June 25 marks the one-year anniversary of Michael Jackson’s untimely death. Christened with the honorific title “King of Pop,” Jackson transformed the music industry with his best selling albums, revolutionary dance techniques, and magnanimous personality. His highly publicized personal life and enigmatic persona enthralled people worldwide and he became a global figure in our popular culture.

Like Hollywood icon James Dean, Jackson grew up in Indiana, the headquarters of CMG. Back in 1997, Michael asked a mutual friend for a good book about James Dean, so CEO Mark Roesler sent him a copy of “James Dean: American Icon.” Michael was understandably mesmerized by Dean and the legacy he left behind. It was James Dean who said, “If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, I mean live on after he has died, then he was a great man.” Similarly, Jackson said, “Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever” (Monroe, Bryan, “Michael Jackson in His Own Words,” Ebony, December 2007).

Even though neither of them made it pass the age of 50, Michael Jackson is continuing to live on in the same vein as the legendary James Dean. Throughout his career, Jackson paved the way for modern pop music with his distinctive vocal style and musical sound and he continues to posthumously influence artists today. Future generations will always remember the “King of Pop” as a “Great Man.”

By John Soeder, The Plain Dealer
October 26, 2009, 12:30AM

Michael Jackson is ready to moonwalk back into the spotlight this week with the premiere of “This Is It.”

Is this really “it,” though?

Don’t count on it. The film, which captures Jackson rehearsing for a comeback that he never got to make, is shaping up to be only the beginning of a busy afterlife. He may be gone, but with plenty of unreleased music and other projects to keep fans satisfied, potentially for years to come, the King of Pop won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

When Jackson died in June, he left behind “a bundle of stuff,” said his longtime manager, Frank DiLeo.

“There will be other projects,” DiLeo said during a recent phone interview. “We’re planning some things for next year, but we have to sort through a lot of material first.”

In the meantime, the buzz around “This Is It” is building to a fever pitch. Several Northeast Ohio theaters will host midnight screenings Wednesday, when the film opens around the world for a two-week run. (The Cinemark Valley View also will have an invitation-only preview at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.)

A two-CD soundtrack comes out Tuesday. It features original recordings of the Jackson hits that appear in the film, as well as previously unreleased alternate takes of some tunes. The movie’s theme song, a leftover collaboration between Jackson and Paul Anka from the early 1980s, was released two weeks ago as a single, to mixed reviews.

Shot from April to June, the film documents Jackson’s behind-the-scenes preparations for a series of 50 sold-out concerts in London.

Ken Ehrlich, a Cleveland Heights native who produces the Grammy Awards, was at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for what turned out to be Jackson’s final rehearsal.

“Michael was still learning the show,” Ehrlich said.

“He would go back and forth, from singing out with confident dance moves to other times when you could see he was just marking things, to get them down.

“But there was one number — I don’t remember which one — where I turned around to Randy Phillips [CEO of AEG Live, Jackson's concert promoter] and said, ‘This is amazing!’ I hadn’t seen Michael do anything like it for years. I thought about the Justin Timberlakes and the Chris Browns, all the people who Michael influenced. And now I was seeing it again from the guy who created all of it.

“I got goose bumps.”

The next day, Jackson was gone, killed by a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol. He was 50. A police investigation into his death, ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County coroner, is ongoing.

Before that last rehearsal, Ehrlich met with Jackson in his dressing room. They went over plans for a Halloween television special built around “Ghosts,” a short horror movie that Jackson made in the mid-1990s with director Stan Winston.

Jackson “was in really good spirits,” Ehrlich said. “He was extremely up and excited about the concerts and the Halloween show. . . . but it was not to be.”

A backlog of other creative material by Jackson is just waiting to be salvaged, including a potential gold mine of music.

“I wish I could say there are five albums’ worth or 20 albums or 30 albums, but I don’t really know how much,” said DiLeo, who managed Jackson from 1984 until 1989. He was rehired by Jackson in March.

Jackson recorded between 40 and 50 songs for his 1987 album “Bad” alone, DiLeo said. Of those, only 11 songs made the final cut.

In the months leading up to his death, Jackson had been putting together new tunes, too.

“He was working on six or seven new songs,” DiLeo said. “I know he had the music done, and he was working on the lyrics.”

More performance-oriented films, either for the big screen or TV, are a distinct possibility down the line, too.

