WEBVTT - Kenneth Feld: “People make an organization.” 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.640 You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.200 Listen to the audience. They always tell you the truth. 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:14.800 You can tell by the applause, So you can tell 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.040 by the lack of applause. Everything we do is for 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.320 the audience, It isn't for us. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:23.000 Hi. 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.320 I'm Bob Pittman. Welcome to this episode of Math and Magic, 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.800 Stories from the Frontiers and Marketing. On most episodes, we're 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.160 examining the impact and transformation of products and services into 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.760 a new digital world. Today, we're going in the other 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.760 direction and talking to one of the great and most 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:45.760 enduring visionaries of live family entertainment. That's right irl in 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.440 real life, it's Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:55.480 best known for Ringling Brothers, Sigrid and Roy, Master, Jam Motorsports, 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.200 Disney and Ice, Sesame Street, Live, Tony Award winning stage shows, 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:02.480 and a lot more. Kenneth Eld was born in Washington, 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.360 d C. In the late nineteen forties. He worked in 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.560 the family business even as a kid, at all levels, 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.360 from selling programs to managing the box office. He's got 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.360 a remarkable, one of a kind story with a lot 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:20.120 of important lessons and unique insights which we'll explore today. Kenneth, welcome, 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:21.800 Thank you very much. 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:22.959 Great to be with you. 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.880 Well, before we jump into the meaty stuff, we'd like 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.160 to start out with doing you in sixty seconds. You ready, sure? 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:35.920 Early riser or night out? Early riser east coast to 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:40.399 west coast, East coast, winter or summer toss up Marvel 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:46.200 are Classic Disney Aal Disney caller texts Paul all time 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:52.680 favorite musical artists, Gladys Knight favorite and greatness live performance 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:53.280 of all time. 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.840 I have to say, Sigfreedom. 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:02.480 Roy, smartest person you know, I say, my dad, let's 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.960 jump in. You've got an amazing against the grain story. 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.920 Everything seems to be going virtual and here you are 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.600 with some of the greatest franchises in the world filling 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.720 up theaters, arenas and stadiums. What is it about live 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.800 entertainment that virtual just can't replace? 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.440 The greatest thing about live entertainment is the first word 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:28.520 is live. It can evoke emotions like nothing else. If 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.960 you're watching something on the screen, it's two dimensional, no 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.400 matter how good the quality is, and people do not 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:41.760 respond in the same way. Years ago, we'd done Toy 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.639 Story on ice with Disney On Ice. I was sitting 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:50.160 with John Lasseter and watching the show and it was 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.600 the first time he had seen it, and I turn 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:58.400 around and he has tears in his eyes and I said, John, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:02:59.440 is everything okay? 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:00.880 He said yeah. 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.160 He says, you know, I would go and watch matinees 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.400 of my movies to see what the audience reaction is. 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:13.280 He said, here, I've never seen a reaction like this 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:18.600 to any of my movies before. And he said, it's 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:22.720 because it's live. It's because the characters. 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:24.520 People think that they're real. 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.000 And to hear it from someone who makes movies all 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.920 the time, it was just astounding to hear that and 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:37.040 see his response, and I think that's really what it is. 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:41.240 When COVID hit and we were closed completely for you know, 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.360 a year and a half, and everybody said, well, now 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:47.200 everybody's watching everything, they're streaming everything. Nobody's ever going back 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.480 to live entertainment. And I said, live entertainment is going 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:55.200 to be stronger than ever because you can't get that feeling, 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.720 that response from a screen. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.200 So COVID comes, everybody says, oh my gosh, the world's changed. 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.720 We're all going to be virtual. You go back in 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:10.040 the live business and what was that first live show 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:15.640 and how was that versus other shows. 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:20.760 It was interesting because we had about twenty some shows 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:26.520 touring around the world. COVID hit and we had equipment 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.760 Indonesia and Germany, people that we had to get back 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:35.320 to their homes and we were basically completely out of 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:39.600 business because you couldn't operate anywhere, and it was difficult 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.000 because we had to let people go and things. And 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.799 I sat there with the team and I said, look, 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.520 let's think of our company as a fifty year old startup. 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.920 What have we been doing all these years that maybe 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:57.719 hasn't worked as well as it should. 0:04:57.760 --> 0:04:59.440 What are the things that we could do to make 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:00.000 things better? 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.920 In life, you really don't get a shot at a blank. 