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In the years since, there have been repeated calls for US Congress to step in and pass a uniform statute for the entire country. “Until they do, it’s highly variable,” said Schechter. Outside of the US, the law is equally uneven. In Brazil, posthumous rights persist for as long as there are living heirs. In Germany, the period is 70 years. In England and Wales, by contrast, there is no clear right of publicity at all. Lawyers seeking to protect an individual’s image and personality must instead resort to what one firm describes as “ a patchwork of legal rights”. To add legal heft to his threats, WC Fields’ grandson, Everett, suggested that Richman draft a celebrity rights law. At first, Richman thought the idea preposterous. But when the California senator William Campbell expressed interest in drafting such a law, Richman wrote more than 80 letters to “widows and orphans of celebrity greats”, and amassed a group of powerful supporters, including Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley’s ex-wife Priscilla and Bing Crosby’s widow Kathryn. After two rejections, the California Celebrity Rights Act passed on 1 January 1985. In California, at least, heirs could now legally inherit the publicity rights of their celebrity ancestors who had died in the state. With a legal precedent established in California, Richman was in business. It was time, he decided, to come to the rescue of his father’s old friend, Albert Einstein.

The matter is far from settled. Prof Roger Schechter from George Washington University Law School describes the law around postmortem publicity rights as “a complete mess”. While Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and Mexico have national laws that specify the definition and duration of postmortem publicity rights, in the US the law varies between states. Only 24 states have adopted a formal statute on postmortem publicity rights, which can last anywhere from 20 years after a person’s death (Virginia) to 100 (Oklahoma, Indiana). A celebrity who dies in California therefore has different rights to one who dies in New York. New Jersey, where Einstein died, is one of 17 US states that has placed no limitation on the right of an heir to profit from a dead celebrity’s publicity rights – which could allow the Hebrew University to bring legal action against alleged infringers indefinitely. “If I were looking for a problem to put on a final law exam that would put my students through their paces,” Schechter told me, “Einstein would be it.” While researching the law, Richman found a case involving the son of Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian-American actor best remembered for his performance as Dracula. In 1966, Lugosi’s son sued Universal Pictures, claiming that he and his stepmother owned his father’s image rights, not the movie studio. Lugosi’s son won the case at trial, but the high court overturned the ruling on the grounds that his father had not sold his image for commercial purposes during his lifetime. Richman deduced, then, the heirs of any celebrity who had sold his or her image during their lifetime had a claim on their publicity rights.

Einstein’s impact on science and society is undeniable, and his legacy continues to inspire new discoveries and advancements in various fields. His name is synonymous with brilliance and his work continues to be studied and debated by scientists and non-scientists alike. Emboldened by success, Richman even began to target companies that used Einstein’s name without any intended association with the physicist. The Einstein Bros Bagel company caved to the university’s demands, despite being named after its own founders. For one academic at the Hebrew University, Richman’s aggressive stance presented a troubling ethical dilemma.

Reborn as a public figure in this, the first flowering of mass media, Einstein began to receive torrents of fan mail. “I’m burning in Hell and the postman is the devil,” he wrote four weeks after Eddington’s presentation, complaining that he was so hounded by the press that he could “barely breathe”. Still, Einstein continued to give interviews, where his easy wit and talent for aphorism made for good copy. He wrote editorials for national newspapers and kept glittering company. He had a kind of undefinable charisma. “Einstein’s personality, for no clear reason, triggers outbursts of a kind of mass hysteria,” wrote a bewildered German consul in New York in 1931.Einstein died in 1955 at the age of 76. His death was a loss not only to the scientific community but also to the world at large. His contributions to science and his dedication to peace and civil rights continue to inspire people today. His name has become synonymous with genius and his work continues to be studied and debated by scientists and non-scientists alike. On 16 March 2012, the Hebrew University took GM to court in an attempt to prove, definitively, that “Albert Einstein would have transferred his postmortem right of publicity under New Jersey law had he been aware that such a right of publicity existed at the time of his death”. GM rejected this, arguing that, even if the university could prove both Einstein’s intent with respect to the right of publicity and GM’s violation of that right, enough time had elapsed between Einstein’s death in 1955 to nullify the point. Rosenkranz was uneasy about his role. He believed Einstein would have been against most, if not all, marketing associations. “If it was purely commercial, he was usually against it,” he said. Yet Richman put pressure on him to approve a far wider range of proposals. Rosenkranz recalled that when he rejected a deal from Huggies diapers, Richman was particularly unhappy. “It wasn’t purely about profit for him,” recalled Rosenkranz. “But in the end, it was a business. And I am in academia. It was not an easy topic.” The university seemed happy to keep a low profile while Richman fought its profitable battles. “I didn’t get the impression that people were at all aware of the university’s role during this period,” Rosenkranz told me. “But Richman had the reputation of being a tough cookie in the negotiations – which was in the university’s interest.”