Seltaeb
Encyclopedia
Seltaeb was a company set up in 1963, by Nicky Byrne (real name Douglas Anthony Nicholas Byrne) to exclusively look after merchandising
interests on behalf of Brian Epstein
, who managed NEMS Enterprises and The Beatles
: John Lennon
, Paul McCartney
, George Harrison
, and Ringo Starr
.
Directly prior to The Beatles' first American visit, Brian Epstein wanted someone to manage the escalating volume of merchandising requests that NEMS found itself unable to cope with, and asked his lawyer, David Jacobs, to oversee this task. Jacobs knew Nicky Byrne and asked him if he would be interested in taking over the merchandising subdivision from NEMS altogether, and pay NEMS a commission. Byrne accepted the offer subject to a 90% rate, leaving only 10% for The Beatles and NEMS combined. Completely unaware of the potential market that existed, particularly in America, Epstein agreed to the deal, and subsequently lost The Beatles an estimated $100,000,000 in possible income.
In December 1963 Byrne took over the control of Stramsact in the UK, and then set up Seltaeb (Beatles spelt backwards) in the USA. Epstein was able to re-negotiate a more favourable commission of 49% in August 1964, but then became embroiled in a three-year court battle with Byrne regarding payment of monies due, during which time potential sponsors lost interest. In August 1967 Epstein died, from what was ruled an accidental overdose of a prescribed drug. Jacobs was found hanged in his garage on 15 December 1968. Byrne later retired to the Bahamas.
stormed the UK in November 1963, Epstein was besieged by novelty goods companies wanting to use The Beatles' name and images on plastic guitars, drums, disc racks, badges, belts and a huge variety of assorted merchandise. Epstein was adamant that The Beatles would not directly endorse any product, but through NEMS Enterprises he would grant discretionary licences to companies who were able to produce a quality product at a fair price, although many companies were already selling products without a licence.
When NEMS was swamped with offers of endorsements from America following the success of "I Want To Hold Your Hand
", Epstein, who was usually meticulous in matters involving The Beatles, decided to delegate this responsibility as he felt it was distracting him from his main task of managing his expanding roster of artists. He then asked Jacobs, his London-based celebrity lawyer (Jacobs' other clients included Marlene Dietrich
, Diana Dors
, Judy Garland
, Liberace
and Laurence Harvey
) to appoint someone specifically to take over the assignment and gave Jacobs power of attorney
in the matter. Jacobs at first handed the daily management of this to his chief clerk, Edward Marke, but it transpired that Marke knew almost nothing about the merchandising business, and so Jacobs was forced to look elsewhere.
Jacobs knew of a Chelsea socialite, a 37-years-old divorcé called Nicky Byrne, and when encountering him at a friend's cocktail party offered him the project, saying that "Brian [Epstein] has made a terrible mess out of this [merchandising]." Byrne, who has said he had been "sitting around doing nothing for half of 1963" was an ex Horse Guard
trooper and amateur racing driver. He had also previously been involved in music publishing, clothes design, theatre production, managing the Condor club in London, and was also known as being a part of a group of people who called themselves "The King's Road
Rats". He had not had any previous experience of merchandising or managing a large business.
Byrne was at first reluctant but later agreed, and delivered the merchandising contract to Jacob's office on 4 December 1963, leaving blank the percentages. Jacobs asked Byrne what percentage rate he should write down to which Byrne ambiguously replied: "Oh, look, just put in 10%." A typical percentage would have been 75% or 80% for NEMS, and Byrne expected Epstein would begin to negotiate. However, the contract came back initialled (meaning Epstein had read it) and signed by Epstein and Jacobs. Jacobs' advice to Epstein was, "10% is better than nothing". This lapse of shrewdness set the scene for what would later become a legal battleground which deprived The Beatles and Brian Epstein of such large sums of money they would have easily overshadowed any royalties they would receive in the medium term from the sale of records. Byrne later said: "They couldn't wait to get somebody else to do this, because they were in a mess themselves." Epstein would later realise that he had made a colossal error of judgment, as Byrne charged 10% commission to the merchandisers for a licence (receiving $10 out of every hundred) and then giving 10% of that to NEMS, which was $1.
