Really fascinating stuff. I had no idea the battle went all the way back to the movie rights, just because the films seemed so unlike something Disney would want. But I bet Monopoly Man Iger would've loved to have Scholastic as another notch in his bedpost.
I had an interesting thought on the Hawaiian shirt wearing toy collector segue...the theme park world is unquestionably better off with a Uni-built Potter world. Not only because of the higher quality Potter experience, but because it forced Iger and company to build Cars Land. Which, despite its obvious faults, was a big step forward for the mouse domestically. What would have happened in the Dumbo-dore verse? Where somehow, someway, JK went with Disney. Does Universal build LOTR a good decade and half before we might see it in 3rd gate? Do they ever get as ambitious as they did with Potter, without JK pushing their boundaries so hard? What happens to Orlando with a mediocre Potter land, and a fledgling Universal?
Imagine the current theme park renaissance we're finding ourselves in. It was apparently Disney's stubbornness that lost them Potter, but that also saved Orlando and ignited what looks to be the great arms race of the next 5+ years. What a story to be told.