Letters: Dec. 28, 1998

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THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BUSINESS GENIUSES

"The TIME 100 list of Builders and Titans is a strong reminder that successful businesses don't just happen, they are made." DON SANCTON Beaconsfield, Que.

I read with interest your amazing issue on successful business leaders [TIME 100, Dec. 7]. It was certainly one of the most informative reports I've ever read. Yet I was frustrated at not seeing an adequate representation of black achievers. In fact, your list might lead people to believe that blacks have made virtually no contribution to shaping our business world. We all know better. JULIUS I. KEY New York City

As a college senior and science major who knows little about business, I think it is important for the members of Generation X to learn who helped push this great nation forward. My favorite is air conditioning's "King of Cool," Willis Carrier. He is responsible for the refreshing air we live, work and play in--and take for granted. JASON ASHBURN Blacksburg, Va.

You glorified people who have become grotesquely wealthy and downplayed their negative impact on society. In many cases the detrimental effects have far outweighed any benefits incurred. Sam Walton created a company that has destroyed thousands of small businesses. Ray Kroc and McDonald's have given us unhealthy, tasteless food and a lot of low-paying jobs. Worst of all was your choice of builder William Levitt and Levittown's clone houses. Similar suburban developments have resulted in the paving over of thousands of acres of farmland and forest. These people were not visionaries; they were opportunists who diminished the American quality of life while enhancing their own personal wealth. MATTHEW D. MORAN Conway, Ark.

I enjoyed the profile of the "Lion of Hollywood," Louis B. Mayer, who helped found Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. For those of us growing up in the mid-1930s in the New York metropolitan area, Hollywood films were not only cheap entertainment but lessons as well. We safely watched suitable family entertainment, and on Saturday afternoons had a four-hour treat. For 25[cents] we could watch two great movies plus a cartoon and an exciting weekly chapter of a serial. What a great escape! JOAN S. MARKOWITZ Larchmont, N.Y.

In his piece about my father Walt Disney, Richard Schickel let his personal animus toward him overpower any objectivity. What is supposed to be biography is diatribe. Schickel put a sinister spin on every aspect of my father's life. It would have been impossible for the kind of man that Schickel portrays to create and produce the body of work that bears my father's name and imprint. No darkly driven, Scrooge-like character could have conceived those films, TV shows and amusement parks. Schickel should lighten up and undertake some serious research on this man, or he should leave him alone. DIANE DISNEY MILLER San Francisco

Having Richard Schickel write about Walt Disney is the equivalent of having the wicked stepmother critique Cinderella. What were you expecting from a noted anti-Disney author like Schickel? Disney, a man who made us laugh, who was called "Uncle" by generations of American children, who built an empire with his brother and revolutionized corporate America (Where would the 1990s be without synergy or branding?), deserved better. JOSH P. EDWARDS Naples, Maine