Well, blow me down! Popeye is about to enter the public domain.
The beloved cartoon character, who battled evildoers like Bluto in cartoons and comic strips and was “strong to the finish ‘cause I eats me spinach,” is among the intellectual properties that will become public domain in the United States on Jan. 1. According to The Associated Press, that means the character can be used and repurposed without permission or payment of royalties to the copyright holders.
Only the earliest version of Popeye is free for reuse. The animated shorts featuring his distinctive voice did not begin until 1933 and remain under copyright, the AP reported.
Another classic character from the 20th century, Tintin, will also join the public domain. Like Popeye, the character created by Belgian artist Hergé debuted in 1929. However, the boy reporter with the red hair will not completely become public property until 2053 -- 50 years after his creator’s death.
William Faulkner’s 1929 novel, “The Sound and the Fury,” along with Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms,” will also enter the public domain, the AP reported. John Steinbeck’s first novel, “A Cup of Gold,” will also be eligible.
This year’s group does not have the landmark implications of last year’s entrance of Mickey Mouse into the public domain, but there are a few Disney cartoons whose copyright maximums are running out.
“It’s a trove! There are a dozen new Mickey cartoons — he speaks for the first time and dons the familiar white gloves,” Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, told the AP. “There are masterpieces from Faulkner and Hemingway, the first sound films from Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, and John Ford, and amazing music from Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin. Pretty exciting!”
Silver screen films from 1929 like Hitchcock’s “Blackmail,” Ford’s “The Black Watch” and DeMille’s first talking movie, “Dynamite,” will join the public domain on Jan. 1. So will the Marx Brothers’ first film that featured the zany comedy group in a starring role -- “The Cocoanuts,” the AP reported.
A dozen animated shorts featuring Mickey Mouse, including “The Karnival Kid,” where the beloved character spoke for the first time, will belong to the public in less than three weeks.
Songs that will be available in the public domain include Cole Porter’s “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” and “What is This Thing Called Love?” along with jazz standard “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” written by Waller and Harry Brooks. “Singin’ in the Rain,” which debuted in the 1929 film “The Hollywood Revue,” will also join the public domain, according to the AP.
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