Chapter 3 - In which Moe the Sleaze sells out.
Summary: In Chapter 2 we left Moe rushing home to answer a phone call from Neil.
OK, so Neil didn't call that night. Or the next. Or ever for that matter. Days turned to weeks. I started to think that Neil probably lost my address and phone number. I started picturing Neil obsessed with the thought of never finding the photographer. I imagined scenes like:
Pegi: Neil, Honey, you haven't worked on your new record for the past two weeks. Is something bothering you?
Neil: Golly, Pegi, I just can't concentrate on my music. I've just GOT to find that guy who took that swell photo of me!
Realizing that the entire Rustie World was waiting for that new record, I knew I had to do something. So I did what every Rustie does in an emergency... I emailed Lookout Mama. I told her the story and asked her to give Elliot my name, address and phone number the next time they talked.
More weeks went by. My dreams of being the next Joel Bernstein began to fade.
At the end of June I left for a two week vacation; biking in Virginia, festing in Cleveland, oohing and aahing at Niagra Falls. Arriving back at home in early July, tired from driving all day, I stumbled over to the answering machine and pressed "play". There among the dozens of calls from my daughter's friends... "Hello. This is Lookout Management calling for Chuck regarding a photo he took of Neil Young." The hundreds of miles I had driven that day vanished in an instant!
Once I calmed down, I called Lookout back. I talked to a woman who I later learned was Elliot's personal assistant. She told me that she was given the task of tracking me down. Now that she had found me, she would turn the matter over to "someone else" who would be contacting me shortly. A few days later I got another call from Lookout, not from Elliot as I had hoped, but someone else in the office. I was asked if I was interested in selling the rights to the photo. "Heck yeah!" I was then asked if I was a professional photographer. "Heck No! I'm just a fan who got a lucky shot of Neil. Neil saw it and apparently liked it." Then I heard the words that meant far more to me than any money could offer me...
"Neil ABSOLUTELY LOVED the photo!"
A couple of weeks later I received yet another phone call, this time from Warner Bros. records. We had basically the same conversation as I had with Lookout. Would I sell? Was I a pro? I emailed them a scanned image of the photo (up until this time, Neil was the only one out there who had seen it). A few weeks later I got an email with an offer to buy "publicity rights" to the photo. This meant that I would still own the photo and would keep the negative but Warner Bros. would get a copy and the right to use it for "news, publicity, tip sheets, multimedia works," etc. The offer wasn't enough to make me rich so I'll be keeping my day job. Not that it matterd;e I had already made up my mind that whatever I got was going to the Bridge School.
After a month of exchanging emails, phone calls and, letters with Warner Bros., it now appears that the deal is done. On Monday, I received the final contract which spells out what WB and I can do with the photo. The contract says that they will NOT use the photo for album or single artwork. Upon reading this, I immediately emailed WB and asked "But what if I don't want to restrict you from using the photo on an album?" Their answer... "Should that situation ever arise, it would only be fair to compensate you a bit better..."
Go to Chapter 4 - In which Moe the Sleaze basks in his glory.