The Ernest Hemingway furniture collection was a best seller, and the new Elvis line went toward the top of the charts. Now, Humphrey Bogart is the latest pop culture icon hawking leather chairs, chaise lounges and liquor cabinets from beyond the grave.
When it comes to marketing appeal, dead celebrities are a good bet, says Thomasville Furniture Industries' Mitchel Scott.
"The `Book of Life' for this person is already written," Scott, the company's marketing chief, said during a break in sales meetings. "The entity is known. It's not going to change."
Marketing the departed isn't confined to selling furniture.
For two years, Forbes Magazine's has compiled an annual list of the dead celebrities whose estates produce the most income. This year, Elvis remained the king 25 years after his death, with US$37 million in income, followed by "Peanuts" comic strip creator Charles Schulz at US$28 million.
New to the list was NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt, whose death in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500 stunned race fans across the country. Earnhardt debuted on the Forbes list in a third-place tie with Beatle John Lennon at US$20 million.
The totals included licensing deals as well as book and record sales during a one-year period ending in June.
Thomasville's Bogart Collection, containing more than 60 furniture pieces, rugs and accessories, made its debut during the fall run of the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point.
Marketing professor Andrew Bergstein of Penn State University said the release of the line is ideally timed, as American consumers find themselves drawn to heroic figures.
"If the present and future look bleak, people often look to the past in a nostalgic way," he said. "They forget about the bad parts and all the pain and suffering."
There won't be any New York firefighter furniture collections, but companies can sell things using macho figures like Bogie.
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