(heir to the ninth Earl of St. Germans) and Malcolm Evans (not to be confused with Mal Evans
, The Beatles' roadie).
During the first Beatles' flight to America Epstein was offered numerous samples of products by merchandisers who required a licence to be allowed to sell them, such as clocks, pens, plastic wigs, bracelets, and games. Epstein rejected all of them; directing the merchandisers to Byrne instead, who was already in New York ensconced in The Drake Hotel
on Park Avenue at 56th Street. Byrne rented expensive offices on Fifth Avenue, hiring two limousines (on 24-hour standby) and a helicopter to fly clients to and from the airport, insisting that only the presidents of merchandising companies were allowed to talk directly with him, or with his partner, Lord Eliot, who helped to promote the company name with use of his title. Eliot would later recall going to the Seltaeb office once or twice a week to draw $1,000 from petty cash
.
The Wall Street Journal predicted that American teenagers would spend $50 million during 1964, on wigs, dolls, egg cups, T-shirts, sweatshirts and narrow-legged pants, and the New York Times wrote that the Reliance Manufacturing Company's factories were "smoking night and day... to meet demand", and had already sold products valued at the retail value of $2.5 million. The Reliant Shirt Corporation paid $100,000 for a licence and sold over a million Beatle T-shirts in three days, Remco
Toys had produced 100,000 Beatles' dolls and had orders for another 500,000, and the Lowell Toy Corporation were selling Beatle wigs faster than they could produce them, at more than 35,000 per day.
Seltaeb licenced over 150 different items internationally: Beatle dolls, scarves, mugs, bath water, wigs, t-shirts, bubble gum, licorice, empty cans of 'Beatle Breath', badges, and many more. The badges had "Seltaeb 1964 Chicago Made in USA" on one side, and "Green Duck Co., Chicago Made in USA" on the other. (The Green Duck metal stamping company was based at 1520 West Montana, Chicago, operating from 1906 until the late 1960s, making election badges for politicians, as well as memorial spoons). American businessmen saw The Beatles' merchandising as the “biggest marketing opportunity since Walt Disney
created Micky Mouse”. The Columbia Pictures Corporation offered to buy Byrne’s share in the companies for $500,000, with the incentives that the money would be paid into a low-tax offshore bank
account in the Bahamas, Byrne and his partners would retain 50% control of the companies, and Ferrari cars would be given free to every partner, but Byrne turned down the offer.
In The Times
on 9 December 1964, it was reported that Eliot was suing Byrne for damages of $1 Million. Eliot accused Byrne of spending $150,000 for his "personal comfort and benefit", over some months. The suit also accused Byrne of charging hotel bills to Seltaeb, which were as much as $19,000 every week for girlfriends, and also opening "charge accounts for them in Fifth Avenue shops". Eliot also alleged that Byrne had hired a chauffeur for $700 a week and had withheld $55,000 in royalties to NEMS, after which NEMS had said they would cancel the agreement between the two companies unless monies were forthcoming. Byrne denied all the charges, but admitted he had hired a chauffeur, as he was not familiar with the streets of New York. A supreme court judge reserved his decision
.
Epstein accused Seltaeb of not accounting properly, and cancelled its power to grant licences, which started a counter-lawsuit by Byrne against Epstein's New York accountant, Walter Hofer, asking for $5,168,000 in damages.
Epstein then instructed NEMS employees to deal directly with American companies, so Byrne instigated court proceedings, which took three years to settle, as it entailed 39 individual claims against NEMS. Byrne won the case, and Epstein paid the court costs and legal bills himself, although the judgement was later vacated
; meaning to cancel it, or render it null and void. Due to the legal battle, Woolworth’s
, J. C. Penney
, and other companies refused to finalise any merchandising agreements, cancelling orders worth $78 million. The court case and its effect was estimated to have lost NEMS and The Beatles approximately $100,000,000.
