It Don’t Come Easy

What do you do for an encore after you reunite with your surviving bandmates in the biggest rock group of all time?

Try launching a line of autographed collector plates and figurines.

That’s what Beatles drummer and Pizza Hut pitchman Ringo Starr is planning to do starting in April.

Sources say Starr has been paid a $75,000 advance --against 10% of the sales--to authorize a line of items from New Jersey collectibles company Gartlan USA.

For $325, 8-inch Ringo figurines will be sold showing him in the same pose when the Beatles were photographed strolling across Abbey Road for their album by that name.

Selling at $195 each will be 1,000 Ringo-autographed plates; 5,000 6-inch figurines of the Beatle will sell for $125.

Coming up later in the year: Ringo Christmas tree ornaments.

Genesis of a Problem

Rex Mehta’s experience with Sega has been anything but fun and games.

The Los Angeles wholesaler of leather purses and other leather goods is being bombarded by as many as 100 or more calls a day from people wanting to chat about Sega’s new Saturn video game.

Mehta’s problems stem from Sega’s promoting a phone number, (800) SEE-SATURN, to call if you have a question or problem with Sega’s new game system.

Trouble is, Mehta’s toll-free number for customers outside Los Angeles translates to (800) SEE-SEGA, which a lot of callers dial by mistake.

Mehta says he has been forced to shut off the phone answering machine at his California Mart office at night because of the volume of calls.

He adds that the calls are especially annoying when they interrupt him in the middle of a sales pitch.

Mehta says he’s complained to Sega. So far, nothing has been done about the calls, but he did get a complimentary Saturn game system from the company, along with two video games.

They All Laughed

The Chairman of the Board is spreading the news in supermarkets.

Beginning this week, a Springfield, Ill.,company called TKI Foods will begin shipping a line of Sinatra Shelf Talkers nationwide.

The devices use a motion detector to trigger the playing of 10 seconds of Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”

The idea is for the song to play whenever a shopper walks by Sinatra-brand gourmet Italian foods.

Briefly . . .

Team Marketing Report sports-business newsletter reports that the Yakima Sun Kings in the Continental Basketball Assn. league start each game at 7:11 p.m. because the team is sponsored by 7-Eleven . . . . The envelope, please: An ad in the Hollywood trade paper Variety for a Westwood apartment building calls it “The Nominee’s Home Away From Home.” . . . A futile search? A help-wanted ad for a producer posted over the Internet by San Diego television station KNSD-TV has the headline “Prima Donnas Need Not Apply.”