“From the day I started managing Michael, we always had a video crew filming the actual concerts and behind the scenes,” DiLeo said. “We have footage for the ‘Victory’ Tour [with the Jackson brothers in 1984], the ‘Bad’ Tour [ '87- '88] and anything he did afterwards.”

The sordid details of Jackson’s private life, including his addiction to drugs, won’t diminish his posthumous earnings potential, said Mark Roesler, a lawyer whose Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide agency lines up licensing agreements and other business deals for the estates of immortals such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe.

“People like to uncover dirt,” Roesler said.

“It’s just part of the public fascination with celebrities. . . . You’ll always find new allegations, new mysteries and new questions, whether you’re talking about Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe or James Dean.

“With true legends, though, time has a way of only building up their reputations and enhancing their legacies.

“And that’s what going to happen with Michael Jackson.”

In death, could Jackson become even more successful than Presley, who consistently tops Forbes magazine’s annual list of top-earning dead celebrities?

“Without a doubt,” Roesler said. “You’re talking about somebody who touched a lot of people around the world.”

Still, it’s unlikely that Jackson’s old Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., will be turned into a tourist attraction along the lines of Presley’s Graceland mansion in Memphis, as some have speculated.

“I don’t see it happening,” DiLeo said. “It’s off a two-lane dirt road. You’re not going to get the zoning variances you would need to do anything like that.”

If fans want to flock anywhere for now, it should be to the nearest multiplex to catch “This Is It,” DiLeo said.

“When you see the movie and you see the potential of what Michael was putting together, if you don’t come out of there thinking that this could’ve been the greatest show on Earth, then you don’t have any feelings,” he said.

“If you’re a fan, you’re going to love it. And if you were on the fence, you’re going to come away thinking Michael was a lot smarter than you thought. . . . The guy was a genius.

“It’s a very compelling film. Obviously, it’s very sad for me to watch. I try not to let my mind go there, but it does.”

Check out the “This Is It” trailer:

August 13th, 2009 – 2:57 pm ICT by ANI

Michael Jackson New York, August 13 (ANI): Michael Jackson was said to be earning hundreds of millions after his death.

The late King of Pop, who died on June 25, has reportedly grossed 100 million dollars through a film deal and several merchandising contracts.

And the executors of his estate, lawyer John G. Branca, music executive John McClain and a Jackson family friend, were expecting another 100 million to flow in by the end of the year, reports the New York Times.

Branca said the possibility of a new record for estates could not be overlooked considering the model for Jackson’s posthumous business empire maybe like that of Elvis Presley.

He said: “When you look at what the Presley estate has done, you see the opportunities here. I quite frankly think this will be a bigger estate.”

The star’s estate, containing assets such as 50 percent stake in Sony/ATV, a music publishing partnership that includes the rights to the Beatles catalog, Jackson’s own song catalog and Neverland Ranch, could generate nearly 50 to 100 million dollars annually, Branca and others estimate.

Mark Roesler, chairman of CMG Worldwide, a licensing firm that has worked with the estates of Presley, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, said: “You have someone who left a mark on six billion people in the world.

“If you put a value of 110 million dollars on Elvis Presley’s intellectual property rights, that’s a baseline. It’s certainly in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” (ANI)

It has been 48 days since Michael Jackson died, and while family members of the late pop star are still at war with the executors of his estate, the answer to another question — how much the singer is worth in death — is becoming clear. He has already earned $100 million through a film deal and various merchandising contracts, and the executors expect another $100 million to roll in by the end of the year.
Click here to view original article.

Please Click Here to read full story.

He kept statues of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe at his Neverland ranch, and married Elvis’ daughter. He bought publishing rights to the songs of John Lennon’s Beatles. He said he and Princess Diana used to talk about the downside of celebrity.

There’s no sign he identified with James Dean, but otherwise Michael Jackson seemed to have made connections long ago with the Western world’s small circle of all-too-mortal “immortals.”

Now that Jackson too has died young, the question is whether he deserves a spot on that unfortunate A-list – or goes straight to the top of that list.

“I think you just got the `A’ in the A-list,” said Stacy Brown, a newspaper reporter who co-authored the 2005 book “Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask.”

