Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [43]
It’s sad in a way. Bill was still referring to it as the “entertainment and sports programming network” and from time to time he would ask, “Shouldn’t we be doing movies for women on Saturday afternoon?”
It was clear to Getty and Chet that you just literally had to retire him and his brother as gracefully as possible and get professional management people into the business. We at McKinsey completely agreed.
STUART EVEY:
When we took over the company, I made Bill chairman but in no way did I want to give him any responsibility. To him, it looked like a lot because he was the chairman and that was above the president. Well, that’s not what I intended. I was getting all kinds of heat from Chet about Bill’s involvement, and I was annoyed as well, so I’m telling you, it was really wearing thin. Chet having the ego he had—and rightfully so, he earned it—was not going to take a backseat to all of the stuff Bill was throwing around. Chet was there building the broadcast center, building the network, hiring employees. Having Bill Rasmussen play a significant role was just not part of the deal.
CHET SIMMONS:
The problem was, Bill didn’t have much to do. I don’t even know what he expected to do. I had no confidence in his ability to go beyond having come up with the idea. He was very good at that stuff. But he was only an idea guy, and the idea had already been formulated.
ANDY BRILLIANT:
Try and follow this: Simmons didn’t like Evey. I think Evey scared the living bejesus out of him. And Evey didn’t like Simmons. Rasmussen didn’t like Evey, but no matter, because Evey didn’t respect Rasmussen. Of course Simmons wanted nothing to do with Rasmussen, and Rasmussen didn’t like Simmons.
BILL RASMUSSEN:
A lady reporter from a news magazine called our office, where Chet and I sat, and the receptionist in the hallway said so-and-so was on the line and she wanted to speak with me. But Chet said, “I’ll take it,” and got on the line. The reporter said to him, “If I wanted to talk to you, I would have asked for you,” and told him to put me on the line. Chet was really upset. Stu would get mad too if people didn’t mention his name when they were interviewed. I would try to mention Getty, but people didn’t care about that. They knew Getty had money.
GEORGE CONNER:
I was in Bristol once, and Stu called me. He said, “George, did you see that article in Sports Illustrated? Why wasn’t my name mentioned?” He was really upset. Chet was the same way. He wanted to do the interviews and he wanted his name to be the one associated with the company. It became a very significant conflict.
CHET SIMMONS:
I didn’t want to deal with Bill. At that point, we didn’t like each other. I felt he got his nose into it when he didn’t know what he was talking about. We had a couple of screaming arguments where I screamed and he listened. I can scream with the best of them. Eventually, recognizing how I felt and recognizing how Stu felt, I think he knew his days were numbered. And they were.
BILL RASMUSSEN:
Basically they were paying me $100,000 just to sit there. Eventually, it just didn’t make any sense, and I went into Chet one day and said, “It’s time to go. Obviously I don’t have anything to do anymore.” So I initiated it, even though Stu initiated the idea that I would no longer be involved with anything. It was December 1980. So I stayed around for fifteen months after we first went on the air.
While I was leaving, Stu said, “I’m going to give you”—I’ve forgotten what the number was, maybe $50,000—“for all your stock, and you’re going give it to me.” I said, “No, I’m not. I would not do that.” He wanted our stock. He wanted everything. He said, “Well, all right, I’ll make it a quarter of a million.” I guess he was thinking we were so naive or so poor we would take it. Then Stu brought up the car again—the Cadillac. For such a small item, Stu was just bananas over that stuff. Flipped out. I was supposed to keep it. That was part of my leaving. He said, “You need to