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:05.440 Piece of paper. 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.800 With COVID, we learned to operate in very different ways. 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:14.159 And I think the first thing was we had our 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:19.440 Supercross motorcycle racing season and we had seven races left 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.840 and there were no audiences because people couldn't go out. 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.119 So what we did is we went to talt Lake City, 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:32.160 the Rice Cycle Stadium at University of Utah, and we 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.400 had the seven final races there in over a two 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.680 week period. Typically we do one race a week and 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.320 all the riders came. We were testing them. We had 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:48.920 a full crew that was constantly testing all the people involved, 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.559 and we were in the stadium. We had the dirt 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:56.040 for the motorcycle riders in there, and it was televised. 0:05:56.040 --> 0:06:00.760 So we completed our television commitments, but there were no spectators. 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.960 And we finished the season and we crowned a champion 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.320 and we said, wow, it worked. 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:10.640 So now what's the next thing. 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.200 We can do, and we went out with one tour 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:19.520 of Disney on ice and the challenge there was we 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:24.600 were able to have certain states that would allow us 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.280 to operate, and there were maybe eight or nine states 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:27.840 at the time. 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.880 But the seating was what we call pod seating. 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:32.840 If you had a family of four, you would have 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.360 four seats and then there will be four seats next. 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:37.120 To you open. 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:39.479 There would be the rolling back of you in the 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.039 row in front of you open. So we said, let's 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.560 try that out, and it worked and people came and 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.320 I think we played every single city in Texas and 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:53.279 we ultimately were the first live entertainment in the world 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:57.200 to start touring again, and we grew from that. 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.320 It's amazing what you did during COVID and the way 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.320 you came back from it, and you know, you go 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.039 against the grain and being live when everybody else is 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.240 trying to go virtual. The other thing you do which 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.080 is against the grain is you know, talking about the business, 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.600 is this is really still a family business. Other family 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.480 members have joined the business. You joined the business early 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.160 and really built the business up. How do you think 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.440 about the pros and cons of everyone in the family 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.080 working together and having it as such a family focused business. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.240 It's a wonderful business to be a family business, just 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:34.640 because my theory is anybody that's born is a potential customer. 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:39.120 And when my daughters growing up, they grew up with 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.400 primarily with Ringling Brothers. 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.160 And Disney on ice and that was. 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.720 Just part of their life and I don't think they 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:50.400 thought it was strange. And then they all went to school, 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:55.360 they married, they have children, and they worked in different 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:59.320 parts of the business. My youngest daughter, Juliet, is the 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.720 chief opera off the company. Now my other daughters are 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:07.280 on the board and it is really interesting dynamics and 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:12.520 it makes every day come to work and I feel good. 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.560 And we do have a great team and one person 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.800 can lead, but you need a team to make things work. 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.640 What I like best about the whole business is the 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.080 people and I get to come in. I see them 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.720 every day I go out to the shows. It's energizing 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:31.840 and keeps me a lot younger. 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.200 Quick factoid here, how much time do you spend on 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:36.840 the road pre. 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:41.520 Covid was probably for fifty some years, traveling three to 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.680 four days every single week. I did that from the 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:50.760 time basically when I started working summers when I was 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.800 in college and after that and I were just constantly 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:54.880 traveling every place. 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.840 So usually we jump back in time to add a 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:03.160 perspective on our game. In your case, jumping back in 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.240 time is really the origin story. You were born in 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.480 nineteen forty eight Washington, d C. Just as your dad 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.600 and uncle were about to start new careers and live 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.959 entertainment in the early fifties, they took over management of 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.959 an amphitheater in Washington, d C. Your dad managed Paul 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:22.400 Anka as a young breakout star. He promoted major acts 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.600 including the Beatles and the Stones, and even promoted the 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.320 Greatest Showwner at Ringling Brothers, and in nineteen sixty seven 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:34.320 actually bought it all. This before you finished business school. 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.440 Tell us about growing up like that. What did it 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:41.480 teach you about business and about life and family and 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:43.200 how did it shape who you became. 