ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701170024
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: SKIP WOLLENBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS
A decade after his death, Fred Astaire will partner with Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners in commercials featuring routines from some of his best-known films. It will be done through the magic of computer imaging.
Robyn Astaire said it will be the first time she has let an advertiser use her late husband's image. Among the hundreds of proposals, she said, this one was ``artistically suitable'' because Astaire would have seen nothing wrong with using the vacuum cleaners as dance props.
``He was always receptive to new proposals. He would have used a vacuum cleaner in a minute. Why, he used a mop in the '30s,'' Astaire said.
The three, 15-second ads use excerpts showing her husband performing in the movies ``Royal Wedding'' and ``Easter Parade.'' They will debut before the huge audience expected to tune in the Jan. 26 Super Bowl.
In one ad, Fred Astaire appears to be carrying a vacuum cleaner hose rather than a cane he actually held as he danced up and down stairs.
In another commercial, the coat rack he danced with is replaced by a vacuum broom. In a third ad, he appears to clean a light fixture on the ceiling with a handheld vacuum.
``There is no doubt in my mind that Fred would have accepted this,'' his widow said after the commercials were shown to reporters. ``I'm sorry if it offends some people. There will be many more who will enjoy these commercials.''
TV audiences are used to seeing Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Gleason, John Wayne and other long-dead celebrities digitized into commercials for everything from perfume to beer. Critics argue that it denies them a voice in how their image or performance is used.
Astaire said she has fought companies that have sought to use her late husband's image without permission, and leads a campaign to enact laws in California to give celebrity estates greater control over how the celebrity's performances are used.
She was married to Fred Astaire for seven years before he died at age 88 in 1987. She said he asked her to make sure no one took advantage of him after his death.
Astaire said she has received an average of five proposals a month for the past decade and had rejected every one. Many advertisers wanted to make it appear Astaire was speaking in their ads, and she refused to permit that.
``I didn't want Fred hawking things with words coming out of his mouth that seemed to say ``Buy this product,''' she said.
She said she approved the Dirt Devil ads mainly because the admakers used actual clips of him dancing. An actor performed similar routines holding vacuums and the images were combined on a computer.
Neither Astaire nor officials of Dirt Devil, a unit of Royal Appliance Mfg. Co. of Cleveland, would say how much Dirt Devil paid for the right to use Fred Astaire in the ads.
Michael Merriman, president and chief executive of Dirt Devil, said the company plans to run ads over the next two years and may do several more using Astaire films.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: In an image from TV, the late Fred Astaire is seenby CNBdancing with a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. A scene from a movie was
manipulated to make the commercial.