PLEASANT ROWLAND:


A reclusive "perfectionist" repeatedly described as aloof, condescending, unresponsive, dictatorial, and out of touch in the county newspaper's staff editorials...
June 25, 2001: Pleasant Rowland has remained, for the most part, a mystery. She's spoken publicly less than a handful of times, and despite promises that her newly-formed foundation will be open to listen to the concerns of all residents, few of us have seen or heard much outside of orchestrated public events....

Sunday, August 19, 2001: The power of Wells College and Rowland could all too easily squeeze out dissenting opinion and dictate the functioning of government, particularly the conduct of its planners. We don’t think the college’s highest officials would regret an obedient community marching to Rowland’s drum. The people urging caution have been treated as silly worriers impeding the inexorable of progress. There is nothing wrong with progress....But there’s something more important than progress, pretty buildings or efforts to preserve a building’s historic accuracy. It’s the protection of speech and the confidence that local government will make decisions on the merits, not at the direction of powerful forces.

Monday, November 12, 2001: Part of the problem with... Rowland herself, is an elusive attitude, particularly when explaining plans in a public forum. Rowland has worked hard to make herself personally inaccessible to the media, and much of the time Waller has not answers to questions that Rowland should be held accountable to answer. She came into the project like gangbusters, attended one public meeting that she orchestrated, and expected the village to fall at her feet in grateful admiration for her willingness to be its benefactor.... [but] people have a right to expect her to be accountable.

Monday, May 9, 2005: The most frequently heard complaint about Rowland has been her lack of accessibility. She speaks almost exclusively through other people, and won't address any criticism. Rowland may be private, but she has chosen to make very public real estate purchases in the village through her foundation. She can't have it both ways. Rowland may be shy, but her approach comes across as condescending. She's an out-of-state resident (her permanent home is in Wisconsin) who has more decision-making power than anyone else in the village, and yet she refuses to talk with those who disagree with her.
With pots of money and interesting legal problems...
Pleasant Thiele Rowland (Frautschi) of Middleton, Wisconsin has been named to the Forbes 400 List of the wealthiest people in the country. After selling her American Girl Doll Company for more than $700 million, she became Vice-Chair of the Board of Mattel. In that position, she was named in share-holder lawsuits alleging gross fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement, which were settled with court-ordered changes of the board's conduct and policies on insider trading, etc.
And little conscience...

Barbie and American Girl Doll, The Washington Post
Pleasant Rowland has no shame. Or if she once had, it vanished for a price. Rowland, who founded Pleasant Co., purveyors of tasteful , costly American girl dolls, recently sold her empire for a cool $700 million to Mattel Inc., the giant toymaker, whose tawdry low-rent mainstay, the Barbie doll, was the reason Rowland began making dolls in the first place. Rowland envisioned her sturdy Molly and plucky Samantha as alternatives to fashion-plate Barbie. Priced at more than $80, they come with natural-fiber clothing, simulated antiques and books that tell stories about them.

But times have changed, and with them, so has Barbie. She is stouter now, and less vapid looking.... Only occasionally - when, for example, she shows off her body in a tight, iridescent bikini, - would you suspect the truth: that 39 years ago, Mattel founder Ruth Handler was inspired by a German hooker doll that was sold in tobacco shops as a gag gift for men.

Mattel says it bought Pleasant Co. because of its strength in mail-order sales, an area where Mattel is weak, and as a fresh domestic brand to peddle over seas. But the acquisition, like the recent revamping of Barbie, signals something more profound to me: Americans' preoccupation with social class.
But strong ties to the Hoffman Institute, defined by psychologists as a white collar cult or LGAT -- lead by Raz Ingrasci, former top aide to EST founder Werner Erhart and past national director of the notorious Lifespring group.
The LIGHT News
November 2000

In an act of unprecedented generosity, the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation has purchased a beautiful, permanent site for the Hoffman Process in California. Located in the scenic Napa Valley, White Sulphur Springs Resort was a $5.8 million acquisition. Hoffman President Raz [Charles] Ingrasci said, "With this gift, Pleasant Rowland has brought forth an expansive new future for the Quadrinity Process. This property gives the Hoffman Institute a horizon for growth of 500 percent. Now we have the capacity to serve more people than ever before. This is a dream come true."

Pleasant - who lives in Madison, Wisconsin - took the Process in 1991. Since then, many of her family and friends have also benefited from the Process. To honor Pleasant, the Institute has created a special Parents' Scholarship Fund in her name for the specific purpose of financially supporting parents of young children who want to take the Quadrinity Process.

The entire Hoffman community feels enormous gratitude toward Pleasant Rowland for empowering the Hoffman Institute mission. Because of her gift, thousands upon thousands of people will find healing and experience greater forgiveness, compassion, freedom and joy.

The Process was previously presented at White Sulphur Springs from 1994 through 1998. In those five years thousands of students graduated from the Process and remember it as a very beautiful and supportive setting. We are excited that the Process is returning there. "White Sulphur Springs is a beautiful, serene and safe place to be," said Elena Ducharme, an August '98 graduate. "The grounds and spaces are beautiful. There isn't anything that interferes with your experience. The environment is luxuriously simple."
A Wells alumna who is mocked by the Wells student body, and...
From the Student Newspaper, The Onyx, the April 2003 "Best of Wells" issue:

Best Fascist in Town: This [award] goes to the one whose name we shall not speak. The one who put LATTICE in front of the FARGO. Yeah, lattice! The only person with the audacity to own a restaurant that sells $5.00 tuna sandwiches in an area where more than 25% of the households make less than $15,000. The only person with the audacity to not leave a tip to the wait-staff at said restaurant, despite the millions that she flaunts. The only person with a house bigger than the French House in a town that she doesn't actually live in. ...