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:44.679 I'll go way back. 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:49.240 My mother passed away when I was nine years old, 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.320 and my dad was always working. He wanted to go 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.240 to college, he couldn't because he was supporting his family. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:10:01.160 And my dad had a record store in downtown Washington, DC, 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.640 And if I want to spend time with him on 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.000 the weekends, I would go to the record store, which 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.960 was great because I got to listen to all these 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:14.400 different records. And he was a consultant early on for 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.040 RCAA Victor Records, and he would get all of these 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:23.599 white label forty five rpm records, which were the singles 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.520 that somebody was going to release maybe three or four 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.680 months later. And my dad would listen to the records 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.360 and recommend what he thought were great, and he would 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.840 bring these records home. Or when I went down to 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.520 the record stores on Saturdays and Sundays, say listen to 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.000 these records, what do you think? And he listened to 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.920 what I said. When I was nine and ten, And 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:51.640 also he would have eighty one night ers of tours 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.920 so that he would have a fall tour. It went 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:59.440 for eighty nights, that was eleven weekends. And in the 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.560 spring he'd have a spring tour. And these were in 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.439 days in DC and in the South there was still 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.760 segregation early on, and he'd have a show with James Brown, 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.520 he'd have a show with the Drifters, with all the 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.800 motown acts, with every act that you could ever think 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.120 of music acts, and he would tour them. And by 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:22.840 doing this he went all over the US and Canada. 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.040 He learned about all the arenas. And if you think 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.480 about in the early sixties, there were only six teams 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.640 in the NBA and six teams in the NHL, so 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:37.800 there were these arenas, but they lack content. So his 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.360 rock and roll shows would play in all these venues. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:45.040 And nineteen fifty six Ringling brothers born in Bailey, filed 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.559 bankruptcy and they went out of business. 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.960 And my father calls John Ringling. 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.760 North, who was the owner of fifty one percent of 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.360 Ringling at the time, and he said, look, I have 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:02.000 an idea how you should bring back the circus. 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:03.520 And he said, what do you mean? 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.640 And my father said, look, you've always played Madison Square Garden, 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.640 You've always played the Boston garden. Why don't you just 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:14.559 play arenas instead of the tent, and I'll promote it 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:16.240 because I know all the arenas. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:16.959 I'll book the. 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:21.240 Arenas and you deliver them the show, and I'll promote 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.720 it to all the advertising marketing and we'll figure out 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.480 how split on the dollars. And that's what happened. It 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:32.760 just grew, and he was innovative at the time. Everybody 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:37.560 had newspapers delivered, and every Sunday you get a newspaper 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.600 and it would have comics in it, and parents would 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:44.200 read this to the kids. And so he did so 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:49.079 much of his marketing for Ringling Brothers in the Sunday 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:53.400 comics because that's what parents read to their kids, and 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:55.760 that was a great way of marketing, and nobody ever 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.800 bought ads in the comics section. 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.600 It was also the least expensive way. 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:06.440 To advertise, and so that really kicked off his promotional 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:11.160 success with Ringling. And he did that from fifty seven 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.959 to sixty seven, and at that point there was a 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.720 lot of absentee management and the show was deteriorating, and 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.440 he said, if I can't buy it this year, I'll 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.200 just stop promoting it. Because he didn't like the quality 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.160 of the show, and so it took him all year 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.320 to raise the money, and he and my uncle acquired 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.800 Ringling Brothers Born and Bailey, and the partner was Roy Hafeines, 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.720 who had built the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and my 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.400 father and my uncle ran the circus. That was in 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:47.920 sixty seven, and my dad's idea was, hey, to cover 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.880 the entire United States, we really need two circuses, and 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:53.960 so he said, I want to create a second tour, 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.720 and so in sixty nine there were two tours of 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.000 Ringling Brothers Born and Bailey. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:00.600 And then in. 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:06.800 Nineteen seventy one he actually sold the company to Mattel 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.240 and by this time I was out of college so 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:17.800 worked for Mattel running Ringling. And then in nineteen eighty two, 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.400 Mattel got in some financial issues and they had a 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.600 lot of non core assets, so we said we'd like 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.680 to buy Ringling back, and that's what we did. We 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.840 took a private again, and that's sort of how it 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.640 morphed into what it was. And two years later, in 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:39.320 nineteen eighty four, my father passed away suddenly, so. 