60 minutes rewind
when michael jackson died this past summer he had nearly a half a billion dollars in debts but since
then it's been a great year for his career lawyers for his estate say they've lined up merchandising
deals worth a hundred million dollars and surging record sales and other income are likely
to produce another 100 million and it's not that unusual decades after their demise some departed
stars continue to work on new projects and draw more income than they ever made while they were
drawing breath and there is a growing legion of agents and managers willing to represent them
dead celebrities can be just as lucrative as many live ones and in some cases a lot less trouble
i was known for going up and down hollywood boulevard no other agent in the world represents
more famous people than mark rossler errol flynn of course robin hood natalie wood stroll down
hollywood boulevard and he'll point out 62 of his clients who were immortalized with their own stars
on the walk of fame gloria swanson marilyn monroe his client lists include some of the biggest names
of the 20th century actresses like ingrid bergman and betty davis baseball legends babe ruth and lou
gehrig singers ella fitzgerald and billie holiday who all have one thing in common besides their
greatness we're a business agent for about 250 entertainment sports music and historical clients
but most of those are deceased dead yet there are working stiffs i guess you could say that
you could call rossler's business a william morris agency for the departed the caa of the
doa it's called cmg and it's headquartered far from the glitter of hollywood in an office park
on the fringes of indianapolis distinguished only for the orange wind sock for rossler's helipad
and his green bentley inside is a multi-tiered office lined with memorabilia from his departed
clients first stop a suit worn by one of the blues brothers i've represented the
family of john belushi his widow judy for almost 20 years it is all tastefully done and quiet as a
morgue a shrine of sorts for legend whose time on earth has ended but whose career still has a pulse
strong enough to produce a stream of revenue it is part of their legacy now and may be the ultimate
show business compliment they may be dead but they still have an agent who's finding them work what
do you do for them well it's really not that much different than if they were alive you can't book
them for personal appearances that that's correct we can't talk to them we can't get their approval
but we'll we'll get somebody's approval his real clients are the heirs and estates of the
dearly departed who ultimately approve or reject the merchandising deals that cmg puts together
this is our basement where we have kind of the archives of the past 27 years of the company a
lot of the different samples they range from low end tchotchkes trash cans to handbags
to the mid-range items like maryland merlot rated as one of the best california merlots
year after year to the playfully purim outfits inspired by the late pinup queen betty page
they're marketed as halloween costumes but rossler says they seem to sell all year round this is the
devil costume included the whip is included yes and the tail and the horns and the horns
the product endorsements run the gamut from paraphernalia to the pinnacle of post-mortem
prestige and rossler has licensed more than 200 deals with the u.s postal service here's a boxer
jack dempsey of course jesse owens one of the early stamps with babe ruth of course jackie
robinson a bit part of the baseball series a very successful stamp with malcolm x so these are all
clients yes these are all clients the agency has created websites for all its deceased clients and
maintains and revives their fan clubs we get at least 15 million hits a day that come through this
this building for the different clients that we represent it is all part of a legal and
entertainment niche that rossler pioneered more than 25 years ago after graduating from law school
where did that idea come from i really thought it'd be nice to be an agent but i really
couldn't being from indiana i really couldn't represent anybody famous because everybody living
would have already been represented so really the only opportunity was to represent deceased people
and i happened to notice that deceased personalities didn't have really any protection
until rossler came along in the early 80s a celebrity's right to control or profit
from their good name was buried along with them their heirs had virtually no say in
how their loved one's image or persona was used and no claim to any of the monies they generated
so russler set about trying to change that in courts and in state legislatures around
the country first client helping to establish what is now recognized as the post-mortem right
to publicity the right to publicity i don't remember reading that in the bill of rights
where does that come from we have the right to prevent our name our likeness our image our
signature our voice from being used in some commercial fashion now in a number of states that
right passes on to the airs just like a house or a bag of old coins and one of the first
beneficiaries lived right down the road from rossler in fairmount indiana marcus winslow
is the cousin of james dean who died in a car accident in 1955 after making just three movies
but the image of this rebel without a cause has become a commercial icon and 50 years after he
