WEBVTT - 9 Classic Works That Belong to Everyone Now 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.920 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:24.160 and iHeartRadio. Guess what? Well? 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:24.840 What's that mango? 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.200 So I have a riddle for you. What do h 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.720 g Wells? Were the Worlds? The Carry Grant movie, His 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.560 Girl Friday, and the Mona Lisa all have in common? 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:36.360 Man? 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:38.400 Starting this one out with a with a tough one, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:41.320 I'm gonna go. 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:43.000 I've got a guess. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.600 I'm gonna go with things that inspired the musical artist Prince. 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.960 Maybe. But the answer I was looking for was that 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.480 they're all works that are in the public domain. 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:56.960 All right, Okay, yeah, that makes sense, which means I 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:58.760 can set up a Mona Lisa stand in my front 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.680 yard and sell Prince with out getting sued now right. 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.320 Yeah, finally a second career option for you. That what 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:08.720 I've been waiting for. But creative works in the public 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.759 domain aren't protected by intellectual property law, So that means 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:14.520 you can take it, you can use it, you can 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.120 remix it, you can sell it in your front yard 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:19.479 to all your neighbors, and you don't have to worry 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:21.959 about copyright. So if you want to make a movie 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:26.199 adaptation of War the World's starring the Mona Lisa. It 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.880 might be difficult creatively, but you know you can do 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.959 it now without getting into any sort of legal trouble. 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:34.480 Well, when you look at it, the World of the 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.319 World's version that had ice Cube, but that got something 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:39.759 like I think it was like four percent on rotten tomatoes, 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:41.400 so it's probably due for a remake. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.280 Yeah, And I know these are kind of silly examples, 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.320 but public domain is really important for art and culture 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.760 because without it we wouldn't have masterpieces like Westside Story, 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.040 which was based on Romeo and Juliet, or The Little Mermaid, 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.680 which was based on Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale. And 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.400 public domain also helps is archive important cultural works and 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:06.160 make them more accessible so anyone can enjoy them. And 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.520 since it is officially twenty twenty six, that means a 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:11.840 whole new crop of works has entered the public domain. 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.359 And today we're going to tell you about nine of 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:18.960 our favorites, from an iconic abstract painting to a hard 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:23.320 boiled detective novel to a voluptuous cartoon who began life 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:25.360 as a dog. So let's dive in. 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.960 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part time Genius. I'm 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.320 Will Pearson and as always, I'm here with my good 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:53.880 friend Mangesh hot ticketter and over there in the booth 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.720 as our PALIN producer Dylan Fagan. Now I'm gonna be honest, Mengo. 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.800 At first, I was very confused by his outfit today 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.960 because he's wearing a plain white T shirt and what 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.920 looks like two capital l's on it, and I have 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:10.880 to be honest, it's a little bit boring for Dylan's standards. 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.960 But then I remembered something he said this before the holidays. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.720 He said, guys, in the new year, I'm coming at 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.520 you with more riddles, and I didn't really know what 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.639 it meant. So I've been thinking about this one. I'm 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:24.720 glad we had a few minutes before to just sort 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.880 of stare and think about this. Those aren't l's. This 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.799 this is my theory, Mango. I think they are right angles. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.600 So there's a right angle and then a copy of 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.040 a right angle, which would mean can. 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:37.400 You guess it? 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:39.960 Ll cool? 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:45.480 Joe, so close, so close, Mango, But I think it 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:47.160 means copyright, get it. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.400 There's it, there's a right angle copyright. So well done. 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:52.040 Dylan really started to be off. 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.120 H I love that he started the new year with 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.119 a T shirt. Pun I feel like that's an old 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:59.240 Romanian folk tradition. 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.640 Definitely, definitely that Dylan always observes. All right, So Mango, 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.480 before we get into this, remind me when exactly do 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.160 works enter the public domain? 