Today's Blind Items - Destroy Them
Back in the day this permanent A+++ lister had a ton of money from movies. He started a new venture though and put a ton of his own capital on the line. He thought it would be a massive money maker and he was right, but he was not right in the beginning. Lost to time is the memory that the A+++ lister was competing against an unknown doing the same thing and for much less money. The unknown was imaginative and had groundbreaking ideas. At first, the two spent some time talking, but when the A+++ lister realized his project was inferior, he stopped talking and started plotting the destruction of the other.
Our unknown soon had offices broken into and copies of designs stolen and the next thing you know, the same projects would be under construction at the site of the A+++ lister, but just under a different name. Whenever the unknown complained, the A+++ lister would literally send dozens of lawyers after the unknown and dozens of bribed government officials from multiple agencies to try and stop the unknown. He had the wife of the unknown followed and even had her sexually assaulted by a group of men to try and get the unknown from following through on his project.
None of it worked. The unknown completed the project and was far superior and a much bigger success than the project of the A+++ lister. It was huge. The whole world took notice and the A+++ lister was having none of it. He arranged for teams to infiltrate the project and damage as much as they could so visitors would get upset and not return. The A+++ lister spent every waking moment focused on taking the unknown down rather than improving his own lackluster product. After almost a decade of spending millions of dollars a year, the A+++ lister finally saw his work come true. The unknown was forced to sell to cover all the mounting debts and liens that the A+++ lister had arranged. At that point, the A+++ lister had the number one project and nobody has ever told the story about how he did everything he could illegally and immorally to make it happen. Now, it is one of the biggest brands in the world and generates billions of dollars in revenue annually.
Our unknown soon had offices broken into and copies of designs stolen and the next thing you know, the same projects would be under construction at the site of the A+++ lister, but just under a different name. Whenever the unknown complained, the A+++ lister would literally send dozens of lawyers after the unknown and dozens of bribed government officials from multiple agencies to try and stop the unknown. He had the wife of the unknown followed and even had her sexually assaulted by a group of men to try and get the unknown from following through on his project.
None of it worked. The unknown completed the project and was far superior and a much bigger success than the project of the A+++ lister. It was huge. The whole world took notice and the A+++ lister was having none of it. He arranged for teams to infiltrate the project and damage as much as they could so visitors would get upset and not return. The A+++ lister spent every waking moment focused on taking the unknown down rather than improving his own lackluster product. After almost a decade of spending millions of dollars a year, the A+++ lister finally saw his work come true. The unknown was forced to sell to cover all the mounting debts and liens that the A+++ lister had arranged. At that point, the A+++ lister had the number one project and nobody has ever told the story about how he did everything he could illegally and immorally to make it happen. Now, it is one of the biggest brands in the world and generates billions of dollars in revenue annually.
Edison and Tesla
ReplyDeleteEdison was a real bastard, alright.
DeleteWalt Disney?
ReplyDeleteDisneyworld,Land,Epcot,Euro Disney etc
DeleteLucas Pixar Disney ?
ReplyDeleteSounds like Microsoft and Apple back in the day. And how Bill Gates was the anti-christ because he stole every single idea he had from others and put them out of business. But it's not Apple, it might be one of the other Operating systems.
ReplyDeleteIn happier news, Joe Jackson died.
ReplyDeleteEverybody dance!
That gets a BIH, not RIP!
DeleteExcellent! Good riddance!!
DeleteThis sounds like it could be Disney?
ReplyDeleteDammit cheesegrater you beat me ;)
ReplyDeleteDisneyland/Santaland?
ReplyDeleteSteve Jobs/Pixar??
ReplyDeleteI meant on Edison/Tesla, but yeah Joe Jackson is getting his own amusement park in hell where he is every ride.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely Disney
ReplyDeleteGates and Edison didn't begin with a ton of money from movies. This has to be Disney.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDisney,the clue being visitors and having made millions from films.
ReplyDeleteGates either stole or lucked into MS-DOS, depending on whom you ask, but it wasn't anything like this story of beating down a competitor for years. Also, the various other products that have made billions for MS came from lots of different companies, not one competitor.
