Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Company Wants to Put Faces of 9-11 Victims on Trading Cards

Aired April 20, 2002 - 08:28   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Whether it be for sports figures or comic heroes, trading cards have been around for decades. Well, now a Florida company wants to honor the victims of September 11th by putting their faces on a few cards. As CNN's Hillary Lane reports, not everyone is enthused about this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY LANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Lashawn Clark (ph) listens to B.B Wynans (ph) sing "Harm's Way," she remembers her husband, Keith (ph).

(on camera): (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Marines?

LASHAWN CLARK: Yeah, he was in the Marines, special forces.

LANE: Same when she looks at the artwork on her walls and the statues guarded in her break front. So when a Florida company approached her and asked whether she'd like her husband, an executive chef and father of five, featured on a "Heroes of the World Trade Center" trading card, she said absolutely.

CLARK: I don't think Benjamin Keith Clark will be remembered as hero, as well as many others, in the history books or anywhere else because he was a civilian and not a rescue worker. So this to me is a gift because I can keep the memory of my husband going on.

LANE: For decades, trading cards have captured pop culture. The company planning the "Heroes" series also sells motorcycle and tattoo cards and gained notoriety for a series on hemp and medicinal marijuana.

(on camera): This is not the first for-profit venture to try to sell trading cards based on the events of September 11th. There's already a set featuring public officials and the military. But this appears to be the first to try to include everyone, including civilians. And many of the families are none too happy about it.

RITA LAZAR, BROTHER DIED ON SEPT. 11: I'm horrified by the thought that some day I'm going to be walking on the street and bend down to pick up a piece of paper to throw in the trash and see my brother's face looking at me!

LANE (voice-over): While about 30 families have signed on, others have called the cards "repugnant" and "appalling." To that, campaign president Kingsley Barham says...

KINGSLEY BARHAM, CHESTNUT PUBLICATIONS: What I say is "Give me a chance." You haven't seen anything. You haven't read one yet.

LANE: So he's asking victims' families to trust him.

BARHAM: Well, they have no choice but to trust me. I mean, I'm going to do this.

LANE: Barham plans to sell the cards for about $2 for a pack of eight. Families involved will get 8 percent of the gross revenues. He'll know next week what retailers think and whether there's a market for this sort of memory.

Hillary Lane for CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com