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.080 So that is a tricky question because the timeline isn't 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:16.200 consistent throughout the world. Copyright duration varies from country to country, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.200 and it can depend on the type of work as 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:21.640 well as whether the work was published or unpublished, or 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.400 if at some point the copyright laps. Now people actually 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.680 have flow charts to figure this stuff out. They also 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.280 have copyright lawyers. It's probably a better use of time 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:35.240 and money. But for longtime fans, we did an episode 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.120 all about copyright, and this was back in twenty nineteen 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.240 and it covers some of this in more detail. But 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.280 for our purposes today, we're just going to focus on 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.320 the fact that in the United States many works enter 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.719 the public domain ninety five years after their publication or 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.120 their release date. So this year that includes books, movies, 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.880 and music compositions that came out in nineteen thirty plus 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.840 sound recordings from nineteen twenty five. And like I said, 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:02.800 different types of works have different timelines. 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:04.120 Okay, that's interesting. 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.359 It's always interesting when they come up with, you know, 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.240 numbers like ninety five. But anyway, I'm gonna kick things 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:13.560 off for this episode with a legendary cartoon character, and 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.400 that is Betty Boop. Of course, the big eyed, high 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.560 voice temptress was introduced to the world in a nineteen 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:23.159 thirty animated short. This was by Fleischer Studios and was 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.240 called Dizzy Dishes, which is now in the public domain, 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.840 but of course later versions of Betty are still under copyright. 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.720 And that's important to note because then its first appearance, 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.520 Betty was actually originally a dog. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:37.800 That's so weird, like a dog with a tail. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.600 Well, she's on two legs and she's quite human, and 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.240 she has that short, curly haircut of black dress and garters, 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:46.840 but for some reason her ears are floppy and kind 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:48.040 of spaniel like, so. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.080 That is interesting. What happens in this short film. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.360 Well, it centers on another character named Bembo, who's also 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.880 a dog, and he's a waiter at a busy jazz 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.440 club full of these anthropomorphized and animals, and Betty only 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.760 appears briefly, so she's a singer on stage who distracts 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:05.840 Bimbo from his work. 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:07.680 So, actually you should watch this quick clip. 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.600 Here we come mister right on the way. 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.679 I have roasted up with a greatly year. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:28.440 Doosional, I have my. 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:48.200 I have my mom. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.800 Oh that's funny. So so even as a dog, she 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:52.760 was doing the boo boop a dupe line. 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:54.359 Yeah, you nailed at with that. You did it. 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:56.719 You did it so well then, And that was there 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.320 from the very beginning because Betty was based on a 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.000 real life anger name Helen Kane, and Helen was famous 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.520 for that kind of baby voice scat singing like that. 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.839 But you know, soon after Dizzy Dishes came out, the 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.840 animators realized that Betty had more potential as a human. 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.400 So in nineteen thirty two, she lost those spaniel ears. 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.320 They replaced them with her signature hoop earrings, and interestingly, 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.160 Bembo remained a dog. So there was this weird moment 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:26.160 where they were in this interspecies relationship, which didn't sit 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.600 well with the censor board at the time. So as 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.840 a result, Bembo got removed from the franchise and Betty, well, 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:33.040 Betty became a star. 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.480 That is hilarious. But you know, if you look at 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.240 like kind of another way. It could be the plot 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.080 of I don't know, like a horror movie, right, like 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.920 this woman turns into a dog, turns back into a 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.680 human and realizes she was dating a dog between. 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:49.440 It's true, it's true. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.680 It's actually funny that you mentioned horror because if you 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.680 heard of this trend of movie studios turning public domain 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.600 characters into these slasher movies like Winnie the Boo, Blood 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:00.120 and Honey, you've seen these before? 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:01.200 What? Yeah? 