Judy Garland Royalty Question - Did I just contribute to Liza''s drug fund?

To get myself in the holiday spirit, I just paid $0.99 to download Judy Garland singing "Easter Parade" from iTunes. (The recording is from the film soundtrack, although apparently the soundtrack is not available as an album, so the album I got it from is called JUDY GARLAND IN HOLLYWOOD.)\ \ My question is- of the 99 cents I just paid, do any pennies go to Liza, Lorna, and Joey? Or did they not have royalty participation in those days and her annual salary from the studio was all she ever got for it?\ \ How about when THE WIZARD OF OZ is shown on TV? How about when somebody buys JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL? Would love to know what (if any) money the kids make off of her these days.

• Judy had a long-term record deal with Decca until the mid-50''s, which released most of her major hits from the MGM days. Unfortunately, while she was paid for the sessions, in those days, singers rarely were paid royalties.\ \ After she left MGM, she signed with Capital Records and she did receive royalties, which are likely still paid to her estate. Her image is licensed and Liza, Joey and Lorna are paid fees for the use of it on record covers, DVD sets and other merchandising.

• Thanks R1. I''ve always wondered if Judy''s kids get royalties or not. I wonder how much they get annually.

• I doubt the royalties amount to much, R2. Judy''s biggest hit on Capital was the Carnegie Hall concert album. The rest of her catalogue were mostly standards that were expensive to record and rarely sold much as albums.\ \ They did re-release Carnegie Hall remastered on a box set a few years ago, which probably did OK. But they aren''t getting rich off it.

• Every gay male baby born is a contribution to the Liza drug fund.

• Don''t forget, Judy was millions in debt when she died. \ \ Liza, for all her faults, has been making her own money since she was a teenager. Apparently she''s much savvier financially than Mamma was.

• I think sid luft did his best to control and take over any possible royalties Judy''s work would earn. I doublt liza see''s any of it.

• I thought I read somewhere that the three of Judy''s children were saddened to discover that they or Judy''s or Sid Luft''s estate was legally entitled to very little money. They themselves started The Judy Garland Family Trust which receives what royalties they are entitled to, or negotiate. I heard it brings in about $150,000 a year. Not much, but something. I recall hearing that they didn''t have too difficult a time getting licensees to contribute small honoraria for the good will and cooperation it buys.\ \ \ Judy''s work is always in print, and widely available in every format, somebody must be buying it!

• Generally, I don''t think the singer gets royalties, only the people who write the music & lyrics. \ \ Still, if Marilyn Monroe''s estate still makes millions by licensing her likeness, wouldn''t Liza, Lorna & Loey, er, Joey, get some money from that? \ \ Plus, Liza doesn''t need the money, and probably Lorna''s okay, too. What does poor Joey do for a living, anyway? Did he ever have kids? Did Lorna?

• Lorna has two kids a boy and a girl. Their last name is Tapper, I think.\ \ Joe Luft is developmentally disabled, due apparently to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. It gets worse as one ages, I think. I hear he used to do some photography, but it doesn''t seem he has ever worked really. I know he lives with caretakers, a married couple who are friends of the (his) family. I saw him two years ago, and he looked very disabled and tiny.

• "Generally, I don''t think the singer gets royalties, only the people who write the music & lyrics."\ \ But that can''t still be true today, can it? Are you saying that when somebody downloads "Material Girl" from iTunes, Madonna gets nothing? I know that the whole reason singers (like Madonna with all of her post-Like a Virgin stuff) want to be credited as co-writers of the songs is to make MORE money. But I would still think they would get something just as the singer.\ \ It doesn''t surprise me that that would have been the case in Judy''s day, though.

• Lorna''s son is college age, and very good-looking.

• Judy died owing the IRS over $2 million in back taxes and another $1 million to other creditors. Sid Luft also owed the IRS for his share, which was another $1 million.\ \ There was no money being generated for years from Judy''s estate. In fact, Liza and Frank Sinatra eventually paid off most of the estate''s debt themselves to preserve her memory.\ \ Liza made millions of her own, which was carefully invested and managed by Frank''s long-time manager/attorney, Mickey Rudin. Mickey also helped create a corporation to control Judy''s image and likeness and negotiated with Capital and MGM on back royalties and licensing.\ \ The Estate makes about $200,000 a year, most of which is in trust for Lorna''s kids. Liza has taken care of Joe financially for years and helped Lorna out when necessary.

