Chipmunks legacy is a family affair
SANTA BARBARA -- The house that Chipmunks built sits atop a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Ross Bagdasarian Jr. lives here in the wealthy Montecito area with his wife, Janice Karman. Their offices house four Apple iMacs, gold Chipmunks records, Grammys, branded bubble gum, toothbrush holders, caps, at least one eight-track tape and dozens of CDs.
All was wrought from a single kooky musical idea, âThe Christmas Song,â dreamed up by Bagdasarianâs father, Ross Sr. -- and the stubborn, hard-nosed business sense thatâs kept Alvin, Simon and Theodore in the family. And now in movie theaters.
The holiday comedy âAlvin and the Chipmunksâ took in a whopping $44.3 million at the box office last weekend. It stars Jason Lee of âMy Name Is Earlâ as David Seville, a struggling Los Angeles songwriter who discovers the âmunks and rescues them from an evil music executive.
In real life, Seville was the stage moniker for Bagdasarian, who became a Hollywood songwriter after previous jobs as an off-Broadway director and actor (heâs the piano player in Alfred Hitchcockâs âRear Windowâ).
He wrote tunes for Rosemary Clooney and Dean Martin before hitting it big on his own with âWitch Doctorâ in 1958. That songâs catchy, sped-up âooh ee ooh ah ahâ chorus, combined with Christmas pleadings from Rossâ youngest son, Adam, inspired the Chipmunksâ first song, an instant hit.
In several months, it sold more than 4 million records and spawned a massive merchandise trade. So was born a one-hit wonder that would endure for nearly 50 years.
Evil music executives, take note: Bagdasarian says the key to his fatherâs success was his insistence on owning his own master recordings and copyrighting the Chipmunks characters. Bagdasarian rejected Walt Disneyâs advances, the son says, and got busy doing Chipmunk versions of everything from âThe Twistâ to Beatles hits.
By the mid-â60s, though, Bagdasarian was over the Chipmunks. He bought a winery, Sierra Wine Corp., that supplied Gallo and other brands. âHe was a person certainly of short attention span,â his son says, âbut also incredibly focused, really, really smart, and very funny.â
Bagdasarian, a smoker, was found dead of a heart attack at age 52 on Super Bowl Sunday in 1972. His will passed the winery and the Chipmunks franchise to his wife and three children.
Ross Bagdasarian Jr. helped run the winery for several years and decided with his future wife in 1978 to try to revive the âmunks. There were no takers until, as family lore goes, a bored radio DJ on the East Coast sped up a Blondie song and called it the Chipmunks version.
The furry creatures hit record stores again with âChipmunk Punk,â followed by country songs in âUrban Chipmunkâ and then by a Saturday animated series.
(Take note, fans: No helium has ever been used to create the distinctive high-pitched voices. At first it was a sped-up tape player; now itâs computers.)
Bagdasarian and Karman held tight creative and financial control, voicing nearly all the characters and using family money to pay for production. Bagdasarian, a law school grad, pored over each contract.
âYou donât protect what youâve created unless you know the business side of it,â he said. âWeâve all heard these horror stories of these really talented people having their work stolen out from under them. I wasnât willing to be one of those people.â
Indeed, there has been no equivalent for Bagdasarian to Disneyâs 13-year legal dispute over Winnie the Pooh merchandising rights. The closest: a deal with Universal for a Chipmunks movie went sour, leading to a legal fight over the contract. Bagdasarian and Karman won out.
âFor us, it was a custody battle,â Karman said. âThey finally realized âOK, these two are really fighting for their kids.â â
In the mid-â90s, Bagdasarian bought the Chipmunk rights from his brother, a writer, and sister, a stay-at-home mom, to take complete control.
Bagdasarian was surprised to find himself following in his fatherâs footsteps. âI revered my dad, but I didnât want to do what he had done. That was his creation. Had he remained alive, I never would have done this. But when he passed away suddenly, it was a way of keeping my dad alive, and keeping what he created alive.â Which leads to the movie, an origin story that features hip-hop-flavored Chipmunks tunes. Making a guest appearance is the actual piano Ross Sr. used when writing âChristmas Song.â Bagdasarian and Karman say they voiced the Chipmunks before studio marketing executives decided to have younger actors play the voice roles for publicity reasons.
Next for the âmunks? Karman is developing a puppet show called âLittle Alvin,â aimed at preschoolers. âAnd we have lots of ideas,â Bagdasarian said. Theyâll simply approach each potential partner with caution.
âThe business world is not getting kinder by the year. So you have to be mindful that if it doesnât work out, how do you make sure you still have your underwear at the end of the day?â
It's a date
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