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”. Beyond the world of costumes and festivities, Doc Cotton finds solace and joy in van life and outdoor adventures. Whether he's hitting the open road, camping beneath the stars, or exploring the great outdoors, he cherishes every moment of his outdoor escapades. Richman considered himself the underdog. “Oftentimes I became despondent over the power and influence of the opposition,” he wrote in an unpublished memoir. “I was fighting major advertising agencies, broadcasters, film studios, manufacturers and publishers – a belligerent field.” He was energised, however, by what he considered to be a moral cause. How could anyone, Richman wrote, “not want to remove a presidential dildo from the marketplace?” A brown vest worn over the shirt is an essential part of the costume as it helps to create a more formal and dressed-up look. Are you ready to channel your inner genius and transform into one of the most iconic scientists of all time? Look no further, because in this guide, we’re going to show you how to make a costume that will have you looking just like Albert Einstein! From the wild hair, to the lab coat, we’ll cover all the details to make sure your costume is spot-on and accurate. Albert Einstein Costume

Einstein’s work in physics, specifically his theory of general relativity, has been confirmed through various experiments and today it is the foundation of modern cosmology and our understanding of the universe. His work in physics and his ideas have also been extended to other fields such as chemistry and computer science.

Einstein was born in 1879 in Ulm, Germany and showed an early aptitude for mathematics and physics. He studied at the Polytechnic School in Zurich, Switzerland, and later at the University of Zurich, where he graduated in 1900. He then worked as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland while he continued to work on his theories in his spare time. Throughout the 1990s, Ze’ev Rosenkranz, curator at the Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University in Israel, received as many as 30 faxes a month from Richman’s office in Beverley Hills. Each fax contained a proposal from a different company that hoped to use Einstein’s name or likeness in its product or service: everything from antibiotics to computers, cameras to soft drinks. It was up to Rosenkranz, a young academic who, through his work preserving Einstein’s papers, was intimately familiar with the scientist’s thoughts and values, to bless or veto each offer. The responsibility was “overwhelming”, Rosenkranz told me recently. “I am a historian, not a businessman. But somehow the university had decided that this would be my role.” Doc Cotton is a man of simple pleasures and diverse interests. His heart belongs to the world of cosplay, costumes and fancy dress, with a special fondness for Halloween, where his creative spirit truly shines. Over the years he has been hired by people across the country to make custom halloween costumes and other fancy dress for specific events. Refusals would often be met with fury. “Companies would say: ‘This is all hogwash’,” Rosenkranz said. “‘These people are dead. They don’t have rights.’” Others denied that their Einstein-themed product had any association with the physicist. “There was a word processor called ‘Einstein’ that was popular in Israel at the time,” Rosenkranz told me. “The company even used the word ‘genius’ in its marketing.” But the makers claimed that the Einstein software was named not after the physicist Albert but after the company’s founder, Stuart. (According to Rosencranz the argument worked, and the company never paid up.)

To recreate Einstein’s iconic hairstyle, you will need a gray frizzy wig. This is an essential element of the costume and will help to make the overall look more authentic. 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.” During World War II, Einstein left Germany and immigrated to the United States. He accepted a position at Princeton University, where he spent the remainder of his career. He continued to work on his theories and also made important contributions to the field of quantum mechanics. His intellect made Einstein famous, but it was his appearance that made him an icon. Few understood the implications of his work – “ 4,000 bewildered as Einstein speaks,” wrote the New York Times – but his image, spread via the accelerating technologies of print and television, was eminently approachable. The frazzled hair, the frowsy jumper, the caterpillar moustache, the hangdog jowls and those sad, galactic eyes. “He was slovenly,” Robert Schulmann, a former editor of the Collected Papers of Einstein told me. “And at some point, it began to work in his favour.” Einstein’s image endeared him to the world, suggesting that here was a mind too occupied with higher questions to spare much thought to, say, a comb. 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.In 1905, Einstein published a series of papers that laid the foundation for modern physics. These papers included his theory of special relativity, which explained how the laws of physics change at high speeds, and his famous equation, E=mc². In 1915, he published his theory of general relativity, which explained how gravity works by warping the fabric of spacetime.