Capitalism survives even temblors: some vendors jump into quake 'merchandise' from T-shirts to stars' discards.

Some vendors jump into quake 'merchandise' from T-shirts to stars' discards

Some of them have been cursed at and spit upon, but they keep on selling.

They are the entrepreneurs who are making money (and in some cases helping charities) by selling earthquake memorabilia.

From "I survived ..." T-shirts, to "Celebrity Ruins," to motion picture stills from the 1974 movie "Earthquake," to pieces of a crumpled freeway -- merchandise related to the Jan. 17 temblor are a smashing success for those who know how to market it.

"Everyone experienced the earthquake the same way. It's reassuring to know Barbra Streisand was sleeping at 4:31 a.m. and her valuables were breaking too," says Roy Windham, co-owner of Baby Jane, a West Hollywood store hocking broken pieces of local celebrities' homes and belongings.

While Baby Jane caters to upper-income collectors, John Gross of Miller-Gross Manufacturing in Van Nuys hired tenants of his lower-income apartment complex to sell "I Survived the Northridge Earthquake" T-shirts on street corners on a commission-only basis.

One woman selling Gross's $10 shirts, which feature a cartoon face of a man screaming, says she was treated better by passersby when she was a homeless woman holding up a sign saying she'd work for food.

"Now we're doing something legitimate, and we get spit on," says the woman, who didn't want to give her name. Despite suffering those indignities, she says she sold more than 100 T-shirts over four days from various corners in the Northridge/Reseda area.

Jamie Dematroff of Modern Day Warrior Clothing set up his T-shirt stand at Reseda Boulevard and Plummer Street, where Reseda Boulevard is shut down to the north because of the collapse of the Northridge Meadows apartment complex. Dematroff is selling (also for $10) T-shirts that, on the front, read:

"Northridge Earthquake '94

Disaster Before Dawn."

And, on the back, they feature a map of the Los Angeles area with key damage areas marked -- freeway collapses, collapsed buildings, fires, gas line explosions and a train derailment. The map also offers earthquake facts.

He says his shirts' competitive advantages are that they are 100 percent cotton and $1 from every shirt sold will be donated to the Salvation Army. The shirts and order forms state only that a "portion of all proceeds" will be donated to the Disaster Relief Fund. His goal is to sell 10,000 T-shirts, sweat shirts and baseball jerseys.

"If we weren't donating, I think it would be exploitive," he says.

Dematroff says he ruled out the other well-known quake charity because officials with that organization gave him a hard time in connection with the sale of "Fire Storm" shirts following the fall wildfires.

"They thought it was a big con," he recalls. "I put their name on the shirt, and they didn't want it that way."

On each shirt sold, Dematroff says he makes a profit of about $3.25, $1 of which he donates to the relief fund and $2.25 which he pockets. He says he sold between 800 and 900 shirts in three days.

Further from the epicenter, on Hollywood Boulevard, various tourist souvenir shops have expanded their offerings to include earthquake-related merchandise.

The Hollywood Book & Poster Store, 6349 Hollywood Blvd., features full-size movie posters and 8-by-10-inch stills from the movie "Earthquake" in the store's front window.

Rentals of that movie from local video stores have reportedly skyrocketed lately.

Hollywood Book City is selling "earthquake books" (inventory damaged in the earthquake) for $1 apiece. And next door, Mona Lisa Tops is selling T-shirts for $12.99 each that say: "I survived the California 30 seconds of terror Earthquake Jan. 17, 1994 4:31 a.m."

But it is Baby Jane in West Hollywood's French Market that is really making the most of the Hollywood/earthquake connection.

Windham says Baby Jane opened as a Hollywood memorabilia shop in the French Market in early December, a little more than a month before the earthquake. He and his partner, Charles Moniz, had been collecting celebrity goods for a decade and had operated other stores, Windham says.

When the quake hit, Windham says, the partners called all their contacts and started seeking out celebrity rubble, much of which would have wound up in the garbage, if not for their quick thinking.

One-half of the sales price of each quake item sold by Baby Jane is donated to the charity of the buyer's choice, Windham says. The store makes only a small profit, after paying the cost of mounting and framing the ruins, he explained, but the exposure could be great for business in the long run.

He says he does not believe his quake business is in any way exploitive.

"I feel like I'm contributing something," Windham says.

Baby Jane sells small pieces of celebrity homes (ceiling plaster, planter pieces, etc.) mounted on cards for $10 and larger pieces of glassware and pottery framed for $25 to $250. The most expensive quake item left in the store last week was a broken lamp that belonged to Streisand and is decorated with sculpted noses.

Other celebs who donated their rubble include Jimmy Stewart, Ann-Margret, Frank Sinatra, Faye Dunaway, Kirk Douglas, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, Nicholas Cage and Marlon Brando, according to a Baby Jane promotional flyer.

Buyers have included collectors and people who are purchasing gifts for friends in other cities, say the partners.

"The response has really been heartwarming. You've got to start healing," says Moniz. "We're having as much fun as everyone else."

Curtis Briggs, the Santa Monica man selling pieces of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway rubble, defends his new business enterprise, noting that he, too, is donating to the Red Cross -- 50 percent of the net proceeds.

"If we can somehow do some good, let's not harp on the bad," he says. "There was no one who died on the Santa Monica Freeway. I wouldn't go to Northridge where that building collapsed and try to sell parts of that."

Briggs says he obtained his "pieces of history" from the collapse of the interstate at Fairfax Avenue from a Griffith Co. lot behind Hollywood Park where it was dumped by the demolition crews. Griffith Co. recycles concrete.

"They said if I could get a truck to pick it up, they would donate it. I rented a dump truck. We dumped it on my mother-in-law's lawn in West Los Angeles," says Briggs. "Originally, we were going to sell freeway by the pound -- let people bring their own sledge hammer and chop off a chunk. Then we rethought it and thought that pieces with stripes and grooves might sell for more." Briggs wound up packaging pet rock-sized chunks of the freeway in sandwich bags, with "header cards" guaranteeing they are "Actual Santa Monica Freeway Rubble." The typical bag of rubble wholesales for $3. Briggs said roughly $1 covers expenses, $1 goes to the Red Cross, and $1 is profit. So far, he's selling them through a hardware store in Culver City and a liquor store in Santa Monica, and he's looking for more retailers. He says he has enough rubble to fill 10,000 bags.

Briggs is licensed to wholesale products through his company "Million Dollar Ideas," which sells blank bumper stickers with letter-kits so customers can write their own.

Briggs has already written himself two new bumper stickers. One says: "I brake for earthquakes." The other: "Welcome to California; some assembly required."