The Onyx Opinion Page, October 10, 2003: Wanted: Academic Sugar Mama

...Wells College has had over the past few years an excellent benefactress, an alum, who has dedicated herself to beautifying the campus.....I feel it is not appropriate to criticize how any of our benefactors choose to spend their money. When you have built a multimillion dollar business and you choose to buy your alma mater an Italian carpet, I am sure you too will find it galling to have runny-nosed 19-year-olds criticizing your taste. Ladies, this is pointless. Enjoy the carpet and get back to work... Unfortunately for us students, our benefactressÔø1⁄2 primary interest with regard to Wells seems to be in our fine historic buildings, and not in the people who work in them. These things happen. What Wells needs, then, is an ACADEMIC Sugar Mama.... Wells College needs to hike up its metaphorical skirt and show some fishnet-covered calf. We have to go out there and seduce another sugar mama to provide our professors with adequate compensation for all the work they do...
Widely known for being a tad vindictive.
The Damnest Interview I Ever Had, from a reporter on the Wisconsin State Journal

Now, all of this advice assumes you've done the basic good reporter work first. Before you go out, you need to talk to the friends and enemies...I had done weeks of research for a profile of Pleasant Rowland, founder of the company that makes American Girl dolls. Rowland tightly controls media access and refused to allow us to shoot photos of her. It took much cajoling and vetting with handlers to get a short interview in her office.

I later heard from sources inside the company that she had secretly tape-recorded the interview, and later hung the tran- script at company headquarters, highlighting places where she felt her quotes were taken out of context. I relied on written notes and still regret not taping that interview.

I never heard from her or the company afterward, but did hear from people who were told she wanted me fired. To re-quote one source from my profile, which was about 98 percent laudatory, "Pleasant, isn't."

So, my final piece of advice is never underestimate the subject of your profile. It turned out that I was safer on the mean streets of Milwaukee than in the Valley of the Dolls...
A former teacher who marketed consumerism and false history,
Girl World: American Girl Place, Making "History," Philadelphia Inquirer

One day this summer, I went to Chicago... In the capital of the Midwest is a place that has... become a shrine for girls and a refuge for their mothers, an antidote to a coarse culture that urges young girls to confront Wonderbras and contraception when they just want to play with dolls. Here's a place that projects simplicity and purity, a love of history and, in the words of its founder, a chance "to create your own special memory for your American girl." And here's what I found:

Mothers will buy anything wholesome and cute, and grandmothers are even worse. History is another name for replicas of old things for sale. Doll hair stylists are looking to be the next growth industry.

Uplifting lessons are a central offering of American Girl Place, nestled in a handsome building just off fancy Michigan Avenue. But the atmosphere is so oppressively commercial, so thoroughly inauthentic, that I had to take a break and walk around outside. Where, of course, I spotted zillions of happy women carrying crisp, red American Girl shopping bags....

More than a million people have visited American Girl Place [in two years]... always with a doll, one of the six American Girl dolls themed to a historical period,,,, It's all part of an empire built by clever Pleasant T. Rowland, who began marketing high-end dolls in 1986 by cloaking them with the veneer of history....

"Putting vitamins in chocolate cake!" is how Pleasant Rowland describes the way she spoon-feeds "history" through books, clothes and a musical revue so sugary it can induce diabetic shock. But it's not history; it's another way to sell merchandise - $25 million in sales the first year. Beneath the "historical displays" for each American Girl doll are rows of coupons for the items in the dioramas, which can be purchased right there.

In fact, everything in American Girl Place is for sale. Everything. It is a seamless commercial for itself. The cup-and-saucer set ($18) and miniature doll seat ($25) used in the dining room for tea ($16). The sailor dress ($95) worn in the revue ($25 a seat). The polka-dotted, beribboned box filled with suggestions for mealtime conversation ($10.95) - which I suppose is for families who want "special memories" but can't think of anything to say. You can even buy an American Girl palm-size planner for $65. (Then you can plan to do more shopping.)

I asked Anne Maddox, vice president/general manager of American Girl Place, whether dolls costing $84 weren't outrageously expensive. "In relation to what?" she answered a bit defensively. "A pair of Nikes?" Indeed, a block away at Niketown, the latest sneakers were selling for $85. But then, Nike doesn't aim to be anything but a commercial enterprise. American Girl Place pretends to be about sweetness and togetherness, but the real message is: Happiness is a Stuffed Shopping Bag.

Who has inspired a new novel, and...
J. Rbert Lennon has something for Everyone," Being There

"I wrote this novel called Happyland...And it got pulled by the publisher because they were afraid of getting sued by someone who is similar to someone in the book....The end of the story seems to be that Harperís is going to run it as a serial [staring in July 2006]...

Itís about the CEO of a doll and childrenís book company that buys a small town...I turned my main characteróthis woman, Happy Masters, who runs this company...she basically is just this horrible backstabber who manipulates everyone and lies about everything. And the legal problem I described earlier is basically that there really is a woman who is the founder of a childrenís book and doll company who bought almost all of a small town not far from here. The similarities basically end there; I made up the character whole cloth. However, there really is only one person in America who corresponds to that job description..."

I think itís a funny book, and it ended up being kind of timely. Itís about people feeling powerless against someone who is a leader that they feel they did not choose."


Who is trying to control all public aspects of
culture, community and commerce in Aurora, NY.