WME Launches Legends Group To Be Run By Phil Sandhaus, Signs Estates Of Andy Kaufman, Eartha Kitt, Peter Tosh & More

WME has launched a new division called WME Legends, which will focus on managing estates and brands.

Among the signings announced with the new unit’s formation are the estates of comedian and actor Andy Kaufman and singers Eartha Kitt and Peter Tosh. WME Legends will also oversee the brand of famed punk-rock venue CBGB and the group that manages the intellectual property of spiritualist and philosopher Ram Dass.

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Phil Sandhaus, a music and entertainment veteran, will run WME Legends. During a nearly four-decade run as an artist manager, record label executive, estate manager and consultant, he has worked with Buddy Holly, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Whitney Houston.

The new initiative builds on WME’s existing estate work across theater, books, music and other categories. That roster includes Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Donna Summer, August Wilson, Isaac Asimov, Edward Albee, Abe Burrows, and Terrence McNally.

Kaufman, already a “comic’s comic” in the 1970s, became a mainstream star on ABC sitcom Taxi and had pathbreaking appearances in the early days of Saturday Night Live. Kitt was a Tony- and Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning singer, actress, dancer, comedian, civil rights and anti-Vietnam war activist. Tosh co-founded reggae band The Wailers and gained wider fame as an anti-apartheid, criminal justice and Pan-African activist.

CBGB’s physical location in New York’s Bowery played host to a number of legendary shows from the 1970s into the current century before finally closing. The Love Serve Remember Foundation manages intellectual property created by Dass, the author of Be Here Now, the seminal book on Eastern philosophy and spirituality.

WME Legends’ representation of the Tosh estate is in association with Brian Latture and the MegaSource Entertainment Group.

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