Anthony Spurlock has been waiting seven years for this moment. A Berkeley, Calif., songwriter, Spurlock, 33, anointed himself minister of The First Church of The Doors in 1984, and has spent much of his time since then trying to keep the rock band’s fire burning. With 150 acolytes in the United States, Mexico and Canada, Spurlock publishes a newsletter and, every July 3–the anniversary of Jim Morrison’s death in 1971–holds a daylong Celebration of The Lizard King on Berkeley streets. Now he’s earning a few bucks from his obsession. Spurlock and fellow worshipers are hawking Morrison posters to moviegoers lining up to see “The Doors.” Says Spurlock: “Morrison is a force of nature you can’t keep down.”
As they said about Elvis Presley when he passed away in 1977: dying can be a good career move. Buoyed by last month’s release of Oliver Stone’s film, The Doors are experiencing a dramatic–and profitable–renaissance. Doors CDs and cassettes are flying off shelves; the movie soundtrack has sold 1 million copies. Two Jim Morrison hagiographies are climbing the best-seller lists. Del Furano, president of Winterland Prods., which controls all rights to Doors memorabilia, predicts 1991 T shirt and poster sales will be “10 to 15 times” greater than last year. The surge is fueled by both aging baby boomers and a new generation discovering the Morrison myth through Stone’s movie. “To kids, Morrison is like a rap artist–he’s dark, edgy and dangerous,” says Brian Grazer, co-CEO of Imagine Films Entertainment, the film’s coproducer.
The resurgence is an added bonus for surviving band members. Kept alive by FM classic-rock radio, Doors records have consistently sold between 500,000 and 750,000 units a year. Album royalties, song-publishing income and license fees amount to more than $3 million annually, according to Gary Stiffelman, The Doors’ attorney; he expects that figure at least to double in 1991. (Each band member receives a quarter of all profits, and the remaining quarter is split between Morrison’s parents and those of his common-law-wife Pamela Courson, who died in 1974.) The group also earned $750,000 for its cooperation on the film.
The rush to cash in is particularly fierce among book publishers. “Riders on the Storm,” a memoir by Doors drummer John Densmore, rose to number eight on The New York Times’s nonfiction list last week. “No One Here Gets Out Alive,” a reissue of a 1980 memoir co-written by Doors associate Danny Sugerman, is fourth on the paperback list. Coming soon: “Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison” and “Mr. Mojo Risin’: Jim Morrison, The Last Holy Fool.” Three memoirs by ex-girlfriends of the self-destructive rock star are in the works, says Sugerman. Albert Goldman, who previously savaged Presley and John Lennon in print, has signed a reported $500,000 deal with Random House for a Morrison biography.
Other would-be profiteers haven’t been as fortunate. John Obie of Elk Grove Village, Ill., minted 5,000 silver commemorative coins stamped with a bare-chested Morrison, but The Doors have refused him permission to sell them. The band recently turned down requests for a “Touch Me” Trojans condom ad and a “Light My Fire” gas company commercial. Ironically, the biggest loser may be Carolco, the movie company that touched off the renaissance. Since Winterland holds the rights to Doors merchandise, Carolco could be deprived of tens of millions of dollars in potential spinoffs. And the movie itself has earned only $27 million through late March–making it, by Hollywood standards, a big disappointment.
