At the moment of her death this past June, it could fairly be said that Gloria Vanderbilt, at the age of 95, had been a celebrity longer than anyone on earth. My forthcoming book, Adventures of a Jazz Age Lawyer: Nathan Burkan and the Making of American Popular Culture, recounts the remarkable events, including the custody battle of the century, that first made Gloria Vanderbilt famous.
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LITTLE GLORIA
Posted by JazzAgeLawyer on June 25, 2019
https://jazzagelawyer.com/2019/06/25/little-gloria/
CEASE AND DESIST LETTERS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE – CIVIL RIGHTS HEROS EDITION
With the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act fast upon us, the market for papers, ephemera, and memorabilia of the civil rights movement seems to heating up, bringing with it a wave of legal activity by the heirs, assigns, and executors of some of its most iconic figures, what we cheekily call “cease and desist letters from beyond the grave.” In just the past few weeks, disputes over the legacies of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X have all landed in court.
Posted by JazzAgeLawyer on November 14, 2013
https://jazzagelawyer.com/2013/11/14/cease-and-desist-letters-from-beyond-the-grave-civil-rights-heros-edition/
CHUNGA’S REVENGE
The lead vocals for Frank Zappa’s fine 1970 Chunga’s Revenge album were performed by a duo billed as the THE PHLORESCENT LEECH & EDDIE. It was a badly kept secret that this was actually Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, founders of the 60s soft rock band the Turtles, who used the pseudonym due to a lingering contractual dispute with their former label. After a brief stint with the Mothers of Invention, they began recording and touring as Flo & Eddie. Now their corporate alter ego, Flo & Eddie, Inc., which owns the rights to all of the Turtles’ master recordings (including such bona fide classics as “Happy Together” and “Eleanore”) is taking the lead in the pursuit of one of the holy grails of pre-1970s recording artists–royalties for the use of their old records by digital transmission services. Its class action suit against Sirius XM, filed last week in a California state court, has the aura of a test case which, if successful, would have broad ramifications for other broadcasters offering interactive features.
Posted by JazzAgeLawyer on August 6, 2013
https://jazzagelawyer.com/2013/08/06/chungas-revenge/
Unfair to Genius
Unfair to Genius is an enlightening and entertaining romp through 60 tumultuous years of legal, artistic, and economic change in the American popular music industry, as seen through the lens of one of its most prolific copyright litigants and legendary outsiders, Ira B. Arnstein. "I suppose we have to take the bad with the good in our system which gives everyone their day in court," Irving Berlin once said, but "Arnstein is stretching his day into a lifetime.""Rosen paints a fascinating portrait of one of history's most fertile creative eras--the rise of Tin Pan Alley, or the 'Age of the Songwriter' as Rosen calls it--and the book brims with history relevant to today's disruptive technology climate."
-Publishers Weekly
"There's fun to be found in 'Unfair to Genius' as it leavens legal history with showbiz anecdote, and insight with amusement."
-The Wall Street Journal
“Superbly researched and written . . . Rosen deftly plots the rise of the music industry in America."
-Forbes
Gary A. Rosen
Gary A. Rosen, a lawyer, has litigated copyright, patent, and other intellectual property cases for more than 30 years. He has been a Lecturer in Legal Studies at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Drexel University's Kline School of Law. Before entering private practice, he served as a law clerk to federal appellate judge and award-winning legal historian A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. He holds a degree in physics from Haverford College and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. He and his wife Lisa, a physician, and their two children live outside Philadelphia.
