, Eisner paid special attention to the animation unit, which some call the soul of the Disney. In 1989, the firm released its first classic in a few decades: "The Little Mermaid."

"Animation started to come alive," Vogel said. "They realized they had fallen down on that."

Eisner also saw when to tap the Disney of the past. He lifted the firm back into prime-time TV with "The Disney Sunday Movie" on ABC.

Another move on the living room: home videos. The firm had long released animation hits every seven years, figuring any more than that would water down the franchise.

Eisner, with encouragement from other Disney executives, decided to put movies such as "Pinocchio" on videotape and later DVD. The move was a hit with kids and parents, delivering tens of millions in profit.

Other successes included Disney stores and Broadway hits. And in one of Eisner's biggest moves, Disney bought Capital Cities/ABC in 1996. It gave Disney a hammerlock on its TV programming.

Yet competition heated up from players such as DreamWorks Animation. Shareholders grew restless as sales growth sputtered. Between fiscal 1998 and 2002, Disney's sales grew more than 2% only one year.

Up And Down

After Disney's stock peaked in 2000, it lost more than 60% before recovering some. Eisner was catching criticism as a poor manager, especially without Wells, Stewart writes. The CEO let hits such as "CSI" and "The Lord of the Rings" go to other firms. Roy Disney, Walt Disney's nephew, called for his exit.

Eisner stepped down from Disney on Sept. 30, 2005. Robert Iger, his chief operating officer and president, replaced him.

Today Eisner, 65, still plays in the media world. His "Conversations With Michael Eisner" is on CNBC.

His firm, Tornante Co., has invested in Veoh Networks, an Internet broadcasting system.

And he still receives plaudits for turning around a company that many see as the face of America.

"To me, when you judge the success of somebody, you can't judge them on one television show or movie," Daly said, pointing to Eisner's team. "The people who can sustain it, do it year after year — they are the people who are good."


BY BRIAN WOMACK