with his remark suggesting that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus", the opportunity had passed. Epstein feared that The Beatles would not renew their contracts with him—due to expire in the Autumn of 1967—if they discovered the truth about Seltaeb. Epstein's problems with Seltaeb would remain with him until his death on 27 August 1967, from what was ruled an accidental overdose of a prescribed drug. Many investors had also missed out on massive profits following the cancelling of contracts, and Byrne would later claim of having received two mysterious phone calls foretelling of Epstein’s death. Jacobs was found hanged in his garage on 15 December 1968. Days before his death Jacobs had asked for police protection, telling a private detective, "I'm in terrible trouble, they're all after me," and going on to list six well-known showbusiness people. Byrne retired to the Bahamas on his yacht, later moving to the Trowbridge
area of Wiltshire.
in 1957 alone.
Alistair Taylor
(Epstein’s assistant) later admitted that financial mistakes were made: "We did our best; some people have said it wasn't good enough. That's easy to say with 20/20 hindsight but remember that there were no rules. We were making it up as we went along."
In America Epstein had met the well-known divorce lawyer, Nat Weiss, whom Epstein later asked to take over the merchandising affairs of The Beatles and NEMS. Weiss would later state, “The reality is that The Beatles never saw a penny out of the merchandising… Tens of millions of dollars went down the drain because of the way the whole thing was mishandled. Even after the judgement was vacated, you could smell the smoke from the ashes, that’s how badly they had been burned.” Beatles' memorabilia, licenced by Seltaeb, is still sold at Beatles' conventions and on the internet.
Lennon said years later: "On the business end he [Epstein] ripped us off on the Seltaeb thing." McCartney also said: "He [Epstein] looked to his dad for business advice, and his dad knew how to run a furniture store in Liverpool." Richard DiLello later wrote about the financial mistakes made by The Beatles themselves in The Longest Cocktail Party
: An Insider's Diary of The Beatles, Their Million-dollar Apple Empire and Its Wild Rise and Fall.
Merchandising
Merchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity. In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer...
interests on behalf of Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
, who managed NEMS Enterprises and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
: John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
, and Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
.
Directly prior to The Beatles' first American visit, Brian Epstein wanted someone to manage the escalating volume of merchandising requests that NEMS found itself unable to cope with, and asked his lawyer, David Jacobs, to oversee this task. Jacobs knew Nicky Byrne and asked him if he would be interested in taking over the merchandising subdivision from NEMS altogether, and pay NEMS a commission. Byrne accepted the offer subject to a 90% rate, leaving only 10% for The Beatles and NEMS combined. Completely unaware of the potential market that existed, particularly in America, Epstein agreed to the deal, and subsequently lost The Beatles an estimated $100,000,000 in possible income.
In December 1963 Byrne took over the control of Stramsact in the UK, and then set up Seltaeb (Beatles spelt backwards) in the USA. Epstein was able to re-negotiate a more favourable commission of 49% in August 1964, but then became embroiled in a three-year court battle with Byrne regarding payment of monies due, during which time potential sponsors lost interest. In August 1967 Epstein died, from what was ruled an accidental overdose of a prescribed drug. Jacobs was found hanged in his garage on 15 December 1968. Byrne later retired to the Bahamas.
Merchandising
Before The Beatles achieved nationwide success in Britain, Epstein had permitted a small company (run by his cousins, and which initially catered only to fan club members) to produce Beatles' sweaters for 30 shillings and badges for six pence, eventually selling 15,000 sweaters and 50,000 badges as The Beatles' popularity grew. When BeatlemaniaBeatlemania
Beatlemania is a term that originated during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward The Beatles during the early years of their success...
stormed the UK in November 1963, Epstein was besieged by novelty goods companies wanting to use The Beatles' name and images on plastic guitars, drums, disc racks, badges, belts and a huge variety of assorted merchandise. Epstein was adamant that The Beatles would not directly endorse any product, but through NEMS Enterprises he would grant discretionary licences to companies who were able to produce a quality product at a fair price, although many companies were already selling products without a licence.
When NEMS was swamped with offers of endorsements from America following the success of "I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Want to Hold Your Hand
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment....
