a robust social media and online presence,
along with strong licensing and infringement
enforcement programs. In the current age of
technology, the public has more opportunities
to easily access information about their
favorite living and deceased celebrities,
which certainly helps the fascination

with deceased celebrities to continue.”

Roesler also stated the impact that social
media has had on his deceased clientele.
“Social media has made a huge impact on CMG
personalities because it allows the fans to
continue ‘interacting’ with these personalities
long after they have passed away,” Roesler
said. “It also provides us the opportunity to
keep these personalities relevant and ensure
that the fans still have new content to view
even though the personality is no longer here to
create it. Social media has given CMG the ability
to highlight our clients and their achievements
in new ways, and allows us to connect with
many people in just a few clicks.” At the
moment, Roesler said his top five most popular
clients are Maya Angelou, Jackie Robinson,
James Dean, Amelia Earhart, and Bellie Page.

Elaine “Lainey” Lui, co-host on CTV’s daily
talk show, The Social, says dead celebrities
will always have a place in fan’s hearts.

“Elvis Presley, James Dean, and Marilyn
Monroe all died young,” Elaine said in an
interview with the Other Press. “And they
all died mysteriously, suddenly. Part of
the fascination we have with them is that
there’s always a question of ‘what if?’ It’s
the lure of possibility. IVs the constant
wondering about what else could have
been accomplished had they survived.

ItUs the sense that, with these three in
particular, the story was incomplete.”

In addition, Lui said that age
(specifically, youth) plays a key
factor in a dead celebrity’s legacy.

“Al the same time, in dying
so young, it meant that
they were never old,”

Lui says. “Sure, Elvis

had deteriorated
physically, but he
wasn't grey,

he wasn't
wrinkled.

His condition

al the time

of his death
was altribuled
to other factors-not age. People sull
remembered what he looked like in his prime.
Youth is a powerful lure. James Dean and
Marilyn Monroe died with their beauty intact,
which means they will only be remembered
forever young, forever beautiful. It means
that, especially in the case of Dean and
Monroe, the visuals that remain are ones thal
depict them in perpetual, ageless beauty.”

Bul has the obsession with dead celebrities

gone overboard? Alex Proud, writer for The

Telegraph, seems to think so, as he has

a more cynical view about dead celebrity

worship, stating, “And what about people

who aren't famous? Were | minded to

cry over the deaths of people I’ve never

met, the blameless children of Syria

might be more deserving of my tears

than an ageing pop star who hadn't

produced anything good in decades.”
However, Pelin Kesebir, then a

researcher at the University of Illinois

al Urbana-Champaign, who back in 2008

conducted a study about dead celebrity

fascination, says that dead celebrity

worship is not such a bad thing

in the bigger picture. “We all need

these buffers,” Kesebir said in a 2008

interview with Psychology Today.
“Famous people can serve as

inspirational figures. They can provide

the kind of existential stamina. They

can show that you yourself can

become immortal. So they're in a

way whal’s best about a culture.

They can serve as compasses. |

don't think that’s unhealthy.”
Nonetheless, dead celebrity

worship

does not

appear to be

disappearing anytime soon. And

as for Lui, when asked which dead
celebrity she would have loved to

have met and interviewed, she quipped,
“Elvis. But would he really be dead?”