ReplyDeleteThe Edison/Tesla guess seems more likely, although it seems like we're getting more grade inflation. I thought A+++ was only for the likes of Elvis and the Beatles, who are still recognized by pretty much everyone everywhere. Could half of high school graduates today tell you who Edison was? I guess Disney could fit too, if he stole from a better animator.
@Neil, good point, movies being the source of the money was right there in the first line. Disney then.
ReplyDeleteJoe Jackson has died of pancreatic cancer.
ReplyDeleteI just logged on to the site. Please forgive me if this was already posted here. Thanks.
http://sandrarose.com/2018/06/joe-jackson-patriarch-of-jackson-family-dead-at-89/
I pretty sure this is supposed to be Walt Disney.
ReplyDeleteBut what competitor?
Disneyland was a huge success from the very start and I cannot think of anything post 1955 which would be considered a 'much bigger success", or be known around the world.
Oh, maybe Pacific Ocean Park. One of the designers worked on Disneyland's Main Street.
ReplyDeleteA little more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean_Park
ReplyDeleteCould be Edison/Tesla. Edison had a movie studio early on. Not sure how profitable it was.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Black_Maria
Could be Walt Disney, but then who? I never remember anything from the childhood that could compare to Disneyland or Disneyworld.
Disney/Disneyland/Glenn Holland/Santa's Village
ReplyDeleteDIsney Epcot seems to be the idea that was flat out stolen,f rom something called Garden Centers of Tomorrow. Actually, the concept of creating an Utopian futuristic society is kind of creepy.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Howard Houghes who had Pan Am Juan Trippe investigated by Mcarthy, and stole all of the 707 technology for the Convair 880
ReplyDelete+++1
DeleteJust to be different: Ray Kroc/McDonald's
ReplyDeleteRIP Mr. Joe Jackson. You may not be perfect, but you were a strong man who gave a lot to the world to relish.
ReplyDeleteI'll guess Walter Knotts since both Knotts Berry Farms and Disneyland are located in Orange County. His family sold the park after his death.
ReplyDeleteI'm digging into Pacific Ocean Park and surprised by how little there is about it online and the fact that I can't find the name of the owner anywhere.
ReplyDeleteThat makes me smell the rodent-like talons of Disney's ruthless PR machine. I think @Blank_Profile's got the winner.
From wiki:
ReplyDeleteAround the same time, Walt Disney was building Disneyland; Glenn Holland contacted Disney, and the two men reportedly corresponded for a time. While Disney was already wealthy from his films, Holland was an unknown.
The first Santa's Village opened Memorial Day in 1955, six weeks before Disneyland, in Skyforest near Lake Arrowhead in San Bernardino County, California.
I was joking about Edison/Tesla, although Edison was a f*cking thief, Tesla never married and was not an unknown. Probably Disney and some poor bastard who just wanted to open his own amusement park. No good deed goes unpunished.
ReplyDeleteRead Wikipedia entry on Pacific Ocean Park, closed in 1967.
ReplyDelete@blank is correct.
Disneyland and Pacific Ocean Park.
What a tool. I have developed strong disappointment in all things Disney.
Pixar?
ReplyDeleteif its disney, another that could fit: Africa USA Park.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_U.S.A._Park
Is this why Mickey Mouse Park grew into being Disneyland?
ReplyDeleteDisney - Enterns could have meant him but it is hard to say he actually fits. Historically Disney made some "millions" from films but he was scraping for dimes when he built Disneyland. One of the motivations for DisneyWorld was that he didn't have money to buy land in Anaheim and consequently other people' hotels etc sprang up around the park.
ReplyDeleteEdison and Tesla certainly argued and engaged in significant litigation. However Tesla had licensed his patents to Westinghouse. Eventually Westinghouse cross licensed patents with GE. For the Edison Edison didn't win that either inasmuch as Edison was forced out of GE by the JP Morgan financial interests.
Freedomland USA park in NY?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140311/16731/how-nbc-tried-and-failed-bring-disney-world-new-york
Great guess mhb. Could be this or Santaland, or it could be all of them frankly. I would put nothing past Disney.
