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When it comes to vanity projects, there are bad ideas, and then there are catastrophes. Some stars open restaurants with their windfalls or even finance their own movies, but Bruce Willis isn't just some star. He's the action hero from Die Hard, and he doesn't do anything small. Throughout the '90s, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore lived in the small town of Hailey, ID, which they transformed into their idea of paradise.
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Buying up an entire town and then becoming its de facto ruler
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sounds like the sort of power move that's the exclusive province of TV villains
0:08
like C. Montgomery Burns. Nonetheless, over the years, a few celebrities have managed to use their considerable wealth, fame
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and status to very nearly bring this fantasy to life. Today, we're talking about the time Bruce Willis
0:21
bought nearly an entire small town and reshaped it in his image
0:26
Time to talk about the return of Bruno to Haley, Idaho. In the early 1990s, Bruce Willis ranked among the biggest film stars in the entire world
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The Die Hard franchise was riding high. He was the voice of the lead baby in the Look Who's Talking movies
0:43
And most people had already completely forgotten about Hudson Hawk. He was also one half of a hot celebrity power couple
0:50
His wife, Demi Moore, was just coming off the global popularity of 1990s Ghost
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which showed the world just how erotic pottery making can be, provided you look like Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore while you're doing it
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The couple had some kids together as well, so they needed a space outside the hustle and bustle of Hollywood to raise their family
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Somewhere they wouldn't get recognized and chased around by the paparazzi every time they left the house
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The Willis Moores ultimately settled on Idaho's Sun Valley, a popular and not too far but still remote getaway from the Hollywood elite dating back to the 1930s
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According to Sun Valley's official website, Ernest Hemingway fell in love with Sun Valley and eventually made it his home
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He finished for Whom the Bell Tolls in Suite 206 of the Sun Valley Lodge
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Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, and Ingrid Bergman all came to play at the glamorous new winter wonderland
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That is some pretty distinguished clientele. Anyone vacationing in Sun Valley in the 90s could expect to be haunted by some especially glamorous ghosts
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At first, Willis attempted to buy a few properties around the town of Ketchum, Idaho, about 15 minutes north of Haley
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including a bar called the Dino-Mite Lounge, which is kind of the perfect name for a bar owned
1:58
by Bruce Willis, unless of course Jimmy Walker was on the market. But his plans for Ketchum included a skywalk
2:04
that would connect a few of his properties. The town's local authorities lacked the vision
2:08
to go along with Willis's idea, so he scrapped his Ketchum plans and looked elsewhere This brought him to Haley where Willis started buying up properties in 1994 under the corporate name Ixnay Investment Trust Oh Ixnay That kind of funny
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Willis was employing a tried and true tactic the Walt Disney Corporation had put to good use
2:27
a few decades earlier when they purchased roughly half the state of Florida. Even though a desire to get away from the chaos of life
2:36
in Los Angeles brought Bruce and Demi to Haley in the first place, they weren't
2:41
content to just leave the sleepy town the way they found it. An authentic slice of Americana
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where you can raise your kids in peace and serenity? That sounds nice, but also kind of boring
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The power couple had big plans to jazz things up a bit, or blues things up, whichever. Willis
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of course, already had bona fides as a celebrity entrepreneur, as a part owner in the Planet
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Hollywood restaurant franchise alongside Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. For those of
3:06
you who are too young to remember Planet Hollywood, it was a bit like Hard Rock Cafe
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but with movie memorabilia instead of rock and roll memorabilia, and somehow even less savory quesadillas
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That's no small feat. With some business world experience already under his belt
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Willis set up a real estate firm, Valley Entertainment, and hired a number of Haley locals as employees
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as many as 250 by some accounts. He then started buying, renovating, and reopening businesses
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first turning a run-down local dive bar into a club called The Mint
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Willis reportedly spent $200,000 on the property and millions more on the renovations
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But by the time he was done, it became a legit venue, hosting artists ranging from B.B. King to Buffalo Springfield
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He also purchased the historic local movie house, the Liberty Theater, and spent millions on renovations so costly
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the business never actually managed to turn a profit. According to LA Weekly
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during the theater's first ever premiere, Willis stood outside shouting, you can all come in now
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The Hershey bars and baby Ruths are free. Willis and Moore also grabbed a 50s style diner
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called Shorty's, which was popular with a local Haley breakfast crowd, and through extravagant fireworks
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laden 4th of July and Christmas celebrations on the town's main street
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And as you so often hear when discussing stories of celebrity excess, there, of course
4:22
was also the matter of a Victorian mansion filled with porcelain dolls
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Oh you don have one of those Well it seems that during his Haley Idaho shopping spree Willis also picked up a plot of land owned by some neighbors the Lawson family and threw in a very generous additional offer for the recently renovated Victorian mansion
