Magic Kingdom Scores PR Coup With Liz Bash

Score another publicity coup for Disneyland.

The media calls have poured in from around the globe. Europe. The Far East. Even a television station in India has checked in. They all want to know about Elizabeth Taylor’s 60th birthday party tonight.

To each of them, park spokesman Greg Albrecht gives essentially the same response:

“This is not a Disneyland project. It’s a private party. We’re not commenting on the party,” he says in a huff.

Though it might sound like the Big Buzz-Off, analysts and observers say the celebrity press frenzy over the event will certainly reap tens of millions of dollars in favorable press for the nation’s premier theme park.

No matter how much Walt Disney Co. officials downplay the event, curiosity runs high about whether invited guest Michael Jackson will moonwalk down Main Street or if Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up and terminates one of Dumbo’s Flying Elephants.

The park is so concerned about intrusions by uninvited press that the Federal Aviation Administration is barring flyovers within 1,000 feet for all but a few media choppers. The restrictions are aimed at keeping the Magic Kingdom skies from looking like a Vietnam airborne assault without impeding the Goodyear blimp from drifting gracefully overhead with its own birthday greeting.

Taylor’s staff and Disneyland officials, for their part, are working overtime to carefully control the images and words that flow from the Fantasyland party. Only a select few entertainment writers and columnists are among the 1,000 guests. A single photographer selected by Taylor’s handlers will be the official provider of still pictures inside the party area, and few select others will be allowed to snap photos of arrivals.

“Don’t expect to see pictures of Liz bending over to tie her shoe,” said free-lance photographer Scott Downie, who complained that the paparazzi limitations are so tight that he plans to choose another star-studded gala somewhere else instead. “You can’t even get into the (Disneyland) parking lot.”

Controlled or not, Disneyland stands to reap a publicity windfall.

“They are masters at that,” said Paul Marsh, entertainment and media analyst for brokerage Kemper Securities Group in Los Angeles. “I can’t calculate how much free publicity that will be, but you can bet this event will be on every single news program. It’s a real coup.”

Another entertainment analyst, Lee S. Isgur of the investment banking firm Volpe, Welty & Co. in San Francisco, noted that this publicity surge comes during the off-season in the theme park business, when Disneyland can use it most.

“Disney gets far more free publicity than what they buy,” he said. Consumers naturally gravitate away from gloom-and-doom news toward any word about the Disney empire because “everyone is interested in Mickey Mouse.”

Gobs of publicity gushed from Disney-tailored media events like the 35th anniversary of Disneyland in 1990 and the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney World in Florida last year. The Disney publicity machine is already cranked up for the opening of Euro Disneyland outside Paris this spring.

Isgur said that while some corporations have known they could rent a themed area of Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm for an after-hours party, the Taylor event will give the special events side of Disneyland’s business a new luster. He described the rentals as “very lucrative” for the park.

One of the few elements of the Liz birthday bash that Disneyland officials have been more open in discussing is the park rental cost--starting at $8,000 for an evening. Catering and security for the Taylor affair have led to speculation that the event will cost upward of $125,000. Neither Disneyland nor Taylor officials will say who is footing the bill.