
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 23, 1993                   TAG: 9308230002
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

SOUVENIRS TO WARD OFF DEATH

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office has its own little shop of horrors where it markets the morbid - from personalized toe tags to skeleton tote bags. There's even a beach towel with a chalk body outline.

The gift shop, called Skeletons in the Closet, also sells T-shirts, coffee mugs and other morgue souvenirs. Proceeds go to a program aimed at scaring youths out of drinking and driving.

"Bodies and death are our business. We're just trying to take advantage of it," said Marilyn Lewis, the coroner's new marketing program coordinator.

The $4 personalized toe tags, used to identify cadavers, are "the real things," she said.

The marketing push has raised $15,000 over the past year for a program that brings convicted 16- to 21-year-old drunken drivers to the morgue for a firsthand look at the deadly effects of roadway intoxication.

"It seems to have a very definite and real impact on people," said Chris Harvey, who oversees the tours. "They leave with their eyes wide open and a different outlook on life."

Some have complained about the morbid merchandising, but Lewis said the focus isn't on the macabre, noting a mascot skeleton figure on tote bags, wearing a trench coat signifying the office's detective work and appropriately named Sherlock Bones.

"We were just trying to be a little creative. You just have to have a sense of humor," she said. "We try not to get tacky."

by CNB