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He then gave the mansion to Demi Moore as a gift for her 30th birthday, and she used it to house her collection of porcelain dolls
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which at the time numbered around 2,000. A sprawling mansion filled with thousands of creepy dolls
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That's a conjuring sequel waiting to happen. Obviously, there were some advantages to being a Haley resident during the boom-time Bruce Willis years
5:03
so long as you avoid the soon-to-be-haunted manor. After all, there was a newly renovated movie theater in town giving away all the baby roots you can eat
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But it didn't take long before complaints also started pouring in, and not just about the couple's extreme fame and Hollywood lifestyle impinging on their small-town peace
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Some of Bruce Willis' management practices began to rub residents the wrong way
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Over at Willis' new nightclub, The Mint, there were claims that the security team was a bit overzealous and aggressive in their dealing with the public
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Others alleged that the waitstaff was selling drugs on the side, though these charges were never fully investigated or proven
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Also, come on, that's kind of a hazard of running a nightclub. Employees had a range of complaints of their own
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Some alleged that a gregarious, hard-partying Willis would offer to put everyone's drinks on the house
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only for a more sober and fiscally responsible Willis to get angry with him for reckless spending
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and financial losses. More and more rumors spread about Willis the Taskmaster, a boss who was quick
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to frustration and would sometimes fire people without warning or explanation. He started
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requiring locals who would accept jobs for his various companies to sign NDAs and agreed to
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never speak with the press about their experience. Unless you're a spy or work for NASA, having to
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sign a bunch of NDAs for work is kind of a red flag. The famously reclusive Moore was the subject of local gossip as well, and allegedly began
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confronting people whom she believed were taking her picture or watching her and her family
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One witness alleged that Moore sent her children's nanny over to demand someone's camera at a
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Halloween party, worrying that they had snapped photos of her kids. As these kinds of stories continued to spread, Willis's relationship with the local media
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began to sour. In 1997, Haley's Wood River Journal ran a story about public lands that were being leased
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at below market value which included references to a cabin that Willis owned along with properties of a number of other celebrities On its own the story would probably not have been a huge deal
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It was literally about a cabin. No one was checking the wires for that hot scoop. But Willis's anger
7:00
with the paper and its editor, Wayne Adair, led him to cancel his advertising account. This decision
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in turn, became national news and helped to spread the word about the actor's investment in Haley
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to a much larger audience. Ultimately, the actor would end up chasing away
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a number of journalists and even a documentary film crew that was trying to tell the Haley story
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By the late 90s, it was clear that the Haley experiment was not quite working out the way everyone had hoped
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for reasons financial, cultural, and otherwise. By the time he and Moore separated in 1998
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Willis was already busily extracting himself from some of the Haley deals, including shutting down the Mint entirely
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and flipping shorties to new management. The diner's bookkeeper recalls one Sunday night
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that Willis simply walked into the establishment, clapped his hands, and said
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OK, close the place down. And that was that. That's easier than shutting down a plant at Hollywood
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You need at least a few moving vans to clear out all the striking distance memorabilia
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Willis was even accused of failing to pay some of the vendors and contractors who'd helped him turn around Haley's local businesses
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One lawyer, who was after the star for over $50,000 in back pay
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compared Willis' work in the town to stagecraft, alleging that he had turned the entire town
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into a projection of his on-screen persona, which sounds like a put-down
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but is honestly pretty impressive. Have you ever turned a town into an extension of your persona
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Stuff, they name a bunch of unflattering things after you once you leave. Willis still owns some property
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in and around Haley to this day, and even considered trying to build an airstrip
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in the relatively nearby town of Fairfield in 2016. Construction never started, though
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due to pushback from locals, many of whom have held a grudge for over 20 years
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just like anyone who's ever seen Hudson Hawk. Local bar and hotel owner Don Hogan told The Independent that
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while many appreciated the money Willis and his family brought into the town, it didn't exactly like dealing with him in person
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Hogan summarized the experience by saying, a lot of people like Bruce Willis until they have to deal with him
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I guess some things were just meant to be appreciated from afar. At least the residents of Haley, Idaho got a ton of free candy out of it
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