", Epstein, who was usually meticulous in matters involving The Beatles, decided to delegate this responsibility as he felt it was distracting him from his main task of managing his expanding roster of artists. He then asked Jacobs, his London-based celebrity lawyer (Jacobs' other clients included Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, Diana Dors
Diana Dors
Diana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva."-Early life:Diana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon,...
, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
and Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
) to appoint someone specifically to take over the assignment and gave Jacobs power of attorney
Power of attorney
A power of attorney or letter of attorney is a written authorization to represent or act on another's behalf in private affairs, business, or some other legal matter...
in the matter. Jacobs at first handed the daily management of this to his chief clerk, Edward Marke, but it transpired that Marke knew almost nothing about the merchandising business, and so Jacobs was forced to look elsewhere.
Jacobs knew of a Chelsea socialite, a 37-years-old divorcé called Nicky Byrne, and when encountering him at a friend's cocktail party offered him the project, saying that "Brian [Epstein] has made a terrible mess out of this [merchandising]." Byrne, who has said he had been "sitting around doing nothing for half of 1963" was an ex Horse Guard
Royal Horse Guards
The Royal Horse Guards was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry.Founded August 1650 in Newcastle Upon Tyne by Sir Arthur Haselrig on the orders of Oliver Cromwell as the Regiment of Cuirassiers, the regiment became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment during the reign of...
trooper and amateur racing driver. He had also previously been involved in music publishing, clothes design, theatre production, managing the Condor club in London, and was also known as being a part of a group of people who called themselves "The King's Road
King's Road
King's Road is a street in Chelsea, London, England.King's Road or Kings Road may also refer to:* King's Road * King's Road * King's Road * King's Road...
Rats". He had not had any previous experience of merchandising or managing a large business.
Byrne was at first reluctant but later agreed, and delivered the merchandising contract to Jacob's office on 4 December 1963, leaving blank the percentages. Jacobs asked Byrne what percentage rate he should write down to which Byrne ambiguously replied: "Oh, look, just put in 10%." A typical percentage would have been 75% or 80% for NEMS, and Byrne expected Epstein would begin to negotiate. However, the contract came back initialled (meaning Epstein had read it) and signed by Epstein and Jacobs. Jacobs' advice to Epstein was, "10% is better than nothing". This lapse of shrewdness set the scene for what would later become a legal battleground which deprived The Beatles and Brian Epstein of such large sums of money they would have easily overshadowed any royalties they would receive in the medium term from the sale of records. Byrne later said: "They couldn't wait to get somebody else to do this, because they were in a mess themselves." Epstein would later realise that he had made a colossal error of judgment, as Byrne charged 10% commission to the merchandisers for a licence (receiving $10 out of every hundred) and then giving 10% of that to NEMS, which was $1.
Seltaeb
Byrne controlled two companies: Stramsact in the UK and Europe, and Seltaeb in the USA. He invited five friends to become partners—four of whom were unknown to either Jacobs or Epstein—with each investing around $1,600. They were: Mark Warman, Simon Miller-Munday, John Fenton (a business acquaintance of Jacobs) Lord Peregrine EliotPeregrine Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans
Peregrine Nicholas Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans was born on 2 January 1941 to Nicholas Richard Michael Eliot, 9th Earl of St Germans and his wife Helen Mary née Villers ....
(heir to the ninth Earl of St. Germans) and Malcolm Evans (not to be confused with Mal Evans
Mal Evans
Malcolm Frederick 'Mal' Evans was best known as the road manager, assistant, and a friend of The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr....
, The Beatles' roadie).
During the first Beatles' flight to America Epstein was offered numerous samples of products by merchandisers who required a licence to be allowed to sell them, such as clocks, pens, plastic wigs, bracelets, and games. Epstein rejected all of them; directing the merchandisers to Byrne instead, who was already in New York ensconced in The Drake Hotel
The Drake Hotel, New York
The Drake Hotel was a hotel located at Park Avenue and 56th Street, New York, NY.The hotel was built in 1926 by the real estate organization of Bing and Bing. It was a 21 floor complex with 495 rooms...
on Park Avenue at 56th Street. Byrne rented expensive offices on Fifth Avenue, hiring two limousines (on 24-hour standby) and a helicopter to fly clients to and from the airport, insisting that only the presidents of merchandising companies were allowed to talk directly with him, or with his partner, Lord Eliot, who helped to promote the company name with use of his title. Eliot would later recall going to the Seltaeb office once or twice a week to draw $1,000 from petty cash
Petty cash
Petty cash is a small amount of discretionary funds in the form of cash used for expenditures where it is not sensible to make any disbursement by cheque, because of the inconvenience and costs of writing, signing and then cashing the cheque...
