Your article based on your interview of me (“DiMaggio’s lawyer criticizes Univ. Press,” Nov. 2) was excellent and right on point — “fair and balanced.” All facts were correct and you hit the nail on the head as to the issue. What the professors at Yale or wherever do not understand is that this is not a “First Amendment” issue. The estate of Joe DiMaggio and the trusts thereunder (including myself as a trustee) own all of the licensing rights to the “name, likeness and image of Joe DiMaggio in a commercial venture.”
This is a commercial venture, as the Yale University Press is taking orders for the book in advance. The literary or educational content of the writing in the book is not an issue. It is the use of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe on the cover for the sole purpose of selling the book which is strictly a commercial venture. In any event, as previously stated, it is in extremely poor taste. You can rest assured that the contents of the book (which I have no intention of reading) are nothing more than a research project of the other 34 or 35 unauthorized biographies in which the other authors never shook hands or had a “cup of joe” with Mr. DiMaggio. Again, thank you for your fairness and accuracy in reporting, which is rare these days in the media.
Morris Engelberg
Nov. 4
The writer is baseball legend Joe DiMaggio’s former attorney and the executor of his estate.