BIDDING FOR GAYE’S LIFE STORY

Court-ordered notices of “personal property at public sale” are routinely posted downtown at Los Angeles County Superior Court. Most involve real estate. But what’s the worth of a dead man’s life story when the departed happened to be a soul music superstar?

That’s what Judge Billy G. Mills wants to know. And so, on Aug. 29, bidding will open in Superior Court for film and TV rights to the story of the late Marvin Gaye, the Grammy-winning singer and composer of such hits as “Sexual Healing” and “What’s Going On.”

The auction has grown out of a dispute over the market value of the life story of Gaye who, although he died without leaving a will, did leave a few creditors behind. According to court documents, claims against his estate amount to more than $9.2 million--the biggest from Uncle Sam, for $4,245,614.69 in unpaid federal taxes from 1974 through 1980.

Gaye, 44, was fatally shot in April, 1984, by his father after an altercation in which, according to authorities, he severely beat his father. The elder Gaye, 70, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and now is on probation.

In the auction for the late singer’s life story, the film and TV rights for the story would go “to the highest and best bidder,” subject to court approval. Notice of the sale was posted last week in court and legal publications--and in two leading show-business publications, Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.

Such an auction “is rather unusual,” concedes Jeffrey L. Glassman, a Beverly Hills attorney hired by Gaye’s estate. The public sale, he explains, was ordered by Mills after three persons with claims totaling more than $3.6 million objected to the estate’s proposed sale of Gaye’s story to Motown Records, the label for which Gaye recorded some of his biggest hits from 1961 to 1981.

The three filed their objections last month and again at an Aug. 2 court hearing at which the auction was ordered. According to court records, they are:

--Marilyn Freeman, Gaye’s former manager, who says Gaye owed her $3,025,000.

--Harvey Fugua, a longtime Gaye associate who discovered the singer and once headed the Moonglows, with whom Gaye began his career. Fugua contends that Gaye owed him $613,000, $450,000 of it for producing Gaye’s 1983 national tour, which was sponsored by Miller High Life Beer.

--Ron Russom, who contends that he is owed a $25,000 “finder’s fee” for introducing Gaye to Miller Brewing Co. executives in April, 1983, resulting in the company’s signing of Gaye for $250,00 to promote Miller Beer during the singer’s 31-city tour that year.

Glassman, who says the Gaye estate is worth about $1 million, says the judge has tentatively approved the Motown deal, but that his final approval depends on the outcome of the Aug. 29 auction.

Motown’s contract calls for payments to Gaye’s estate of $20,000 for an 18-month option on the singer’s life story; another $5,000 to extend the option for six more months, and then $35,000 and 2.5% of the net profits from any TV or theatrical film made should the company exercise its exclusive options to buy rights to the story.

The contract, among other things, also includes a “benefit premiere” or “other fund-raising event”--tied in to any movie made--to benefit the Gaye estate, or a $15,000 payment if Motown is unable to take this step or decides it isn’t practical.

The three fighting the sale basically contend that Gaye’s life story is worth far more than what Motown has offered, according to their attorney, Nolan H. Payton. “That’s what it’s all about,” he says.

Although Payton calls Motown’s offer “woefully low,” he says his clients “haven’t set a figure, only that it (Gaye’s life story) is worth a whole lot more than what was offered.”

The court-appointed co-administrators of Gaye’s estate are the singer’s 19-year-old son, Marvin III, and Joseph C. Karol, whom Glassman describes as an “insolvency expert.”

Payton’s petitions against the Motown deal say that “there appears to be . . . collusion” between the co-administrators, Motown and Jobete Publishing Co. (Motown’s music publishing arm). But the documents don’t elaborate on this.

The petitions do note, however, that Gaye’s ex-wife, Anna, the mother of Marvin Gaye III, is the sister of Motown’s chairman, Berry Gordy Jr.

(According to court records, the singer, as part of a 1977 divorce agreement, gave all her rights to an album he was to make for Motown. The album, later recorded, was called “Here My Dear.”)

In objecting to the Motown deal, Payton’s petitions contend that “no bids from other companies have been received for the film, video, etc. rights” to Gaye’s life story, and assert that there should have been “competitive” bidding.

The documents describe Motown’s offer as “a mere token offer.”

But it is the only serious offer to date, says attorney Glassman. That could change, he says, when the auction is held Aug. 29. If a higher legitimate bid is made, Motown then would have to decide if it wants to better that bid, with the judge making the final decision on any sale.

Glassman wouldn’t mind if the ante is upped, but he’s not all that confident that this will happen. Since notices of the auction were published on Aug. 7, he says, he’s had “not one bid” for what the legal advertisements say are rights to produce “a motion picture portraying the story of the life of Marvin P. Gaye Jr., Deceased.”

‘I’ve gotten a lot of calls from people curious about it, asking about the terms, and I’ve explained the terms of the Motown deal,” says Glassman. “But no one has made any hard cash offers yet.”

Regardless of who buys the Gaye story, the sale may likely prove just an exercise in auctioneering. After administrative and attorneys’ fees are deducted, there still remains the matter of $4,245,614.69 that Uncle Sam says is owed him.

And according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles H. Magnuson, the federal government would have “first priority before all others” on any proceeds from the sale.