.
The Wall Street Journal predicted that American teenagers would spend $50 million during 1964, on wigs, dolls, egg cups, T-shirts, sweatshirts and narrow-legged pants, and the New York Times wrote that the Reliance Manufacturing Company's factories were "smoking night and day... to meet demand", and had already sold products valued at the retail value of $2.5 million. The Reliant Shirt Corporation paid $100,000 for a licence and sold over a million Beatle T-shirts in three days, Remco
Remco
Remco Industries, Inc. was a toy company founded in the 1940s that was best known for toys marketed and sold in the late 1950s and 1960s, like the Johnny Reb Cannon and Mighty Matilda Atomic Aircraft Carrier. The slogan was "Every Boy Wants a Remco Toy...And So Do Girls!" Remco was founded by two...
Toys had produced 100,000 Beatles' dolls and had orders for another 500,000, and the Lowell Toy Corporation were selling Beatle wigs faster than they could produce them, at more than 35,000 per day.
Seltaeb licenced over 150 different items internationally: Beatle dolls, scarves, mugs, bath water, wigs, t-shirts, bubble gum, licorice, empty cans of 'Beatle Breath', badges, and many more. The badges had "Seltaeb 1964 Chicago Made in USA" on one side, and "Green Duck Co., Chicago Made in USA" on the other. (The Green Duck metal stamping company was based at 1520 West Montana, Chicago, operating from 1906 until the late 1960s, making election badges for politicians, as well as memorial spoons). American businessmen saw The Beatles' merchandising as the “biggest marketing opportunity since Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
created Micky Mouse”. The Columbia Pictures Corporation offered to buy Byrne’s share in the companies for $500,000, with the incentives that the money would be paid into a low-tax offshore bank
Offshore bank
An offshore bank is a bank located outside the country of residence of the depositor, typically in a low tax jurisdiction that provides financial and legal advantages. These advantages typically include:...
account in the Bahamas, Byrne and his partners would retain 50% control of the companies, and Ferrari cars would be given free to every partner, but Byrne turned down the offer.
Percentages and court cases
Byrne passed on the first cheque for $9,700 to Epstein, who was impressed, but after innocently asking how much out of the amount Byrne was owed, was told, "Nothing Brian, that’s your 10%". Byrne then went on to describe the massive amount of interest he was getting from companies across the USA. Epstein was horrified, realising he had made an appalling error by accepting such a small percentage, and decided he could never tell The Beatles. He immediately instructed Jacobs to re-negotiate the contract with Byrne, which was finally achieved seven months later, in August 1964, which raised the royalty to 49%.In The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
on 9 December 1964, it was reported that Eliot was suing Byrne for damages of $1 Million. Eliot accused Byrne of spending $150,000 for his "personal comfort and benefit", over some months. The suit also accused Byrne of charging hotel bills to Seltaeb, which were as much as $19,000 every week for girlfriends, and also opening "charge accounts for them in Fifth Avenue shops". Eliot also alleged that Byrne had hired a chauffeur for $700 a week and had withheld $55,000 in royalties to NEMS, after which NEMS had said they would cancel the agreement between the two companies unless monies were forthcoming. Byrne denied all the charges, but admitted he had hired a chauffeur, as he was not familiar with the streets of New York. A supreme court judge reserved his decision
Reserved decision
Reserved decision is a legal term. After the hearing of a trial or the argument of a motion a judge may not immediately deliver a decision, but instead take time to review evidence and the law and deliver a decision at a later time, usually in a written form....
.
Epstein accused Seltaeb of not accounting properly, and cancelled its power to grant licences, which started a counter-lawsuit by Byrne against Epstein's New York accountant, Walter Hofer, asking for $5,168,000 in damages.
