Happy New Year! And, Happy Public Domain Day! Yesterday. If you’re watching this the day it
goes up. If you’re watching this later than that . . . Happy Even More Belated Public Domain Day!
Before I get too far into this, I should say that what I’m about to tell you is based on
U.S. copyright law. Naturally, every country has its own policies regarding copyright and
when given works are considered to be in the public domain. I don’t know about the
copyright laws of other countries — I barely know about the copyright laws of
my own country! But! For our purposes right now, I know enough, namely that works first
published in the U.S. in the year 1927 are, as of January 1st, now in the public domain.
That includes thousands and thousands of works, most of which you’ve never heard
of and have no reason to care about — as is the case every year when a new batch
of works enters the public domain. But, as is also the case every year,
there are a few works newly free of copyright that are noteworthy.
For example, Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil!, which was partially and very loosely adapted in 2007
as the film There Will Be Blood, is now in the public domain. So, if Paul Thomas Anderson ever
decides to write a sequel — There Will Be More Blood? The title’s right there — he can pull
more inspiration from Oil! without having to pay a dime in licensing fees to anyone! Or,
if some other filmmaker is a big fan of the novel and has always resented the liberties
Anderson took with it, now they can make their own adaptation of it for free! Well, free except
for the costs associated with producing any feature film, but how much can it really be?
Another noteworthy work of literature entering the public domain this year is The Big Four by
Agatha Christie, the fifth book to feature Hercule Poirot. My friend and Ensign’s Log co-star Dana
Cole and I just started watching the ITV Poirot series starring David Suchet as part of our Trek,
Reluctantly watch-along livestream, but apart from that and a few of the movies adapted from
Christie’s stories, I’m not all that familiar with Poirot. What I’ve seen so far, I’ve liked,
but I’ve never read any of the original books. I’ve always been more of a Sherlock Holmes guy.
Speaking of which! Also entering the public domain this year is The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,
which contains the final Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan
Doyle to be published. That means that the entire original Holmes canon is now
in the public domain in the United States — all fifty-six short stories, and all four novels. So,
if you thought there were a lot of Holmes adaptations before — look out!
The entire Holmes canon entering the public domain is actually
kind of a big deal, because for quite a few years the good people at the Doyle estate
have been trying to maintain a grip on their intellectual property rights relating to Holmes,
and they’ve kinda been dicks about it. They’ve charged licensing fees for adaptations of
Holmes stories that were already in the public domain, arguing that since some Holmes works
were still copyrighted, Holmes himself and other associated characters were also still copyrighted,
and they’ve gone to court to try and obtain those fees when necessary.
They haven’t had much luck — the way U.S. copyright law is typically interpreted,
characters appearing in public domain works are considered to be public domain themselves even
if they also appear in works that are still under copyright, and are therefore free to
use and adapt so long as the adaptations are only derived from the public domain works.
But such a careful reading of the law is no longer necessary now that the entire Doyle canon is in
the public domain. Doyle himself died in 1930, which means his heirs have had ninety-three years
to profit from his work — in the U.S., anyway — the Holmes canon has been public domain in the
U.K. since the year 2000. Ninety-three years to make money off of something you had nothing to
do with besides being related to the person who created it is a pretty good run, more than fair,
really, so I can’t say I feel too bad for the Doyle estate. Plus, like I said, they’re dicks.
Let’s now leave behind the literary world — you’re watching a YouTube video, so I
assume you don’t read, anyway — and talk about some music that entered the public domain this
year! These are the songs themselves — the music and the lyrics — not any particular recordings.
“My Blue Heaven,” written by George Whiting and Walter Donaldson, is now in the public
domain. Folks my age and younger are more likely to associate that phrase with the
movie from 1990 starring Steve Martin — which is loosely based on the life of Henry Hill,
who was also the inspiration for Goodfellas, which came out the same year.
Has nothing to do with anything else in this video, I just think it’s neat. Anyway,
before it was the title of a Steve Martin movie, or a completely different Taking Back Sunday song,
it was a song published in 1927 and first and most famously recorded in 1928 by Gene Austin:
When whippoorwill calls And evening is nigh
I hurry to my blue heaven I turn to the right
A little white light Will lead you to my blue heaven
Probably the most famous song that is now public domain is “Puttin’ on the Ritz” by Irving Berlin.
It’s been covered a million times, it was a bit in Young Frankenstein, you all know it:
Now, if you're blue
And you don't know where to go to Why don't you go where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz Different types who wear a daycoat
Pants with stripes and cutaway coat Perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz Dressed up like a million dollar trooper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper Super-duper
Come, let's mix where Rockefellers Walk with sticks or "umberellas"
In their mitts Puttin' on the Ritz
I’m no Fred Astaire but I think you get the idea. And the best part? I can sing that
whole song whenever I want and I don’t gotta pay Irving Berlin’s great-grandkids a fucking dime!
Also entering the public domain this year: “(I Scream You Scream,
We All Scream for) Ice Cream” by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert A. King — yes! It’s not
just a thing people say sometimes, it’s a whole ass song! I had no idea.
