What Becomes a Legend Most? : Trends: We’ve had Elvis Presley bubble gum and Marilyn Monroe collector plates. Now there’s Malcolm X air freshener. ‘Consumerism has no respect for the dead,’ says one observer.

Malcolm X’s face has yet to grace a whiskey decanter. Gift shops aren’t peddling Malcolm X soap-on-a-rope.

But the rush of clothing and keepsakes triggered by Spike Lee’s movie “X,” which opens Wednesday, has raised fears of such rampant commercialism. Already, there is a Malcolm X air freshener and a coffee mug. A doll will hit the shelves by Christmas.

These items--led into the fray by the ubiquitous X cap--could account for $100 million in retail sales this year.

Malcolm X certainly isn’t the first or only dead celebrity to be mass-marketed. Witness Elvis Presley bubble gum and Marilyn Monroe collector plates. Recent Coca-Cola ads feature Groucho Marx cavorting with Paula Abdul.

“Consumerism has no respect for the dead,” said Roy Adler, a Pepperdine University marketing professor. “Do consumers look at Groucho Marx with Paula Abdul and think it’s shameless exploitation? No. With entertainers, they don’t think in those terms.”

The public may be less forgiving with one of the most recognized social and political leaders of the 20th Century.

“I said, ‘Wow, what’s going on here?’ It bothers me,” said Nancy Fairley, who teaches Africana Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. “Any person that one considers sacred, you just don’t want it done that way.”

Fairley concedes there may be benefits to the merchandising of Malcolm X. Even something as minor as an air freshener might raise awareness of the man and his ideals. Also, dozens of African-American manufacturers are profiting.

Not everyone is convinced.

“Malcolm X reduced to E.T.-like memorabilia? That’s a rip-off of the worst kind,” said Johnie Scott, a professor of Pan-African studies at Cal State Northridge. “It doesn’t matter the color of the vendor. If you’re being exploited, you’re being exploited.”

Such criticism doesn’t find much of an audience at the Curtis Management Group. The Indianapolis firm recently added Malcolm X to a high-powered client list that includes more than a hundred celebrities, both dead and alive, ranging from Babe Ruth to Cher.

It was Curtis Management that allowed Humphrey Bogart to be included in another Coca-Cola ad with Elton John. The firm has licensed James Dean collectibles that generate more than $100 million annually. Now acting on behalf of Malcolm X’s widow and children, it has licensed 45 manufacturers--half of them African-American--to put forth 175 official products.

“I’m always taken aback by people who feel they should dictate what the family does or doesn’t do,” Mark Roesler, the firm’s president, said. “With all due respect, I don’t think that’s anybody’s business.”

Yet the public has always claimed possession of its heroes, be they comedians or visionaries. “These are enduring images and characters,” Adler, of Pepperdine University, said. “They remind people of when things were better in the past. Their legends grow.”

And the retail community delights in profiting from legends. Dead celebrities are generally cheaper and easier to procure than live ones. There isn’t the danger of what Adler calls “the Woody Allen phenomenon.” A dead celebrity can’t embarrass himself.

“We live in a consumer society and what happens is that everything becomes a commodity,” said E. Ethelbert Miller, director of the African American Resource Center at Washington’s Howard University. “I wouldn’t be surprised if someone tries to (mass) market Jimmy Hoffa.”

Miller, for one, isn’t disturbed by Malcolm X memorabilia.

“It puts Malcolm X’s book in bookstores. Before, you would never find Malcolm on the cover of the New Yorker and the Chronicle of Higher Education,” he said. “Remember when black people were running around with T-shirts of the black ‘Simpsons’? To me, this is a step up.”

And, Roesler insists, the Malcolm X merchandise has followed careful guidelines. “It’s not like this is Batman and we’re out there to see how many fast-food deals we can get.”

He recited a list of proposals that were turned away.

“Somebody wanted to do boxer shorts,” Roesler said. “One guy came up with T-shirts that showed Malcolm X with a gun and the ‘By any means necessary’ message. That was immediately rejected.”

The final decision, he said, is made by someone whose commitment to Malcolm X is hard to question: his widow Betty Shabazz.

For many of the 27 years since her husband was assassinated in New York’s Audubon Ballroom, Shabazz paid no mind to legal rights or retail profits. She was content to work as an administrator at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and collect royalty checks from the autobiography that her husband co-wrote with Alex Haley.

Now that all those X shirts and hats have popped up, she wishes people would take the whole thing a little less seriously, like her husband would.

“He’d probably laugh and say, ‘What do you know?’ He did the work he felt he had to do. He was not looking for anyone to put him at such a level.”

Shabazz doesn’t speak of sanctity or exploitation. She strips away various arguments, the philosophical trappings, to offer a view that strikes closer to the heart.

“I’m glad to see his face,” she said. “My children and I have loved him by looking at his pictures all these years. Two of my children were born after his death. They’ve only seen him in pictures. When we see people walking down the street with Malcolm on their back or chest, we’re happy.”

If she has one concern, it’s that a new generation is informed of the “real” Malcolm X. Many remember him for years with the Black Muslims (now the Nation of Islam), when he decried whites as a “race of devils” and preached separatism. He broke from that sect and its beliefs after making a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he saw people of all colors worshiping together. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, as he called himself after this journey, was gravitating toward a vision of peaceful coexistence at the time of his death.

Now, she hopes, the X caps that young people put on their heads will make them think.

“When you start reading a book, you don’t go to the last chapter,” Shabazz said. “Spiritually, these kids know something about Malcolm. By wearing him, they will be encouraged to learn more.”

As for the business end of this phenomenon, Shabazz enlisted Curtis Management less than a year ago. Neither she nor the company will discuss the terms of their arrangement, but both parties profit from licensing fees.

“I only did this for my family,” she said. The subject of legal rights is not something she eagerly discusses. When asked how she decides which products to license, she said: “I try to be selective. But I don’t want to go through all of that.”

Roesler, for his part, explains: “We aren’t going to sell Malcolm X cups with Happy Meals. But let’s say, for example, that an opportunity arose for McDonald’s to run a program where you buy a Coke and you get a free Malcolm X glass. If McDonald’s is going to run an educational program on Malcolm X, maybe that would appeal to the family.”