“You have to transcend cultural and generational barriers,” Nate Thomas, who teaches film and pop culture at California State University, Northridge, said of the qualifications for the dead-icons roster. “I would say Michael will stand above the others.” Individual interest and taste will determine who you think belongs on what might be called the DOA-list, the stars who burned bright in life and often brighter after – and maybe because of – their premature deaths.

Jimi Hendrix? Kurt Cobain? Roberto Clemente? Steve Prefontaine? Steve McQueen? Judy Garland? Hank Williams? Barbaro?

After witnessing fans’ response to Jackson’s sudden death at age 50 on Thursday in Los Angeles, few would dispute that his best-selling recordings, groundbreaking music videos and lifetime in the often-harsh spotlight earn him a place in the pantheon.

But the case can be made that Jackson is bigger than any of them, a more popular pop musician than Elvis or Lennon, a more intriguing sex symbol than Marilyn, a more tangible face of fragility than Diana, a voice of more generations than James Dean.

It’s hard to have a 45-year career AND die young. Jackson worked from age 5, when the Jackson 5 debuted, to age 50, rehearsing for the scheduled comeback concerts that had sold $85 million worth of tickets. He grew up with the generation that now runs the country, and his appeal cut across age groups, many older people loving the innocent-looking child singer of the Jackson 5 days and kids identifying with the Peter Pan-like character of his solo career.

Jackson’s appeal

If Jackson’s music and death make him the Elvis of his generation, it’s an expansive generation.

Thomas, the CSUN professor, who is 51, said he remembers dancing to Jackson 5 records as a child in Ohio and wanting to BE Michael Jackson.

“As I became a teenager, I still wanted to be Michael Jackson,” Thomas said. “Then, when I grew up and went to college and went on to teach at universities, I still wanted to be Michael Jackson.”

Jackson was the first celebrity Thomas saw in the flesh when he moved to California in 1980.

“My first month in L.A., I’m excited to be in Hollywood, and I’m stopped at the corner of Highland (Avenue) and Hollywood Boulevard. He pulled up in a black Rolls-Royce, bobbing his head to the music (on the car stereo),” Thomas said. “I honked, and he looked over and waved.”

Thomas argues that Jackson seemed to clear barriers to broad popularity in a way few entertainers could. Racially, he was African-American, but he didn’t present himself as black either musically or personally – to the point, apparently, of literally lightening his skin. Sexually, his falsetto and surgically refined features made him androgynous. Geographically, he was a product of Indiana but achieved worldwide popularity.

“I think an icon has to transcend all these cultural things,” Thomas said. “We’re not saying, `He’s a black icon’ (or) `He’s an Italian icon.’ … He would probably be the pre-eminent icon.”

Brown, who co-wrote his Jackson biography with Bob Jones, agreed that Jackson cut across race and gender.

“My young children are fascinated with Michael,” said Brown, a former Los Angeles Daily News reporter who now writes about the media for the Scranton, N.J., Times-Tribune. “I know people 90 years old who are fascinated with Michael.”

Brown said he helped to produce a concert in Scranton paying tribute to Motown Records and New York’s Apollo Theater. When Rebbie Jackson, the oldest Jackson sister, performed Michael’s “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground),” a 94-year-old woman in the audience got up and danced.

He `saw it coming’

Jackson’s seeming identification with dead celebrities made sense to Brown. The writer had said before Jackson’s death that he expected the singer-dancer to die young. He said Friday, “I think, frankly, Michael Jackson saw it coming.”

“One of the things that struck me about Michael Jackson was his fascination with being recognized as the best and the biggest, the most influential,” Brown said. “His primary interest was always Elvis Presley. He was on a mission that he was going to be bigger than Elvis.”

Brown said Jackson was determined to top the success of his best-selling album “Thriller,” believing that would stamp himself as “the undisputed `King.”‘ He thinks the effort to prepare for the London concert series scheduled to begin in mid-July contributed to Jackson’s death, initially attributed to cardiac arrest.

“He knew he had to do it (the concert series). He got money up front. He knew if he bowed out (without) a legitimate excuse, his career was totally over and his life was ruined. This was all or nothing,” Brown said. “The pressure he put on himself was enormous.”

If Brown is right, then Jackson’s quest for immortality paid off in a certain way – in the brand of immortality that comes, paradoxically, with dying.

A legendary life

The Jackson brand seemed not to be diminished by the controversies of his later life: child-molestation allegations, other weird behavior, financial problems.