Epstein then instructed NEMS employees to deal directly with American companies, so Byrne instigated court proceedings, which took three years to settle, as it entailed 39 individual claims against NEMS. Byrne won the case, and Epstein paid the court costs and legal bills himself, although the judgement was later vacated
Vacated judgment
A vacated judgment makes a previous legal judgment legally void. A vacated judgment is usually the result of the judgment of an appellate court which overturns, reverses, or sets aside the judgment of a lower court....
; meaning to cancel it, or render it null and void. Due to the legal battle, Woolworth’s
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
, J. C. Penney
J. C. Penney
-External links:*...
, and other companies refused to finalise any merchandising agreements, cancelling orders worth $78 million. The court case and its effect was estimated to have lost NEMS and The Beatles approximately $100,000,000.
Maximus Enterprises
Epstein later launched Maximus Enterprises Ltd., to try and capitalise on the merchandising boom, but as so many companies had withdrawn their interest in the wake of the Seltaeb fiasco, and Lennon had angered America’s bible beltBible Belt
Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the southeastern and south-central United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average.The...
with his remark suggesting that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus", the opportunity had passed. Epstein feared that The Beatles would not renew their contracts with him—due to expire in the Autumn of 1967—if they discovered the truth about Seltaeb. Epstein's problems with Seltaeb would remain with him until his death on 27 August 1967, from what was ruled an accidental overdose of a prescribed drug. Many investors had also missed out on massive profits following the cancelling of contracts, and Byrne would later claim of having received two mysterious phone calls foretelling of Epstein’s death. Jacobs was found hanged in his garage on 15 December 1968. Days before his death Jacobs had asked for police protection, telling a private detective, "I'm in terrible trouble, they're all after me," and going on to list six well-known showbusiness people. Byrne retired to the Bahamas on his yacht, later moving to the Trowbridge
Trowbridge
Trowbridge is the county town of Wiltshire, England, situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, approximately 12 miles southeast of Bath, Somerset....
area of Wiltshire.
Aftermath
At the time, very few managers of pop groups needed to worry about how much money music merchandising could generate as very few artists survived long enough in the pop domain to be a viable investment. As far as Epstein was concerned it was merely good public relations, and any revenue that arose from the sale of Beatles-endorsed products was regarded as merely extra money that supplemented the Beatles' individual incomes from live performances and record sales. Epstein had not recognised an industry which had grossed $20 million for Elvis PresleyElvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
in 1957 alone.
Alistair Taylor
Alistair Taylor
James Alistair Taylor was the English personal assistant of Brian Epstein who accompanied him to the Cavern Club when he first saw The Beatles play on 9 November 1961...
(Epstein’s assistant) later admitted that financial mistakes were made: "We did our best; some people have said it wasn't good enough. That's easy to say with 20/20 hindsight but remember that there were no rules. We were making it up as we went along."
In America Epstein had met the well-known divorce lawyer, Nat Weiss, whom Epstein later asked to take over the merchandising affairs of The Beatles and NEMS. Weiss would later state, “The reality is that The Beatles never saw a penny out of the merchandising… Tens of millions of dollars went down the drain because of the way the whole thing was mishandled. Even after the judgement was vacated, you could smell the smoke from the ashes, that’s how badly they had been burned.” Beatles' memorabilia, licenced by Seltaeb, is still sold at Beatles' conventions and on the internet.
Lennon said years later: "On the business end he [Epstein] ripped us off on the Seltaeb thing." McCartney also said: "He [Epstein] looked to his dad for business advice, and his dad knew how to run a furniture store in Liverpool." Richard DiLello later wrote about the financial mistakes made by The Beatles themselves in The Longest Cocktail Party
The Longest Cocktail Party
The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider's Diary of the Beatles, Their Million-dollar Apple Empire and Its Wild Rise and Fall is a rock history book by Richard DiLello, published in 1973 by Playboy Press, and reprinted in 1981 and 2005...
: An Insider's Diary of The Beatles, Their Million-dollar Apple Empire and Its Wild Rise and Fall.