posted on July 19, 2001 09:54:15 PM
Hello all! I need advice on what to do with some merchandise my husband's grandmother presented to us tonight.
At one time, she was married to a man in Paris, Missouri, who was really into hanging out with visiting tycoons and attending their inspirational speaking engagements there. This was during the 1950's, when Paris happened to be a favorite stopping-off place for these types. (Not sure why, but maybe they had some kind of resort? Paris is in Monroe County-the birthplace of Samuel Clements.) Her hubby was so into this inspirational speaking (Toastmaster's Club?) that he was apparently allowed to tape speeches given by his friends/notables, and she mentioned JC Penney, Carnegie, and Clement ?? from Chicago.
Grandma pulled out a box of about 35 reel-to-reel tapes and we looked at one labeled "Napolean Hill, 1952, 30 minutes", which meant nothing to us. I have since looked it up and found he was a wildly popular author (Think, and Grow Riches!)who hob-nobbed with Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc. and revealed the secrets of their success to the reading public.
Question: Do you think there is a market for these things?
Who would we take them to to find out if they are playable?
Should a lawyer be consulted to see if selling these would be a copyright infringement?
What kind of category would you list these in?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Joy
PS -- What kind of commission should we ask for from Grandma?
posted on July 20, 2001 05:17:05 PMjoyz Don't be upset, experts on this board are more than willing to help, your post hasn't been spotted by one who can advise you.
Just keep bumping it & maybe someone will come along.
posted on July 20, 2001 05:26:53 PM
The Napoleon Hill Foundation has a contact page on their web site (naphill.org). You could e-mail them and ask about it.
posted on July 20, 2001 05:41:29 PM
No way should you be thinking about a one shot sale.
You have the basis of a whole business here potentially.
If these have good material you should be looking at selling cassette tapes of the material after editing and breaking them into managable portions.
posted on July 20, 2001 07:30:05 PM
I agree with Gravid. If you don't wish to pursue it, there is someone out there that would like to.
You do need to get a lawyer involved though
regarding copyrights and royalties. There are probably ongoing estates, trusts or foundations for all of these men that probably have rights. If you had tapes of Bing Crosby singing dirty limericks at a dinner could you go ahead and reproduce them at will?
Clement you speak of is probably W.Clement Stone - horatio alger type, in the 50's said to be the richest man in America- and the only one of THE richest known at the time whose money came from something other than the extractive industries. He made his fortune in life insurance companies. At the time, the public( and the media) was unaware of the wealth of Daniel Ludwig whose worldwide shipping interests probably made HIM the richest man in America.
posted on July 20, 2001 09:04:27 PM
I would also think you need to get a lawyer, and probably a "Hollywood type" who knows about rights of people's likenesses, voice, etc. after they are deceased. It is very likely that you will not be able to make and sell dups of this without some sort of royalty to the estate of the speaker/performer.
The estate of the person may be interested to buy them. Or, perhaps if he is famous enough, there may be some sort of museum that would be interested to buy them.
posted on July 21, 2001 08:00:42 AM
Hello again! I honestly DO appreciate your responses. kerryann thanks for the web site for Napolean Hill! I will probably write the various foundations and ask if there is any interest. I did find out that JC Penney has a museum & archives in Texas, and will write the curator to see if he is at all interested.
The first thing I must do is go through them all and make a list of what she has, if they are all labeled. DH didn't even grab the box to bring home, as he was not at all interested in researching them. Why, she might have Andrew Carnegie or John Rockefeller right in that box!! I know some college libraries are trying to transfer audiotapes to digital, in order to preserve the oral history of America. I visited some web sites discussing the problems ("vinegar" syndrome of decomposing tapes, money for preservation, etc.)
Sure seems like someone (who has gotten rich while following these tycoons' words of wisdom) would be interested in hearing the recorded voices of the late great $ gurus.
Grandma would like to make enough money somehow to get her porch repaired.
