Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Merchandise licensing hall of famer retired in Bella Vista
“I would say that the loves of my life were Barbie and Batman and Bugs Bunny.”
— Beverly Cannady
BELLA VISTA — Beverly Cannady enjoyed a lengthy career in the merchandise licensing industry before retiring in Bella Vista roughly 20 years ago.
Cannady explained she worked for Mattel for 20 years and Warner Bros. for another five, handling properties such as Barbie, HeMan, Hot Wheels, Batman and Looney Toons.
“I would say that the loves of my life were Barbie and Batman and Bugs Bunny,” she said.
For a time afterward, she worked as a consultant for merchandise manufacturers, helping them acquire licensed trademarks for different properties.
Cannady explained product licensing is, simply put, when a manufacturer is granted a license to use a company’s trademarked intellectual property in or on a product — a Barbie-themed bicycle made by Schwinn, for example.
This career started when she needed a job and had a friend working at Mattel who clued her in on an opening writing responses to Barbie fan mail, she said.
“Pretty soon, I became the head of the Barbie fan club, then the manager of marketing and public relations,” she said.
Cannady said she gave radio presentations around the country before Christmastime discussing toy safety before moving into merchandise licensing, including international work.
“I hired licensing agents for Barbie in other places; I really got to travel a lot,” she said.
She was hired by Warner Bros. as head of domestic and Canadian licensing just in time for the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman film.
The company had just moved to in-house licensing after previously contracting it out, she said, and she had to hit the ground running as the popular new film spawned seemingly endless merchandise opportunities.
“Batman T-shirts and Batman everything was everywhere,” Cannady said.
Almost immediately after retiring, Cannady said she was inducted into the Licensing International hall of fame, which recognized her work across various aspects of the industry and retirement as vice president of domestic operations at Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
Retirement in Bella Vista came up as Cannady and her husband were visiting family. They had looked in Florida and Arizona, she said, but when visiting family in Arkansas, a few questions prompted them to stop by Bella Vista and visit with a real estate agent on their way out of the state.
“We bought a lot that day,” she said.
Since retiring, she said, she’s been on the recreation committee and co-chaired the welcome committee.
She’s also an avid Bridge player and her husband golfs.
“We have never regretted for one second moving here, we’ve loved it. Just loved it,” she said.