Celebrities

Around Halloween each year, Forbes magazine releases its list of the highest-earning dead celebrities. The 2009 version is expected around Halloween. I had a chance to review the 2008 list of highest-earning dead celebrities while writing an article on the highest earning dead artists. (You can read that here.) Most of the names on the Forbes list won’t be a surprise: Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol. Michael Jackson will probably make his debut on the list this year.

I noticed some much-loved figures of entertainment were missing from this list of high-earning dead celebrities. Granted…these entertainers may not have enjoyed the success of John Lennon or Paul Newman, these five figures will live forever in the hearts of many. Why aren’t they on the list? Here are some possible reasons: bad management, enjoyed their best days before lucrative syndication deals and made movies before the rise of the movie aftermarket (DVDs, play-on-demand and even television). All of them and most of their work would still be protected by original copyright laws, which gives a dead celebrity’s estate control and income for 70 years after the celebrity’s death. (These laws are now changing and I think eventually the estate will have control forever.)

1. John Wayne
Can you imagine how many times “True Grit” has been shown? Somehow, his greatest classics ended up in the $5 Walmart bins. In 1999, an end-of-the-century poll by the American Film Institute rated Wayne as No. 13 among the top 100 movie stars of all time. Wayne played the lead in almost 150 movies. Why isn’t he on this list? Wayne was a great actor, but he wasn’t always a good businessman. He became an actor in the early days of the entertainment world, when movies were called motion pictures. I doubt he realized the enormous influence his career would have on the field or the potential for after-life earnings. Wayne was a vocal supporter of the Vietnam War and spoke out frequently in favor of conservative and sometimes unpopular views. That could have influenced the marketing of his last efforts. Wayne died in 1979. (I bought my dad a John Wayne calendar this year for $9.99…wonder if he made any money off of that?)

2. Don Knotts
Back in 2000, Don Knotts’ character Barney Fife, the bumbling deputy on “The Andy Griffith Show’ back in the 1960s, was named the second most memorable character in television history by T.V. Guide. And with good reason…Barney Fife’s comic timing and sheer physical acts make that show hilarious. Knotts won five Emmys for the role. Even though the show was in the top ten every year it was on the air, no one could have participated the life it would have once canceled. In 2000, a Nielson survey showed that five million people watch the show everyday. Most county fairs in the South feature their own “Barney Fife” imitator. And the show is one of the hottest adult shows when it comes to merchandising, including Barney bobbleheads. But Knotts’ estate doesn’t reap any benefits from most of these. The show was filmed prior to standard syndication agreements.

3. Abraham Lincoln
I hope no one thinks I’m being disrespectful by calling Abraham Lincoln a celebrity…but he certainly has been this year. President Obama has made much ado about his respect for Lincoln as a leader and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is still counting the cash from her bestselling biography “Team of Rivals.” 2009 marked the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth and cities from his tiny birthplace of Hodgenville, Kentucky, right up to D.C. have racked in the tourism dollars from scholars and families wanting to be part of the party. Now, imagine if every fourth grader had to pay a royalty each time “The Gettysburg Address” was recited. He’d make a billion if he just got $1 from every Illinois license plate that says “Land of Lincoln.” Agree with me, now?

4.Hank Williams
More than anything, Hank Williams’ income was limited by the far too few years he was on Earth, only 30. Williams did in that short time take a regional style of music and make it national. He made a few records and landed some songs on the charts like “I’m So Lonesome I Can Cry” and “Hey Good-Lookin’.” Every Hank Williams song has been covered by at least a dozen singers from all genres but none of the covers even come close. If Hank had been given a few more years and maybe Col Tom Parker as a manager (he’s the guy that made Elvis famous), he might be vying for one of the top spots.

5. Anna Nicole Smith
Why does she deserve to be on this list? A noun and a name: lawsuit litigation, J. Howard Marshall.

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The Rise in Popularity of Celebrity Magazines Author: Craig Elliott

In recent times, celebrity magazines have jumped to the forefront of the reader’s circle when it comes to magazines. In fact, celebrity magazines have become more popular than news magazines or public interest magazines. Celebrities have always been popular, and people have always liked to subscribe to them. However, there has been a trend recently that puts celebrity magazine readership at an all time high. There are several reasons for this.

First of all, there are simply more celebrity magazines, celebrity gossip centered television shows, websites, and blogs, as well as more celebrity news sources in general. The fact that there are several different magazines that come out every week including celebrity news stories is not only an outcome of the rise in popularity, but part of the cause. When there are so many different news magazines that come out containing different pieces of celebrity news, one sometimes feels as if they need to buy all of them in order to get all of the celebrity news that they were looking for. This is in part what leads to higher readership for celebrity magazines - simply the fact that there are more of them out there that need to be read.

Another reason that celebrity magazines are more popular is that there are more outlets for celebrity news. With half hour news programs that come out each evening during the week containing more tidbits of celebrity news, it is easy to see why the public views news as “info-tainment” and lacking in the credibility it had in the past. In fact, because the major networks have celebrity news gossip on each evening, there is an increase in pressure to churn out weekly news magazines revolving around celebrity gossip, because there is a demand for that kind of material and the magazines can rapidly attract the readership they need.

There are several reasons for increased readership of celebrity gossip news magazines that revolve around the actual celebrities themselves. In recent years, the national news media has made major announcements and brought lots of attention to the stars. For instance, if a celebrity rises from nothing to fame, more people begin to believe that this could also happen to them as well. More people are obsessed with attaining a celebrity lifestyle no matter what their income may be. When a person can relate with the stars in that type of way, they are going to be more apt to buy the celebrity magazines in order to read the gossip about the celebrities.

Yet another reason for the rise in popularity of the celebrity news magazines might be simpler than you think. The celebrities themselves are simply making more news now than they have in the past. More of the celebrities are getting into things other than what they are famous for in the first place. This is a two fold situation for celebrities. For one, there are many celebrities who are doing things because of their celebrity status. They have learned that their names can carry a lot of weight, and if they are to get behind campaigns or causes, people are going to listen to them. This is something that a lot of celebrities have been doing, and this positive use of their fame is something that readers also want to learn a lot about and want to read about on a regular basis - especially if the causes that the celebrities are championing are causes that they agree with as well.

The other reason that celebrities have been doing more lately is not so noble. In fact it is simply the other side of the coin. Many celebrities have been acting out for lots of reasons, and it is this action that is causing there to be more stories about them in the celebrity magazines. Some of these actions might be dangerous, extreme, or just plain stupid - but it is the most over the top and ridiculous stories that get the press worked up and that get readership of the celebrity magazines to be on the rise. Many of the celebrities have simply decided that any press is going to be good press, and will do whatever they can do in order to get the publicity that they need.

No matter what the reason, the different ways that celebrities have become more and more popular has led to a general increase in the amount of readership that each celebrity magazine has. This is not tapering off - it is simply leading to more and more popularity for the celebrities, as well as for the magazines themselves. The celebrities benefit from the publicity, and the celebrity magazines benefit from the extra subscriptions and overall sales that certain celebrities can generate.

About the Author:

Craig Elliott is a freelance writer who writes about celebrity topics, similar to what consumers read in Entertainment Weekly

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - The Rise in Popularity of Celebrity Magazines

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