crashed his porsche james dean is still selling german cars and italian shoes but when rossler
first showed up at the family farm in 1982 dean's heirs had no idea how big their jimmy had become
until mark showed up the estate had gotten no money at all from james dean i don't
think he would approve of uh perfect strangers of making money off of his name and his likeness if
his family didn't have something to say about it and so he's made a lot more money oh since
he died oh yeah than he did while he was live no question oh yes he'd be an old man yeah he'd be uh
77 years old but he'll never be any older than 24. the image is frozen in time now and the success
of dean's post-career career has helped turn the marketing of dead celebrities into an 800 million
a year industry and advances in technology are creating more and more opportunities for the
deceased personal appearances are still out of the question but nearly anything else is
becoming possible all it takes is a virtual set like this one at cbs television city in hollywood
and some computer generated imagery and you can revive long dormant careers why don't you
take one of your big hits and do it over for ricky taylor it for him it happened one notchy
i'm afraid well it was just a thought
the ricardo's a wimpole street sorry lucy
the story will continue after this
the heirs of fred astaire were able to relaunch his career selling electric brooms during halftime
at a super bowl and elvis was able to sing a duet with celine dion on american idol elvis
many think is the perfect business model for the michael jackson estate elvis is the all-time king
of afterlife income and still pulls in 50 million dollars a year but then elvis is more than a dead
celebrity he is also a destination and 28 dollars ahead everybody ready to see graceland yes welcome
graceland and the rest of the elvis realm is now controlled by billionaire entertainment
entrepreneur robert sillerman and this modest by today's standards home is the second most visited
private residence in the united states it's seen by six hundred thousand people a year silliman
doesn't just represent elvis he owns elvis four years ago he spent a hundred million dollars to
buy 85 percent of the rights to the presley estate turned out to be a wonderful deal for us and for
the family with everyone now getting their 15 minutes of fame on cable television and the web
silverman doesn't believe there will ever be another phenomenon quite like elvis who has
turned out to be relatively recession-proof some parts of his business are actually up
why do you think they're up well i would love to say that it's because of our brilliant management
um not it just did i said i would love to say it i didn't say it was true
but the fact is is that you can't manufacture the affection and the appeal that elvis has he's dead
are you sure if he's not dead a lot of people have wasted money on flowers then there's the more than
five thousand elvis related products and all those impersonators in 2002 the bbc did a report
on occupations in the united states and they said that according to the irs that over 84 000 people
said that being an elvis tribute artist then called an elvis impersonator was their principal
occupation silverman is not the only billionaire in the dead celebrity business the photo archive
corbis owned by bill gates is branched out from photo and film rights to representing the deceased
people who appear in them the agency called green light was run until recently by martin cribbs
its eclectic clientele includes the wright brothers opera star maria kalas and steve mcqueen
who has had a couple of breakout years selling mustangs and watches what is the brand what
does the image say i think that the image of steve mcqueen is really the anti-metrosexual
it's being sort of sophisticated and masculine without affectation it's not clear whether the
macho man would be happy modeling clothes for dolce and gabbana but that decision now rests
with his family do you have a name for your deceased clients to labs the labs to labs yes
as in dead celebrity correct who's your biggest delib albert einstein he's our he's our number
one man bigger than marilyn monroe and james dean huge huge the biggest in the world albert einstein
was time magazine's person of the century every 12 year old in the world recognizes his picture and
instantly equates it with genius and einstein's beneficiary the hebrew university of jerusalem
has earned millions and millions of dollars from baby einstein videos and
nike commercials featuring kobe bryant executing a genius move as the late princeton professor
the last time we saw martin kribs he was working up a campaign to resurrect the mildly scandalous
career of hollywood siren may west for a pitch to stationers and perfumers unlike agents for the
living he was at peace knowing that he didn't have to worry about her next movie bombing
or his client getting sent off to rehab or the headaches of having to deal personally with the
notorious diva maria kaus are there advantages to representing people who are dead absolutely
if you were a cosmetics company and you've invested a million dollars in in maria calais
i can guarantee you there's not going to be any wardrobe malfunctions or embarrassing photographs
getting out of a limousine in front of la scala without any underwear on so that's that's a huge
advantage