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:41.240 I was sort of left with the whole business. 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.760 And you know, my kids were very young then, and 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:50.640 that was a real challenge overnight to take over the 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.920 greatest shaw on earth and try and grow the business, 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:54.680 which we did. 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.560 I want to give you a shout out that probably 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.560 one of the biggest shows we'd do at iHeart is 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.960 our jingle Ball each Christmas season around the country ten cities, 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.760 and it is really inspired by those rock and roll 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.680 shows that your dad did way back when the best artist, 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.440 the best songs, the biggest stuff of that particular year. 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.200 So what he started lives on and I'm sure an 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.840 inspiration for many others. Let me go to a story. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.160 In the summer of sixty eight, while the world was 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.520 between the Summer of Love and Woodstock, you were actually, 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.040 as I understand, in Eastern Europe behind what was then 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:36.720 the Iron Curtain, looking to recruit circus performers. Can you 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:37.600 share that story? 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:38.080 Sure? 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.400 My father bought the show in sixty seven, so the 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:47.280 show was basically dumb for the sixty eight season, and 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.160 in the summer of sixty eight I went with the 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.240 talent scout that had been with the circus for many years, 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.680 a Swedish man who spoke seven languages and knew all 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:03.680 the best circus at primarily in Eastern Europe. So I 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:08.600 traveled with him all summer and learning for me what 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.480 was a good circus act and what happened. 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:13.120 In Eastern Europe. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.440 And if you go even today all over the world, 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:20.440 their circus literally in every country on the planet. They 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.280 may not call it that, it might be acrobatics, it 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.280 might be something else, but it's circus or there's potential 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:29.800 circus acts. And they had these schools and it was 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.960 entertainment for the masses. We would go to the circus 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.240 schools and they would bring every act in the country 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.080 and in a three day period we would see everything 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:44.520 and then we would negotiate. Basically, it was with the 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:49.920 department of Culture in these countries because that's what the 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:53.920 circus was considered for the acts to bring the best 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.280 to Ringling for a period of time, and at that 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.640 time it was one year or two years and then 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.640 they would go back. But it was negotiating with the 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.560 countries that acted like the agents for the performers. So 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:11.600 it was fascinating for me and especially as a young person, 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:16.560 to have that opportunity and to really understand what these 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.560 people were going through, what it was like. And we 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:24.639 would hire many, many people from all over the world 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:29.159 and great performers, and you know, you would get to 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:31.600 know them. And every time I would go back, they 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.919 would have family and different things and introduce new actsor 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:37.600 they would say, what kind of act do you want? 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.120 We'd sit down and create an act, and you'd come 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.520 back in a year and they had it perfected, and 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:44.280 then we'd hire it for the following year. 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:46.680 And it was a great way to learn. 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.560 But the best thing was we're bringing talent and things 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.360 to American audiences that they would never see otherwise. 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.000 More a math in magic. Right after this quick break, 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.560 welcome back to Mathemagic. Let's hear more from my conversation 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:10.119 with Kenneth Feld. Let's jump to another big moment for you. 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.400 Nineteen eighty one was a big year for you because 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.560 you started Disney on Ice and you were able to 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.200 do a deal with Disney that was legendary for sort 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:25.240 of doing it all themselves, not about partnering. How did 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:25.840 that happen? 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.640 We, while we were with Mattel in seventy nine, acquired 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.080 Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice, and there were two 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:39.520 traditional ice shows and it was really something that I 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.400 got into right away and put together a new Ice 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.760 show and business was okay. And I went out there 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:50.800 one Saturday and I looked up and I didn't see kids, 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.720 and it was a Saturday matinee, and I said, oh no, 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.840 this is a problem. So I went to Disney. I 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:01.520 got an appointment there with a gentleman. He was head 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.200 of their publishing at the time, and this was nineteen 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:09.479 eighty and I said, I have a great idea. I 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:13.440 want to do a twenty minute segment in our Ice 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.720 show with Disney characters and we'll use it for marketing 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:18.520 and we'll figure out an arrangement. 