TOTAL LICENSING
Celebrities
By Gary Saal,
Director of Licensing
and Legends
Legends Licensing
The gift that keeps on giving
Celebrity and legend licensing is an in- licensee can easily take the correct notoriety only continues to build as
creasingly popular category for licens- preventive steps at the outset, once years pass by.
ees. Of course we all get excited by they know what those steps are. There are also topical categories that
the large Hollywood tent pole films can be considered to reside in the ce-
with huge licensing potential, like Bat-
The Up Side
lebrity and legend camp.
man and Transformers. But what ce-
By definition, the subject matter is
For example, here at Legends Licens-
lebrity and legend licensing may lack in
already a figure of popular appeal
ing we have The Pin-Up Collection
tent pole sizzle, they more than make
– Who doesn’t already know and love
-- thousands of pin-up images from
up for in longevity and fan loyalty.
Groucho Marx, Marilyn Monroe, John
the pin-up’s hey-day, dating from the
1940’s to the 1960’s. While the indi-
vidual models featured in the pin-ups
are not household names, the cat-
egory itself can be approached in the
same way as celebrity and legends fig-
ures. Our pin-up shots are all culled
from the Tom Kelley and Harold Lloyd
Libraries, two photographers well
known for their work with Marilyn
Monroe, and offer a great way in to
the hard-to-tap male collectible cat-
egory.
A Few Rocky Shoals To
Navigate
While celebrity and legend licenses
offer the potential for long-term re-
turns, there are a few aspects unique
to this category that every licensee
should know before wading in.
Make sure the property has been le-
gally cleared for licensing. The clear-
ance process for some celebrity and
legend images can be unbelievably
convoluted. For example, a licen-
When handled properly, this truly is Wayne? Celebrity and legend names
sor may have the rights to a certain
the property category that keeps on niche perfectly with tent pole catego-
photographic collection, but a studio
giving, with ongoing sales and royalties ries such as collectibles, which are the
or television archive may have the
year after year. backbone of repeat sales from loyal
rights to other images for that same
However, there are some ‘tricks to buyers when handled correctly. They
individual. Or, the image may need
the trade’ that every licensee should are also easily translatable to many
to be cleared through both the stu-
know. Along with a strong up side other categories – apparel, stationery,
dio and the celebrity’s estate, with a
comes a few rocky shoals to be navi- publishing, and gifts and decorative
revenue-sharing deal in place between
gated. Rest assured, these shoals are objects, to name but a few. And, for
the two.
not insurmountable. The informed many of these figures, their fame and
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