ReplyDeleteIf its disney land I do know that the entire region was pissed about him building it there and many still are
ReplyDeleteProbably Disney. But 1st snake that came to mind was Joe Kennedy.
ReplyDeletehttp://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-18/local/me-47119_1_ocean-park-pier
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-venice-beach-new-book-rise-and-fall-pacific-ocean-park-20140727-column.html
ReplyDeleteMy dad has inside information on this.
ReplyDeleteHoward Hughes buying out much better casino/hotel operations in Las Vegas is worth considering. He bought government left and right there.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/i-team-recluse-billionaire-arrives-in-las-vegas-in-1966/613154005
He also bought tons of land. The Summerlin and Red Rock communities on the West side are all on his land and were his vision.
DeleteIts Tesla / Edison. Edison basically had the monopoly on motion pictures back in the day (the story behind breaking that monopoly is really, really interesting and is basically why Hollywood is where it is. Those independents violating Edison's patents need to be as far away from Edison/NJ as humanly possible). Edison and Tesla had a legendary feud over power generation / transmission.
ReplyDeleteI am fairly certain (as much I can be without looking it up) that Tesla never married.
DeleteThe only problem with Tesla/Edison is that (IIRC) they had their feud before he was making any money from movies...But correct me if I'm wrong!
ReplyDeleteGates and Edison didn't begin with a ton of money from movies. This has to be Disney.
ReplyDeleteActually, you're wrong. Edison made a ton of money from movies. He held ALL the patents for the early movie technologies. He sued 20-30 companies that tried to get into the business. In 1908, he set up a company, the Motion Picture Patents Company, and asked his rivals to join in. That company was broken up in 1915 for antitrust reasons.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/09/thomas-edisons-plot-to-destroy-the-movies/
I don't know the answer to this blind but I do see how this could be Edison and Tesla.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of Tesla until about 20 years ago. A lot of people didn't know about him then.
Disney has the legal go-ahead to purchase FOX. Don't they already own ABC?
http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/27/media/disney-fox-antitrust/index.html
A while back I read an article. Someone asked Einstein what it was like to be the smartest person alive. His reply:
ReplyDelete"I don't know. Ask Nikolai Tesla."
I realize that the Edison/Tesla feud deserves to be better known (Edison apparently bragged that he was successful because he "knew how to steal"), but I think this is an amusement park:
ReplyDeleteThe unknown completed the project and was far superior and a much bigger success than the project of the A+++ lister. It was huge. The whole world took notice and the A+++ lister was having none of it. He arranged for teams to infiltrate the project and damage as much as they could so visitors would get upset and not return.
Edison stole Tesla's ideas, but those ideas did not have "visitors," nor were they "huge." You cannot "infiltrate" a project like an electrical generator; but you can infiltrate your competitor's amusement park and sabotage it.
It's the Disney guess. Besides, ever since I read about the Reedy Creek Improvement District in Florida, I've been convinced Disney is part anti-Christ. But don't go to Wiki -- here's the link at Daily Rotten:
http://www.rotten.com:80/library/travel/walt-disney-world/
Reading the rest of the answers, this blind definitely refers to Pacific Ocean Park (1958-67). It was built specifically to compete with Disneyland (1955-present).
ReplyDeleteDisneyland was an ABC venture. Pacific Ocean Park was a CBS venture. They both competed for corporate sponsors on rides and attractions.
After it opened, Pacific Ocean Park was pulling in more daily visitors than Disneyland.
Tesla never married, the blind said his wife was harrassed. So can't be them.
ReplyDeleteDisneyland was popular from the start. Epcot wasnt built til after Walt's death. Theme parks were not a new invention, there plenty of them already in the USA.
Wonder if it has something to do with the at-the-time new TV industry. (someone transitioning from movies to develop TV)
Howard Hughes
ReplyDeleteHe transitioned from film, where he made his money to aerospace and aviation. He did a lot of govt contracts.