Perhaps as controversy overshadowed his music during a 12-year break from live performing, he became a bigger icon. He painted the full spectrum of celebrity in all its lightest and darkest hues, while creating mystery about the career phase that will never come.

Mark Roesler, founder of CMG Worldwide, which represents the estates of famous people – including Monroe and Dean – responded to Jackson’s death with a statement on his company’s Web site.

“Michael Jackson was, and will remain, one of those icons,” said Roesler, adding that Jackson reminds him of Dean, the Academy Award-winning actor who died at 24 in a 1955 car crash. “His death couldn’t have come at a worse time. He was prepared to re-enter the spotlight and start touring again after a long hiatus. Like Dean, he had reached a turning point in his career, and his future could not have been brighter.”

On his blog, Harvard Business School professor and marketing expert John Quelch wrote Friday that Jackson’s popularity illustrated 10 pieces of advice for how to “build your personal brand.” Suggestion No. 10: “Die young.”

“The likelihood of a Jackson comeback will forever be debated,” Quelch wrote. “Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe James Dean, and now Michael Jackson – all leave to our imagination thoughts of what might have been. When a brand icon is torn from us prematurely, unexpectedly, it figures even larger in our collective memory.”

kevin.modesti@dailynews.com

To see original article, please click here.

In death, will Michael Jackson be more profitable?

(CNN) — Michael Jackson’s financial woes were well documented: Numerous lawsuits, loss of control of his beloved Neverland and reports that he was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt all point to a complex money mess that trailed the King of Pop as vigilantly as his most ardent fans.

But might he find the financial success in death that eluded him in the last years of his life?

“A few years ago, a gentleman came along with the public company called CKX, and they purchased the intellectual property rights associated with Elvis Presley and that was in excess of $100 million,” said Mark Roesler, chairman and chief executive officer of CMG Worldwide, a business and marketing agent whose client roster boasts several deceased celebrities, including James Dean and Marilyn Monroe.

“The most logical question is [whether Michael Jackson is] worth more than Elvis,” Roesler added. “And I think the answer to that would be yes.”

Experts predict that millions could flow into the Jackson estate coffers with renewed interest in his life and music after his unexpected death.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, Jackson-related titles dominated the top nine positions on Billboard’s Top Pop Catalog Albums chart released Wednesday, a feat never before accomplished.

Billboard said that with his “Number Ones” album at No. 1 on the chart with sales of 108,000 (an increase of 2,340 percent), it marked the first time a catalog album has sold more than the No. 1 current set on the Billboard 200 albums chart by outselling the Black Eyed Peas’ “The E.N.D.” which was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 88,000 sold in the past week.
Don’t Miss

* Michael Jackson’s music tops charts
* Jackson’s public viewing set for Friday
* In Depth: Michael Jackson

None of this comes as a surprise to Roesler, whose company was a pioneer in the field of getting compensation for deceased celebrities.

“Intellectual property” refers to creations of the mind such as inventions, literary and artistic works, as well as symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce. They are considered intangible assets.

Roesler, who served as an expert witness during the Goldman family’s civil suit against O.J. Simpson and worked with singer Nick Lachey during his divorce from Jessica Simpson, said those intangible assets can be valued.

That means that when Madison Avenue comes calling to use an image of Jackson or a song that he has copyrighted for advertising purposes, that could mean millions of dollars paid to the estate, Roesler said.

“There’s really not that much of a difference between the living clients we represent and the deceased client, nor is there much of a difference in how they are used except the obvious in that [the deceased] can’t personally endorse a product,” said Roesler whose CMG also represents historical figures including Mark Twain as well as sports figures such as Babe Ruth and living celebs like Scott Baio.

“We have a program with Lee jeans over in Japan that uses [the image of] James Dean on one line, and they use Brad Pitt on another.”

Henry Schafer is executive vice president for Marketing Evaluations, Inc., The Q Scores Company in Manhasset, New York, which provides advertising clients with data on the appeal and likability of celebrities.

Schafer said his firm had been measuring Jackson consistently up through 2006, at which point they stopped because of lack of interest from their clients.

Back then, Schafer said, Jackson did not score well.

“Basically, two out of three consumers didn’t like him,” Schafer said. “It was a pretty strong negative reaction given the trial he went through, the personal problems and the lack of performing. So there was really no need to update his scores.”