• There are songwriting royalties. But performers also get royalties from the sale of their recordings. I think the songwriters get a bigger cut, though, which is why so many pop stars insist on a writing credit. In the industry it''s known as "change a word, take a third".

• [quote] Apparently she''s much savvier financially than Mamma was.\ \ It doesn''t hurt that Mamma wasn''t feeding her speed at the age of 10 to exploit her singing talent. Judy was a junkie, not a dummy.

• R14\ \ She made me take them. I didn''t wanna do it. I didn''t wanna do it.

  Judy

• You can''t argue that a 10 yr old is responsible when their parent gets them hooked on drugs. Just try making a case for it with anyone else. Defend any other mother giving their 10 yr old speed, oh, doesn''t work anymore does it. Judy''s ruthless stage-mother told the innocent 10 yr old that it was "medicine." Even if she did eventually realize they were dangerous drugs, she would''ve been hooked by then.

• How could Judy''s "likeness" possibly generate any money these days?

• "How could Judy''s ''likeness'' possibly generate any money these days?"\ \ I try. I really do, but I fail badly.

  Rufus Wainwright

• Her image, as Dorothy, is everywhere. From coffee mugs to Christmas ornaments to keychains almost every novelty item has a WOO tie in. But the studio gets all that money as actors didn''t get savvy to the money that could be made until after Star Wars. It seems a crime that her face can make others so much money.

• But do actors today really receive royalties on their likeness when it is as a character?\ \ For example, if the image of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is used on a book jacket or key chain or whatever, does he get money for it? \ \ If so, how is that negotiated? Seems awfully complicated.

• [quote]performers also get royalties from the sale of their recordings.\ \ Songwriters also get royalties when their songs are played on radio. President Obama says he hopes that there will soon be legislation that pays radio fees to the performers also. OTOH, we all know how he said he wants equality for gays and you see how well that has turned out.

• "OTOH, we all know how he said he wants equality for gays and you see how well that has turned out."\ \ GOD you''re tedious.

• I like blue.

  Joey

• Today most stars negotiate merchandising rights using their image and likeness as part of their deal, whether in music or other media.\ \ Legendary stars like Judy or Marilyn did not have such deals, however, their original contracts with studios like Fox or MGM gave those rights while under contract. Their estates are successful in re-negotiating because the studios do not have the right to exploit their images after their death.

• Are merchandising rights negotiated as a "lump sum" or is it paid out with each product that has a likeness? And then are the actors paid off by the quantity of items sold with the likeness? \ \ How do they ever keep track of all of it?

• OP --There was an Easter Parade CD soundtrack from Rhino. I wonder if it''s now out of print?

• Well managed estates of some former entertainers make big money. Marilyn Monroe''s estate pretty much funds the Actor''s Studio I believe and Elvis Presley''s estate makes and has made far more money after his death than he ever made alive.\ \ If Garland''s estate has been set up well to market her likeness and her work- it could be quite lucrative.

  charlie

• It''s usually a licensing and royalty deal, R25. Each manufacturer pays a fee for the use of the image, plus an escalating royalty based on sales of the DVD, album, poster, mug, etc.\ \ Most estates hire third-party companies to manage these deals for a fee. Even with expenses and gross percentages, the estate''s heirs can make millions of dollars a year in profits.\ \ Both Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley made far more money after their deaths than while alive. Marilyn''s estate was worth about $200,000 when she died. Today, her estate makes over $3 million annually.\ \ Elvis died with about $5 million. Lisa Marie sold 85% of the interest in Elvis Presley Enterprises for $150 million a couple of years ago. When she turned 21, her inheritance was worth over $200 million.

• I read recently that Liza Minnelli is worth about $60 million. Good for her. Glad bad money managers and management didn't get their claws on it.

  pantyhose

• bump

• Liza cannot be worth $60 million.

• maybe 6 million at the most???

• Would I be moulding crap from clay if I was worth 60million?

  All%20The%20Way%20May

• Here's what is estimated for Liza

  http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/actors/liza-minnelli-net-worth/

  lbbc

• Anyone going to see Liza perform at the Montreal Jazz Festival on July 5?