This is about Santa's Village...its apparent from the Wikipedia page that matches up with the blind.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the whole world ever took notice of Santa's Village, nor was it far superior and a bigger success than disneyland
ReplyDeleteI thought this was Steve Jobs at first, but now I think its Walt Disney and - oh, let's see, how about Don Knotts for Knotts Berry Farms??? LOL
ReplyDeleteRead Disney: The Mouse Betrayed
ReplyDeleteThe only thing Howard Hughes had that got visitors was the Spruce Goose....and he didn't plan it that way!
ReplyDeleteNOT Santa's Village which was open til 1998, 4 decades of operation.
NOT Knott's Berry Farm, where my daughter was last Friday. It's never had to close.
It's Pacific Ocean Park.
There are severe problems with a Disney - Pacific Ocean Park guess.
ReplyDeleteThe unknown was imaginative and had groundbreaking ideas. At first, the two spent some time talking, but when the A+++ lister realized his project was inferior,
POP was a bunch of cheap Art Deco and Googie stunts - NOTHING at all original or imaginative or superior - he was just a copycat. It was built in a harsh and corrosive beachfront environment that meant its cheap construction couldn't last - NOTHING superior about it at all. POP never thought through parking and other logistics issues to any depth needed - NOTHING at all superior about it.
The unknown was forced to sell to cover all the mounting debts and liens that the A+++ lister had arranged.
Construction tradespeople and lenders are who arrange these things!!! Only if Disney actually helped FINANCE this venture, as an ally, would he arrange these things. Oh, but right - the whole "lawyer" fiction about this site was never meant to be taken seriously. It isn't as if an actual LAWYER doesn't know that liens and debts come through construction contractors and lenders - NOT business rivals.
Pacific Ocean Park was cheaply built crap that couldn't withstand a harsh environment, couldn't withstand development pressures around it, and never had its logistics right. No one needed to sabotage it for it to fail.
Meanwhile Disney was INTENSELY busy building his empire in these years - not obsessed with some rival who had a LOT to learn, and would, without any wasted time from Disney.
The blind says the unknown was forced to sell. It doesn't say the park was closed.
ReplyDeletehttps://skyparksantasvillage.com/learn/
ReplyDeleteSanta’s Village opened 6 weeks before Disneyland according to this article.
http://www.santasvillage.net/glenn-holland-santas-village-skyforest.html
DeleteGlenn Holland
It's Edison and Tesla.
ReplyDeleteTo those saying it can't be Edison because he didn't have movie money, you need to do five minutes of research into Edison's career. The Hollywood film industry was founded largely by people seeking to escape Edison's total monopoly on film-making in the eastern US. The man pretty much was the US film industry for a number of years and he made enormous amounts of money in it.
He also was literally world famous in an era during which very, very few people achieved that. He was a criminal, a thief, a scoundrel, and a general piece of shit, but he was definitely A+++.
Not saying this is true but IF it’s Disney it makes me think of Fairyland which opened in Oakland in 1950.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fairyland.org/all-about-fairyland/history-of-the-park/
In 1950, the year Fairyland first opened:
Admission cost between 9 and 14 cents
Costumed guides led children through the fairytale landscape
All of the fanciful storybook sets were created by local architect William Russell Everitt
Businessman Arthur Navlet, who owned a successful nursery, designed the gardens — some original plantings still thrive today
Walt Disney visited and incorporated ideas from Fairyland in his “magic kingdom,” which opened in Anaheim in 1955
Walt Disney also hired Fairyland’s first executive director, Dorothy Manes, and one of our puppeteers, Bob Mills
https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2017-02-23/original-happiest-place-earth
Within five years, dozens of “sister parks,” using the Fairyland model, sprang up in cities and towns across America, although only a handful still survive. But the most successful Fairyland spinoff was created by Walt Disney, a frequent visitor to the park before he built Disneyland, who not only used Fairyland as his model for Fantasyland, but also hired Fairyland’s director, Dorothy Manes, to be Disneyland’s Special Events Administrator, and its first puppeteer, Bob Mills, to run the marionette shows in Disneyland’s Tinker Bell Toy Shop.
“We don’t mind being ripped off because the more the merrier,” says Hirschfield.