The pop icon will probably score extremely high in universal recognition, Schafer said, right up there with the likes of Lucille Ball, who Marketing Evaluations currently rates as the public’s favorite dead celebrity.

As for how well Jackson will rank with consumers, Schafer said that depends on a number of factors, including what the investigation into his death reveals.

“He’ll probably have better scores in death than he did as a living individual,” Schafer said. “That’s most likely what’s going to happen because of the sympathetic reaction. So then it becomes a question of the attributes associated with Michael Jackson, how marketable are they and to what extent can his name be associated with different types of products and services.”

Schafer said Jackson will be added to a study on the appeal of deceased celebrities scheduled for the fall, which will measure him against other deceased advertising icons, especially those with similar troubled stories like Elvis Presley.

The comparisons between “The King” and “The King of Pop” are apt considering the similar circumstances of their final years.

At the time of their deaths, both had not had hit albums in some time, were considered to be reclusive and still elicited frenzied reactions among fans.

And there is also the issue of prescription drugs and reports of questionable doctors, confirmed in the aftermath of the death of Presley and speculated about with Jackson.

Presley’s estate was able to navigate what at the time was a controversial death into a vast empire complete with licensing deals, marketing of Elvis-related merchandise and the transformation of his Graceland estate into a pilgrimage destination for fans.

The millions of dollars his estate produced annually have landed him in the Forbes rankings of “Top Earning Dead Celebrities,” where he placed first last year, earning more than $52 million.

Kevin Kern, director of public relations for Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. said in an interview with CNN that, “We are politely declining all media requests of this nature. We don’t wish to get involved in the Michael Jackson media frenzy.”

He instead referenced a link on the company’s Web site which outlines how the management team of The Elvis Presley Trust and its business entity, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. achieved its success.

Forbes senior editor Matthew Miller said he doubts Jackson’s estate will be able to duplicate that level of success.

It’s unclear at this point the total value of Jackson’s assets, including his interest in the Beatles catalogue, Miller said, and it could take years to sort everything out.

“If I had to venture a guess, and it’s only a hypothesis at this point, I would think that Jackson’s estate ends up in bankruptcy and the question will be do they have to sell off assets in order to pay off the debts,” Miller said.

Miller said he could not imagine that Neverland will become Jackson’s Graceland because of his past legal issues.

“We are looking at Michael Jackson through rose-colored glasses right now, but if you look at him as an entertainment brand…he will be known for two things,” Miller said. “He was one of the greatest entertainers in the world and was continually accused of child molestation. Those accusations stemmed from activities that [allegedly] happened at Neverland Ranch, so I don’t think people are going to continually go there and pay money to see it.”

CMG chairman and CEO Mark Roesler has a different take on it.

Jackson was found innocent of those charges and controversy has long plagued stars even after death, said Roesler, who pointed to examples of emerging stories over the years about celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe.
advertisement

Even though the actress has been dead almost a half a century, she still has appeal, and Roesler predicts the Jackson “is still going to be relevant generations from now” despite all of the speculation.

“You constantly see rumors about celebrities, and it just feeds the legend,” Roesler said. “It’s all part of the public fascination.”

By Lisa Respers France
CNN

To view original article from CNN, please click here.

Together with millions of fans around the world, I am saddened, I am shocked, by the tragic death of Michael Jackson. Elvis was the King of Rock, but Michael was the King of Pop — perhaps the most famous celebrity on the planet. Known all over the world for his best-selling albums, groundbreaking performance style, and larger than life personality, he had incalculable influence upon our culture, not only here in America, but worldwide. Because any country he ever visited, Michael Jackson was the news that day.

Michael grew up here in Indiana, where CMG is headquartered, and where another Hollywood icon that shocked the world with his death was born and buried…James Dean. Back in 1997, Michael asked a mutual friend for a good book about James Dean, so I sent over a copy of “James Dean: American Icon.” Michael was understandably fascinated by Dean and the legacy he left behind. It was James Dean who said, “If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, I mean live on after he has died, then he was a great man.”

Even though, incredibly, none of them got past age 50, there is no doubt that Michael Jackson will live on in the same vein as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, John Lennon and James Dean. Future generations will look back on the “King of Pop” and realize that he was indeed “A Great Man.” As he said, as he sang, “We are the world, we are the people,” and all of us, everywhere, together, we extend our sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

Mark Roesler