• I am seeing her at Niagara Fallsview Casino on August 30, 2012. Hoping like hell she doesn't cancel.

• r36 Does her current singing voice not bother you?

  And%20if%20so%2C%20why%20not%3F

• [quote]maybe 6 million at the most??? Jeez, how much do booze, sequins and hair-dye cost FFS

• "It doesn't hurt that Mamma wasn't feeding her speed at the age of 10 to exploit her singing talent. Judy was a junkie, not a dummy." Oh shut up, you dumbass. Judy Garland told a LOT of lies, especially about her mother. She left behind some pages of a proposed autobiography in which she claimed her mother was shoving pills down her throat at age ten. Gerald Clarke, that Judy-loving queen who believes everything the druggie, mentally-ill Judy said, went on ET and dropped the "giving drugs to poor little Judy at age 10" bombshell that came straight from Judy's deranged mind. Judy also said that her mother squandered her money and left her broke. Again, a lie. Her mother managed her money conservatively; it wasn't until Judy got control of her finances that she went broke...for the FIRST time. There was a TCM special on recently that gets shown periodically commemorating the Wizard of Oz. Judy is shown on Jack Paar's show telling her funny, but untrue, Wizard of Oz stories. All of her children, Liza, Lorna, and poor Joey are observing her tales and at some point Liza says that her mother was a great storyteller, a hilarious raconteur, but that she was mainly concerned with making her stories amusing, not the actual truth. So even Judy's children had to admit that she was frequently full of shit.

• Before your wig flies off in a complete hissy, R39, and you snatch every last shimmering bugle-bead from your ballgown in a volcanic fit of karaoke-screeching neurosis, you oughtta know that there is plenty of corroborating evidence that Garland was indeed force-fed the zippity-do-dah drops by her Mommy. Her sisters were, as well. It so they could bring-it for a little enterprise called "vaudeville" -- something you attempt to approximate on a postage stamp-sized stage down at the Lavender Boa every Wednesday night except for the fact that you get paid in lite beer and pool-cue chalk. As a child in vaudeville, Garland also had to actually sing. You need only worry if stubble is going to show through that slathering of cosmetics or your rancid pantyhose beneath the dingy lights. Regarding Garland's estate and likeness, it has reportedly grown to considerable proportions since the progressive Video/DVD reissuing of her film classics and her recordings on a worldwide scale. Some of her work (the Carnegie Hall album, for example) has in fact never been "out of print." Her estate gets only a small portion from her Oz-related likeness -- lawyers weren't quick enough to renegotiate that to optimum returns, but her Estate/Trust generates well over a million a year, and would generate much more if attorneys had worked the kind of deals that Priscilla Presley used her wolverine fangs to procure for her daughter's benefit. The Garland children were too busy partying at Studio 54 in the 70s to focus. Minnelli is worth money only because she has a little collection of Warhol originals gathered between lines of blow back in the day and still gets paid well for her nightclub attempts. But the 'Cabaret' and 'Liza with a Z!' money is long gone and those two things were the highlights of her commercial success. 'Arthur' was the only remaining blip in a flatlined movie career and she never had a Top 40 hit single or a significant recording career. She makes a little for the 'Arrested Development' spots, but she ain't worth $60 million, which is one reason she's making Play-doh trinkets for tasteless old ladies and bewigged wonders of the drag-queen set. Heaven knows how much that brings in. Not much. Her saving grace is that she can wobble and shriek through a concert while sitting in a wheelchair and still pick up a check fat enough to keep her in cigs and big boxes of Pinot Grigio. Lorna clearly never had the earning power of her sister. Where Liza has that set of Warhol originals, Lorna's lucky to have a half-eaten bag of Werthers Originals. Seriously ... They're all fine because Mother's estate is finally in good enough shape to subsidize all of their nonsense. The rights to Garland's 26-episode TV series was up for auction last month, starting at $1 million, with some analysts figuring that, with proper 21st Century marketing, the set could reap millions, to say nothing of yearly royalties from all sorts of diversified product management. Ironic. Hopefully Lorna got Barry Manilow to go halfsies with her on that investment -- she'll make a mint. Liza reportedly didn't buy the masters -- a good thing; she'd prolly chew them into oblivion one night like a jealous Rottweiler.

  FliesInTheButtermilk