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:19.480 Be great. 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.919 And he says, no, we're Disney, We're not part of 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:27.119 anything else. And he says, but you're a nice young man, 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.120 and I wish you well. And we're walking literally, this 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:33.479 is in Burbank at the Disney studio. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:34.680 We're walking out of his. 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.600 Office and I turned around to him and I said, 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.919 what if we took one of our Ice shows and 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:47.479 converted the entire show to Disney characters and stories, and 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.640 we'll call it Walt Disney's World on Ice. 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:52.960 We literally turned around, went. 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:58.240 Back to his office, and he liked the idea, and 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:02.639 within two weeks we had a deal and we opened 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:08.280 it in July nineteen eighty one, and it had every 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.520 Disney character you can imagine at that time. And at 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:16.520 the opening, Ron Miller, who was the CEO of Disney 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:20.080 at the time, came and he was married to Diane Disney, 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.720 and nobody knew if it was going. 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:23.760 To go well or not. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.160 And I turn around and Diane Disney is sitting there 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.000 and she said to me, she said, oh, my father 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:36.800 would have loved this. And that was the ultimate endorsement 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:41.040 that you could get. And from that point on Disney 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:45.000 on Ice it was formed, and it became a real 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:49.240 rite of passage for every kid now around the world. 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.359 You rolled the dice on Disney on Ice. Although you 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.159 might argue Disney was big, you thought it was going 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.040 to be big. Let me talk about an even bigger 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.840 role of the day. I secret in roy as I 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:06.240 understand that the story was nobody thought that would work 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.840 in Vegas. It was so against what Vegas was about, 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:12.960 and it was so against that you actually had to 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.200 bankroll it because it was so out of the mainstream 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.960 and so risky and again obviously turned into a monster hit. 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:22.359 What did you see that others missed? And how did 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:23.159 you make that happen. 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.600 The first time I ever saw Sick Freedom Roy was 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:32.200 on spring break from college. I was at Puerto Rico 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:38.240 and there this follies bridge air type show at the 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:41.600 Americana Hotel and they were in it. And there's two 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.720 guys that at the time they had a leopard and 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.439 they were doing magic and the leopard would disappear and 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:48.119 all this stuff. 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:49.280 They were amazing. 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:54.119 And fast forward later on, actually in nineteen seventy seven, 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.959 I did a TV show with a circus performer, gun 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.159 Thor Gabrael Williams, who did worked with all kinds of 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:05.600 animals and as part of that, they were at that 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:08.879 time in Vegas show at Ballet's and we got to 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.520 know each other, and then they went to the Stardust 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.920 and I produced two TV shows on NBC and then 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.360 we opened the show at the Frontier in nineteen eighty one, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:25.320 and they had done really well with that, but Steve 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.359 Wynn was building the Mirage and I went to Steve 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:34.400 and we worked out an arrangement and we basically put 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:39.080 the show together. Had somebody designed the theater, which he built. 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.520 It was something that was extraordinary and I thought it 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.200 was going to be a five million dollar show investment 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:47.879 for us, and it wound up being over a thirty 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.640 million dollar investment to do what it was and there 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:54.280 was technology that no one had ever seen. And we 0:22:54.359 --> 0:23:01.480 opened February first of nineteen ninety and it became a 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.679 hit and it was unique in the world and it 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:05.760 just grew from there. 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:09.439 Let's jump a little bit on corporate culture. How do 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:12.520 you think about it, How do you describe your corporate culture, 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:14.480 and how do you use it as a tool. 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:19.120 The first thing is that we spend most of our 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:25.200 time working, so you want people to have a good experience, 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:30.479 to be challenged, to be able to take chances and 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:35.719 not be penalized, not having a fear of failure. And 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:40.480 I think that's the most difficult thing to express to people, 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:45.360 and you want to give them the confidence that they 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:50.040 can do it. And I'm fortunate because I have president 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:56.120 of the company that is extraordinary in motivating people and 0:23:56.160 --> 0:24:00.639 mentoring people of bringing them along. It's one thing to 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:05.359 have an idea, but everybody has ideas, and ideas are cheap. 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:10.360