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Fact #101964

When:

Short story:

It is reported that The Beatles have received a cheque for $140,000 - their share of the first four months profits from Beatles Chewing Gum.

Full article:

THE BEATLES ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROCK MERCHANDISING by Johnny Black

In her often cruelly overlooked 1963 hymn to the Fab Four, Dora Bryan sang All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle. Most early sixties kids, however, knew in their hearts that they'd probably have to settle for just the latest Beatles album. This was an era when 45rpm singles were the standard purchase for pop fans and, to acquire one of these new-fangled 331/3rpm long-players, you either saved your pocket money for weeks, or got it as a gift from some kindly relative.

The unprecedented success of The Beatles, however, changed all that. Astute marketing persons began to realise that, as well as the single and the album, the terminally Beatle-smitten adolescent might be persuaded to part with small change for other token objects of Beatle worship. The wig, the boots, the jacket and the poster all arrived quite early, eagerly snapped up by the the most rapidly-expanding economic power in the Western world - teenagers.

Among pop idols, only Elvis Presley had previously generated any significant merchandising items, but with The Beatles came a veritable flood of associated artefacts and, by late 1963 Beatles' manager Brian Epstein was becoming concerned that the merchandising was out of control. Not only did he feel that The Beatles were not receiving their fair share of the profits, but he was worried that the shoddy nature of many items - from plastic guitars to cheap lockets and jigsaws - would reflect badly on his boys.

Lacking time to oversee this ever-proliferating headache himself, Epstein first dumped the job on his lawyer, David Jacobs who, in turn, invited Nicky Byrne, a Chelsea-set dabbler in the music business, to consider starting a company to oversee Beatles merchandising. It's a measure of just how radical this concept was that Byrne didn't leap at the chance. Unsure of what it entailed or what profits might ensue, Byrne was reluctantly convinced to start a company called Stramsact, which would assign UK Beatle merchandise rights, plus a subsidiary, Seltaeb to look after America.

Astonishingly, when the contract was drawn up, Byrne was asked to write in whatever share of the profits he wanted to receive. "So I put down the first figure that came into my head - 90 per cent." Even more astonishingly, David Jacobs didn't bat an eyelid. The deal was done and Epstein, without even seeing the contract, was assured that matters were now under control.

One of the first things that happened when The Beatles hit No1 in America with I Want To Hold Your Hand in February 1964, was that the Reliant Shirt Corporation paid Seltaeb an instant