Intellectual property question: rights to one's "likeness" then and now

Cafe Society
1

When I read MAD Magazine as a kid, I became aware of the way they sometimes drew incidental characters in their TV/movie satires to resemble celebrities. One example: in the satire of “Hawaii Five-O” (“How-Are-Ya-Five-O”) there’s an ex-con who’s clearly based on comedian/actor Buddy Hackett. Another article featured a father and son who looked like David Niven and Dustin Hoffman respectively.

Similarly, many cartoon voices were clearly derived from celebrities’ voices. The 1960s cartoon “The Super 6” had three characters whose voices were based on well-known celebrity voices: Super Bwoing (Jimmy Stewart), Magneto Man (Cary Grant) and Super Scuba (Dean Martin). Others included Cool McCool (Jack Benny), and Top Cat (Phil Silvers). Lots of voiceovers resembled Ed Wynn, one of the most prominent being Happy Hoho, from the TV ads for Hostess Ho-hos.

Does anyone know what the IP laws were (and are) for such usages?

Back in the 1970s, I read an article claiming that a doll manufacturer was selling a doll which purportedly bore a strong resemblance to Cher. CBS sued the manufacturer, claiming that they “owned the rights to Cher’s likeness”. At the time, that struck me as an odd thing to claim. I guess a lot would depend on how strong the resemblance is.

Opinions and facts welcome.

2

While these rights have been developing, and vary by jurisdiction, the first two examples you give would certainly be considered fair use under the parody exception.

The main concern for such issues is cases like your third, where the likeness is used to promote a product and create an implicit endorsement.

Legal Eagle has just done a video about a modern day example.

3

As I understand it, California’s laws along this line are the strictest, while many other states have no such laws at all. But for big companies, it usually ends up being California’s laws that are relevant, because nobody wants to be shut out of doing business in California.

4

Mad Magazine did parodies and parodies are fair use. I doubt the laws against using likenesses restricts this.

Also, as time went on, celebrities felt honored to be in a Mad parody; it meant they arrived.