LONE TREE, Colo. - In the corner suite of a two-story office building in suburbia, the imagination of Baby Einstein founder Julie Aigner-Clark runs wild.<br>
<br>
<br>
She giggles as she winds up toy chicks that hop across a makeshift stage in a warehouse room filled with dolls and puppets.<br>
<br>
The chicks' jerky movements become a dance to the staccato pace of ``William Tell Overture,'' on a video. In another, Aigner-Clark reads poems that are dubbed over scenes of twirling tops and painting puppets. In a third, characters bob to the chants of the alphabet in several languages.<br>
<br>
Baby Einstein educational videos are designed to teach infants and young children human expression, including language, art and music, as well as concepts. They've caught the attention of the Walt Disney Co., which purchased the homespun business in November for an undisclosed amount.<br>
<br>
Media analyst David Miller of Sutro & Co. said the two companies complement each other.<br>
<br>
``It's family-oriented, educational, and that really is the Disney brand right there,'' he said.<br>
<br>
Miller said the purchase is relatively small for Disney, which paid $5.2 billion for Fox Family Worldwide Inc. in October.<br>
<br>
Aigner-Clark, 35, graduated from Michigan State University with a major in English and moved to New Jersey to teach middle school and high school.<br>
<br>
When she quit her job as a schoolteacher to be a stay-at-home mom for her first daughter, Aigner-Clark found her hectic life left her little time to herself. She came up with the idea of a video to occupy her infant long enough to get some free time to make a phone call or take a shower.<br>
<br>
Living in Atlanta in 1997, she cobbled together the first video, ``Baby Einstein,'' in her basement using personal savings and a producer she found in the Yellow Pages.<br>
<br>
``It was literally me pushing 'play' on the Beta Cam and dragging a cat across a table with fishing line,'' she said.<br>
<br>
She first pitched ``Baby Einstein'' to CNN. Soon, the basement-produced video was selling in Japan via CNN's Web site and at The Right Start, a specialty toy store.<br>
<br>
A year later, customers clamoring for more convinced Aigner-Clark to produce a second video called ``Baby Mozart,'' later adding ``Baby Bach,'' ``Baby Shakespeare'' and ``Baby Van Gogh.''<br>
<br>
Her husband, Bill Clark, was worked for a Michigan-based company designing curricula for elementary school science before he began helping with the financial aspects of Baby Einstein.<br>
<br>
Video sales were $100,000 in the first year, and the company grew by more than 4,000 percent in less than three years.<br>
<br>
Last year, Baby Einstein sales topped $11 million, and projected revenue for 2001 is $17 million.<br>
<br>
Today, the collection includes seven videos, DVDs, flashcards, toys and board books. To date, more than 3 million items have sold.<br>
<br>
``I guess I just hit on an idea that nobody had come up with, or they didn't know how to do it,'' Aigner-Clark said.<br>
<br>
``The idea was just to give kids something nourishing. I want babies to see elephants roll in the water, live in herds and take care of one another.''<br>
<br>
``They're lovely. They're gentle. They're not frenetic,'' said Boulder resident Laurie Cooke, a stay-at-home mom of 1-year-old twins.<br>
<br>
``You kind of lose your creativity in trying to teach things to your baby and to have the tapes there and be able point to a cow or banana ... it helps,'' Kelly Mueldener, also of Boulder, said just after purchasing her daughter's fourth video, ``Baby Van Gogh.''<br>
<br>
Baby Einstein will remain a brand separate from Disney, said Disney spokesman Russell Hampton, who will become the new manager of Baby Einstein.<br>
<br>
Disney plans create a Little Einstein series targeting 2- to 5-year-olds as well as a daily TV show and more board books, he said.<br>
<br>
Disney plans to retain Aigner-Clark and her husband as consultants.<br>
