Sports Stars Say They Were Bilked by Pasadena Show : Investigation: The ‘Baseball Legends’ promoter, who seems to have disappeared, is sought by police.

A major sports memorabilia show’s organizer was under investigation by Pasadena policeMonday as more than a dozen sports stars, including Mickey Mantle, Don Drysdale and Ernie Banks, complained that they were bilked of tens of thousands of dollars.

Half a dozen businesses involved with the three-day “Baseball Legends” show at the Pasadena Center Sept. 7-9 also have told The Times they were owed thousands of dollars more for their services.

Pasadena police officials confirmed that they have opened an investigation into the matter and want to talk with the show’s principal promoter, Ernest Dent.

The police investigation began late last week after former New York Yankee star Mantle reported that a check he received for $16,000 had bounced, Detective Mark Hansen said.

The show, believed to be the largest of its kind in Southern California, attracted at least 10,000 sports fans and possibly thousands more. About 30 sports and television celebrities were in attendance to sign autographs for fees estimated to range from $1,000 to $32,000. General admission was $5 and the price of autographs ranged from $6 to $30.

Many of the sports figures and businesses associated with the show said that they either had not been reimbursed or had been paid with checks that later bounced. Some accused the promoters of conducting a well-planned scam.

The event was organized by Dent along with two partners, Rick Abbott and Dee Lipscomb, who until recently occupied an office and two apartments in Glendale.

Repeated efforts to contact Dent, Abbott or Lipscomb by telephone and at their residences over the last two days were unsuccessful. Their office on Colorado Boulevard in Glendale had a “pay rent or quit” notice on its front door.

“Unfortunately we were not able to escape what appears to be a planned scam by Mr. Dent,” said Mark Roesler, president of Curtis Management Group in Indianapolis. He said he represented eight celebrities who appeared at the show, including Little Rascals stars Spanky McFarland and Tom Bond and former Rams football stars Tom Fears and Elroy (Crazy Legs) Hirsch.

Ann Meyers, wife of Don Drysdale, said in an interview Monday that her husband also was owed money: “The check they gave Don did bounce, so I went down to the bank today and they said the checks were no good the day after the show.”

Other stars claiming through representatives to be owed money are former Laker Kurt Rambis and former Major League baseball stars Bob Feller, Monte Irvin, Davey Lopes and Eddie Mathews. Former boxing champion Joe Frazier was only partially paid for his appearance, according to his son, who refused further comment.

Police officials described their interest as a “criminal investigation” and said detectives wanted to interview Dent, a 43-year-old said by former associates to have come originally from West Virginia.

Hanson said Dent was “a relative unknown at this type of thing, and all of a sudden had a big show. Whether or not what happened was intentional, or whether Dent was a bad businessman who got in over his head, we don’t know.”

Harlan J. Werner, who is considered an expert in the memorabilia business but was not involved in “Baseball Legends,” said he had not heard of Dent before the show.

“Dent went to a couple of card shows and talked to me about the number of ballplayers he planned to have at his show, and I told him with that amount of ballplayers he could expect to lose $250,000,” Werner said. “He (Dent) told me, ‘I have $250,000 to lose.’ ”

Experts in such events said it was unusual to contract with such a large number of celebrities, and they noted that the gate receipts would not begin to cover the talent fees.

“Dent came in with a new concept and had incredible advertising. . . . He seemed like a real good guy, a character. He could be your best friend.”

A Glendale police spokesman said his department also is looking into the matter because many of the business owners who claim they are unpaid operate in that city.

The Los Angeles Police Department is tangentially involved as well: The heavily publicized event claimed to be in part a benefit for the department’s DARE anti-drug program. LAPD officials said, however, that they were not a sponsor or designated recipient of proceeds.

Trade shows similar to “Baseball Legends” have exploded in popularity in recent years and now generate an estimated $400 million annually a year in revenues in the United States alone.

The event had all the trappings of a successful affair, according to many of the participants. It was promoted with slick brochures and advertisements in local newspapers, collectors publications and on cable television. One promotion brochure said DARE was a sponsor and would receive a share of the proceeds. Some participants said they were impressed by promotional material, which included a letter from the mayor of Pasadena proclaiming Sept. 8 “Mickey Mantle Day.”

By 11 a.m. Saturday, the second day of the show, enough people had crammed the convention and conference center that Pasadena fire officials ordered the promoters to limit new ticket sales. Some people involved in the show said attendance seemed to exceed the 10,000 admission tickets sold at the center box office.

“The lines came out the front door, two and three abreast, went down the block and around the corner,” said Duncan Baird, a Pasadena Fire Department battalion chief.

Once the event was over, “We thought everything was fine, that it had been a success,” said Jess Waiters, Pasadena Center’s director of operations.

“Then we started getting phone calls.”

Waiters said an initial check from Dent when he reserved the facility early in the year had bounced, and after that the promoter was placed on a cash-only basis. Center officials then had no problem collecting about $30,000 in total fees, they said.

Several local businessmen said that, two days after the show, they went to Dent’s Glendale office at a designated time to collect payment for thousands of dollars worth of office supplies, posters, lithographs, or airline tickets--and found it abandoned.

Maria Marin, who claims to be owed $22,700 for thousands of lithographs, tickets and posters, said the printing order for the baseball show had been the largest her small 5-year-old company, Golden Earth Graphics of Highland Park, ever received. She intitially was thrilled, but said sadly: “If we don’t get those guys, and get my money, I am out of business.”

Brian de Van, manager of Caravan Travel in Glendale, said he lost $15,000 expended for airline tickets ordered by Dent to fly celebrities to the event.

William Mandel, a 30-year-old hobbyist and dealer from Los Angeles, claimed he lost an investent of $8,500.

“I signed a contract with Mr. Dent to be a distributer of the posters and lithographs to be sold in conjunction with the show and we’d split the profits,” Mandel said. “. . . I was supposed to get back my initial investment at the show plus a very healthy profit. . . . I lost it all.”

Marin and others said they trusted Dent and his partners because their initial contacts had been postive--and the promoters at first had paid in cash.

Tim Martinez, co-owner of Nelson’s Stationery in Glendale, which claims to have nearly $2,000 in uncollected bills, said Dent had a swaggering aura.

“He gave everybody the impression he had money,” Martinez said. “He got everyone’s attention by talking big.”

Banks’ wife, Marjorie Banks, said she scheduled her husband, the former Chicago Cubs star, to attend because Dent “implied that the (DARE) . . . drugs program was highly involved, so that’s why I didn’t go through my normal routine, like requiring a cashier’s check or payment in advance.”