Spartan Echo

Section: Entertainment

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Down a crowded merchant-lined street in downtown Los Angeles called Santee Alley, a handful of vendors are selling Michael Jackson T-shirts. Two shirts memorialize his passing, but one gets the date of his death wrong. The other has no collar tag.

Martin Melendes, a store manager, looks askance at a reporter's questions about the $15 Jackson shirts worn by his mannequins. "You're not with the FBI?" he asks. Stepping away from his boss, he says excitedly, "We sold 2,000 T-shirts in the first week. We're still selling a lot."

Since the King of Pop died late last month, people around the world have mourned his passing. Others set out to make a quick buck. Now, as estate lawyers battle to secure his fortune in court, they are turning their attention to the hucksters flooding stores and street corners with unauthorized Jackson memorabilia.

This is not just about a T-shirt or two. At stake are tens of millions of dollars in annual merchandising royalties alone, estimates Mark Roesler, chief executive of CMG Worldwide, the business agent who handles licensing and collects revenue for the estates of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and other deceased celebrities.

Elvis Presley's estate brought in nearly $55 million in revenue last year, 32 years after his death. That included $14 million from retail sales. Royalties from DVDs and TV projects and money from tours, exhibits, hotel rooms and events at the Graceland museum made up the rest. Monroe and Dean's estates took in nearly $5 million each.

Jackson may prove to be more popular than all of them.

The estate and AEG, the concert promoter behind Jackson's planned comeback, are selling Jackson T-shirts, mugs and other paraphernalia online through Universal Music Group's retailing arm, Bravado. Last week, the estate cut a deal with Harmony Books, a division of Random House Inc., to re-release his 1988 biography, "Moonwalk." Deals are in the works for a movie based on concert rehearsal footage - for which Sony bid $50 million to distribute worldwide - and a TV special based on his music and dance moves. There is even a section devoted to Jackson merchandise on QVC, the television and online retailer, which said it spent time vetting the legitimacy of each item.

Jackson's popularity also is providing plenty of opportunities for others to cash in.

"In the piracy and anti-counterfeiting world, this is as big as it gets," Roesler said. "It's a daunting task for the rights holders to get on top of this."

Continued...

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