@ Aimless Spectator
ReplyDeleteThe guess can be correct while the other aspects of the blind itself is full of error and fabrication. It happens here all the time.
*are (full of)
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThis blind is probably about Howard Hughes and Jay Sarno rivalry in Las Vegas. Ties in to recent Vegas related blinds, such as the Mandalay Bay one, which is in turn related to what Sarno founded.
Unlike the dismal "originality" of Pacific Ocean Park (seriously Southern California was already strewn with Art Deco and increasingly strewn with Googie), Ceasar's Palace and Circus Circus genuinely were highly innovative and competed with Hughes to turn Vegas into a family destinated resort oriented place. Hughes worked through proxies and had plenty of bribed local government in his pocket.
Tesla was never married. Can't be him - unless Edison had his thugs sexually abuse his pet pigeon.
ReplyDeleteerrr, "family destination resort" I meant to say.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, Disney Cruise Lines?
ReplyDeleteUniversal Theme Parks vs. Disney? I know that doesn’t fit the blind at 1st glance, there is a lot bad blood between them.
Sea World?
It gets confusing after reading about corporate takeovers & selling off properties.
It shocks me the number of people who think Gates stole anything. I was cutting my teeth in computer science then and He was the Energizer Bunny of both ideas and implementation.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe it's Disney either.
I think it's something as genius as Edison/Tesla or something as simple as Las Vegas.
Movies/visitors - I think it's Disney and from all the options of parks it sounds like he Vince McMahon'd all his copetition.Did he have many animated movie rivals?
ReplyDeletecompetiton.
ReplyDeleteBrayson, are you on the Stephan Hawking group?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, always enjoy your comments.
@Aimless Spectator - did you ever go to Pacific Ocean Park? For anyone who did not visit the amusement park, see TV show Route 66 Season 2, Episode 29 which was filmed at Pacific Ocean Park.
ReplyDeleteCould be the rivalry between Disney and Universal as described in this article:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140411/17483/10-strange-facts-about-disney-universal-theme-park-rivalry
"Universal's original plans for its Florida studios called for a "front lot" walking tour, as well as a tram tour through the studio's backlot. One set-piece, designed by Academy Award-winning art director Henry Bumstead, would see an enormous King Kong figure attack the tram as it passed over a New York bridge. Another, the "Hollywood Canyon", would see a tram rolling onto a bridge in view of the Hollywood Hills. A massive earthquake would then strike, causing a dam to crack and a wall of water to pour down towards the tram, which would escape into an oil field in time for riders to witness a semi-trailer truck explode after crashing into an oil tank.
The initial plans for Disney-MGM Studios, announced in 1985, bore a striking resemblance to those for Universal’s tour. The main attraction would be a tram tour past four working soundstages, an animation building, backlot sets and post-production facilities. One of the set pieces to be included in the tour would be “Catastrophe Canyon”, during which an earthquake would shake the tram, cause fires to ignite, lead to an oil tank explosion and trigger a flash flood. The similarities to Universal’s proposed Hollywood Canyon were undeniable."
It's not Edison and Tesla, for fuck's sake. The blind is about a DESTINATION, "He arranged for teams to infiltrate the project and damage as much as they could so visitors would get upset and not return." - neither Tesla nor Edison had projects that involved VISITORS, you blockheads.
ReplyDeleteGetting really sick of this new crop of idiots using the comments to grind out their crank conspiracy theories. READ THE FUCKING WORDS, THEY MEAN THINGS.
GAH. Fucking conspiracy theory idiots. I fucking loathe you.
The way some of you state patent absurdities as though they are the gospel truth is equal parts amusing and disturbing. It is well known Tesla never married so the whole teslin tesla/edison thing is non sense.
ReplyDeleteMore likely disney. Little known fact prior to construction of Disney World Whitey Ford Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle owned a bunch of land right in the middle of where Walt wanted to build. Mental and Whitey Ford sold their land quickly Yogi held out, and made many multiples on his Investment.
Not clear on the relationship between CDAN site and AGC site, but the AGC site misconfirmed this as "Disney World" (FL) instead of "Disneyland" (CA).
ReplyDelete