Why, Soitenly! : Firm Sees Market in Three Stooges

The number of stars who have attained icon status is a relatively small one: Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean are in that pantheon. Their estates continue to generate millions of dollars a year as consumers seek to buy a piece of the myth.

Now a Glendale-based firm wants to add the Three Stooges to that short list. Comedy III Productions--formed in 1959 by Stooges Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly replacement “Curly Joe” De Rita, and now controlled by De Rita’s stepsons--is looking to exploit the continuing (and to some, baffling) popularity of the Stooges.

Several dozen licensees, counting on nostalgia and the continued success of the Stooges on video and television, have signed on to sell Stooges ties, golf balls and alarm clocks at stores and through the “Soitenly Stooges” mail order catalog. If De Rita’s stepsons Earl and Bob Benjamin have their way, we’ll soon see a whole Stooge empire, including Stooge “studio” stores and theme restaurants.

New programming ventures are also on tap. A “Stooges for the ‘90s” feature film is in development at Interscope. Comedy III plans an animated series to air on network or in syndication within the next couple of years, and the company is working with Columbia, which produced and owns the two-reelers that made the Stooges famous, to edit and redistribute the shorts in syndication starting next fall.

“The Family Channel increased its viewership 300% when they started showing the old Stooge shorts about a year ago,” said Earl Benjamin. “We did a very successful Stooges commercial with Stroh’s beer this year. The popularity is there; now we just have to capitalize on it.”

Through a series of legal arrangements, Comedy III under the direction of the Benjamins, both lawyers, has become sole rights holder to the name, likeness and image of the Three Stooges.

The families of the original Curly (brother of Moe Howard) and Shemp (their cousin) were bought out in the 1960s by the regrouped Stooges, who were then riding a wave of renewed popularity thanks to television. The Stooges made six feature films in the ‘60s, among them “The Three Stooges Meet Hercules” and “The Outlaws Is Coming,” that are now controlled by Comedy III.

The Benjamins were told by their mother in 1989 that she was no longer receiving any money from the people who then controlled the Stooges legacy. Neither was Joe De Rita himself, by then ill and living at the Motion Picture and Television Country Home in Woodland Hills. “My brother Bob and I had to come to the assistance of our mother as lawyers and sons, and as stepsons of Joe,” says Earl Benjamin. “We filed suit against Jeffrey Scott [grandson of Moe Howard] . . . and some others who were representatives of Moe Howard’s estate.”

A jury ruled in favor of the Benjamins as rights holders in December 1994. The Benjamins, their mother and several others, including grandchildren of Larry Fine, became board members of Comedy III, which now collects and disburses money generated by Stooges films and other items.

For the last two years, Comedy III worked with Sony Signatures--Sony’s licensing and merchandising arm and sister company of Columbia Pictures. Recently, believing that Sony hasn’t done enough to market the Stooges, Comedy III decided to end the association. That landed Comedy III in court again when Sony protested, but a preliminary injunction handed down Dec. 13 supports Comedy III’s side. Sony executives did not return calls seeking comment.

“They don’t want to be fired,” says Bob Benjamin, “but we think there’s a right way to do a merchandising program. For example, look at what Disney has done with ‘101 Dalmatians.’ You can’t go anywhere and not see it. That’s the way to do it.”

Meanwhile, the Benjamins have partnered with fellow attorney Bela Lugosi (yes, son of the actor who played Dracula) to run the business and form a law partnership specializing in entertainment rights issues. Benjamin, Lugosi & Benjamin moved into the top floor of a Glendale office building in August, where it shares space and a staff with Comedy III.

Lugosi, who dropped the “Jr.” from his name after his father died in the 1950s--knows a thing or two about the kind of legal machinations the Stooges’ family members have gone through.

He sued MCA/Universal in the late 1960s contesting their use of his father’s likeness. “They now use a generic Dracula character,” he says.

Lugosi then became a key player in getting a state law passed in 1984 that establishes the “descendability” of the right of publicity, which until the change ended with a star’s death. It was not a transferable asset the way, say, the copyright to a song was.

“Up until that time, it was open season on dead celebrities. You had things like Charlie Chaplin advertising tampons . . . . The families were often embarrassed, aside from not getting a dime,” says Gerald Margolis, who heads Manatt Phelps & Phillips entertainment law practice in West Los Angeles.

The law change, along with an explosion in the use of celebrity likenesses on merchandise, in ads and in new media, has inspired many families to regain their claims on fame.

James Dean starred in only three movies, but his estate, now controlled by his cousins, gets “tens of millions” of dollars per year in licensing fees and royalties, says Gretchen Ganzer, promotions manager at the Dean estate’s agent, Curtis Management Group in Indianapolis.

As with Stooges rights, those for Dean were involved in posthumous litigation in 1992. Warner Bros. sued for control of Dean’s name, likeness and image, claiming Dean, like many actors at the time, had signed over his right of publicity. The court ruled that those rights belonged to Dean’s heirs.

Elvis Presley’s name, likeness and image are marketed by Elvis Presley Enterprises, which also operates the star’s home, Graceland, as a tourist attraction. The millions of dollars generated go to daughter Lisa Marie Presley; her mother, Priscilla, is president of the company, which employs about 350 people year-round. The estate is known for aggressively challenging those who use the King’s likeness without permission.

“We take no joy in going after these people, but we’re obligated to defend the rights of EPE,” says Mark Lee of Manatt Phelps. Lee says that just as names such as cellophane can lapse into the public domain if the trademarks are not defended, it’s possible that a star’s estate could lose its claim to the right of publicity if it fails to defend that right.

Comedy III is no Elvis Presley Enterprises. The company currently has only one licensing and sales employee and one accounting employee, and shares its clerical staff with the Benjamin, Lugosi & Benjamin law firm. “We’re obviously going to have to add staff quickly in order to take the business in-house,” Bob Benjamin says.

Benjamin’s college friend Patrick Lauerman, a former college art teacher and owner of a small design outfit in Washington state, is the licensing employee. Lauerman says he’s now looking to hire several “self-driven, motivated people” to help expand sales of Stooges, Bela Lugosi and other properties in the U.S. and overseas. “The Stooges are very big in territories like Latin America,” Lauerman says. “The big media companies are investing billions of dollars in developing countries, and we want to be right there taking advantage of these markets.”

That’s going to be a tall order for a firm like Comedy III, but others in the business say it can be done.