And — last song I’ll mention: “The Best Things in Life Are Free” by George Gard De Sylva,
Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson. It’s not very well known today — there are other, more recent songs
with the same title — but given the subject matter of this video, it felt appropriate:
The moon belongs to everyone The best things in life are free
The stars belong to everyone They gleam there for you and me
The flowers in spring And the robins that sing
The sunbeams that shine They're yours, they're mine
And love can come to everyone The best things in life are free
A few days ago my best buddy Jason called me and said “You’ve been singing a lot in your
videos recently, and I think you should really commit to it and do even more singing.” Well,
Jason, I just have one question: how are you feeling now, motherfucker?
Movies! Oh! The movies that have just become public domain! Remember, works published in
1927 enter the public domain this year, and 1927 was a big year for movies. How big? Well:
Wings! The first film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar! Public domain!
The Lodger! Directed by Alfred Hitchcock,
inspired by the Jack the Ripper killings. Not the first film Hitchcock ever directed,
but frequently considered the first “Hitchcock movie” if you know what I’m saying. Public domain!
October: Ten Days That Shook the World, directed by Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov,
a dramatization of the overthrow of the provisional government during
the 1917 Russian revolution, which features Eisenstein continuing his
boundary-pushing exploration of montage. Public domain!
And those are just for starters!
Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang — one of the greatest and
most influential films ever made. Public domain!
Sunrise, directed by F.W. Murnau — likewise, one of the greatest films
ever made, a personal favorite of mine, an absolute masterpiece. Public domain!
The King of Kings, directed by Cecil B. DeMille,
one of the first and still one of the most enduring cinematic depictions of the life of
Jesus, the first film to ever premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater. Public domain!
College, starring Buster Keaton, directed by Keaton and James W. Horne. This one may have
been in the public domain before now, due to its copyright not being properly registered or
renewed or something, I don’t know! What I do know is, if it wasn’t before, it’s definitely in the
public domain now. It belongs to the people! And that’s pretty cool, because I love Buster Keaton
and College is one of his best feature films, with one of the most hilariously abrupt, dark endings
I’ve ever seen. It is wall-to-wall brilliance, provided of course you can overlook the scene
where . . . Buster . . . does blackface.
Speaking of which, also now in the public domain: The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson,
directed by Alan Crosland. It was the first talkie. And hey, congratulations,
now you don’t have to watch it, because I just told you the only noteworthy thing
about it. A technical milestone, but artistically unremarkable, despite the knots some film scholars
have tied themselves into over the years to argue otherwise, and also did I mention the blackface?
There are also three noteworthy lost films entering the public domain this year — none of
which feature any actors performing in blackface. Although . . . I guess we can’t be sure.
Casey at the Bat, directed by Monte Brice, based on the famous poem by
Ernest Thayer. Technically, this one isn’t lost, because there’s supposedly a copy at
the Library of Congress, but to my knowledge it isn’t currently commercially available
in any form. But if you wanna arrange a screening at the Library of Congress and,
I dunno, record it on your phone? I guess you can do that now!
You will have to actually go to the Library of Congress, and not just green screen yourself
into a picture of part of it. I’ve learned that the hard way. Apparently I’m still at my house?!
Babe Comes Home, directed by Ted Wilde, another baseball movie, this one starring Babe Ruth!
We have other baseball movies starring Babe Ruth, including Headin’ Home from 1920,
where Babe plays himself in an almost entirely fictionalized telling of his life story,
but it’s still a shame that Babe Comes Home is lost, because, come on — a baseball movie,
starring Babe Ruth, released in 1927, the same year Babe Ruth hit sixty home-runs?
Are you saying you wouldn’t want to watch that? You fucking commie?
. . . I’m just laughing imagining someone trying to make sense of the mixed signals I’m
sending here, because a few minutes ago I was full of praise for the Eisenstein movie about
the October revolution, and now I’m like “You’d better love Babe Ruth, you commies!” I am large,
I contain multitudes — Walt Whitman, loved by many commies, not a commie. Public domain, though.
London After Midnight, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney,
one of the most famous of all lost films. Seriously, if they had known back in 1927
how much we’d all want to see it today, maybe they would have set aside a few extra prints
so that the one destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire wouldn’t have been it!
So. If you do happen to find a copy, it’s in the public domain now, so you can make
copies of your copy and get rich by becoming the sole distributor of one of the most sought
after lost films in the history of cinema. I know that’s my business plan if I find a print of it.
Set reminder: look for copy of London After Midnight in basement.
And in attic.
. . . And behind refrigerator.
Never hurts to be thorough.
Anyway. Those are all the works I wanted to talk about that have entered the public domain this
year. Next year’s additions to the public domain are gonna be an even bigger deal! And now just
for the importance of the works themselves — for the very long and very bumpy road one of
those works in particular has taken to reach the public domain. If you think the Doyle
estate have been assholes when it comes to trying to hold onto their copyrights,
wait until you hear about these guys!