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:03.880 Yeah, it's a real movie. And it came out in 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.880 twenty twenty three. And last year a company called vm 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.320 I Worldwide, which brought us Popeye the Slayer Man, they 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.880 announced plans to make a Betty Boop slasher now that 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:15.480 she's in a public domain. It's about a group of 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.160 horror podcast investigators who break into an abandoned theater and 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.760 find themselves face to face with a homicidal Betty Boop. 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.320 You know, it reminds me of pride and prejudices and zombies, right, 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:30.720 Like that idea of taking the old material and reinventing 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:31.400 it in a new way. 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:32.240 That's exactly right. 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.320 I know we are not horror podcasters, but I kind 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.400 of want to tell you, like, how do we make 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:38.920 that happen? 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:40.920 I have no idea, but I'm with you if we 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:41.560 figure it out. 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.200 Well, from one boop to another. Our next public domain 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.559 entrant is a comic strip character named Blondie, whose maiden 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.319 name was Boop a Doope. Now you don't meet many 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.000 Boopa dupes these days, but Blondie, if you're a fan 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.360 of the old comic strip, became a bumstead when she 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.439 married Dagwood. Now did you ever see the comic strip 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:04.160 growing up in Alabama? 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:05.839 Not really, to be honest, No. 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.160 Yeah, it was definitely in ours growing up both in 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.920 New Jersey and then North Carolina and then Delaware too, 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:14.840 so like it was a standard in our house. But 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:19.360 the strip, created by Chick Young, debuted in September nineteen thirty, 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.160 and these earliest versions of the characters are the ones 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.800 now in the public domain. And you might be surprised 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.240 to learn that Blondie was a fun loving flapper, not 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.600 a housewife, and Dagwood was the son of an uptight 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:35.960 railroad tycoon. Dagwood is well dressed with sleek black hair 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.880 in these early strips, and Blondie is downright glamorous and 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:44.200 It's interesting that as the strip evolved, Dagwood's appearance gets scruffier, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.240 but Blondie always remains youthful and pretty. 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:47.880 Now. 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:50.199 Unfortunately, the strip wasn't a hit at first. This was 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.120 during the Great Depression and readers were not interested in 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.280 the adventures of like a trust fund kid and his 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:59.840 gorgeous girlfriend. So Chick Young actually pivoted his comic strip. 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.719 He had Dagwood and Blondie get married, and crucially, Dagwood's 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:06.920 parents didn't approve their son marrying a lower class woman, 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:11.160 so they disinherited him, and that kind of left the 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:12.960 Bumpsteads on their own to make a living. 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:15.959 You know, when I think of Dagwood Bumpstead, I actually 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:19.079 don't think about class mobility. I think about sandwiches. 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.520 Yeah, that's right, and those came later too. So once 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.920 Dagwood's character became a clumsy, hungry office worker, Chick Young 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.760 explained piling up fridge leftovers between two slices of bread 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.560 was the only meal that Dagwood knew how to make, 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.160 and the association between the character and the sandwich is 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:41.679 actually so strong that Merriam Webster defines a Dagwood as 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.679 a many layered sandwich. That said. Producer Mary told us 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.720 that in Maine, her hometown state, a Dagwood is served 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.720 in a pitapocket, and I guess that's because you can 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.200 stuff a lot of fillings in there. Either way, here's 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.120 a bonus back for you. In the mid aus Chick 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.640 Young's son actually tried to get a Dagwood restaurant chain 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.440 off the gun that was supposed to feature a menu 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.840 that had pound and a half sandwiches, but unfortunately that 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.640 never happens. So, yeah, its own horror story. 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.040 That's exactly right. All right, Well, here's something I was 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:17.439 surprised to see. So Piet Mandrion's painting composition with red, 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.280 blue and yellow. It's now in the public domain. Now, 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:22.280 I'm sure you've seen this before. It's the one with 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.520 the large red square in the top right corner, blue 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.200 and yellow in the two other corners, and some white 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.920 in between there. Now, it's easy to focus on those 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.840 rectangles of color, but what really makes it pop is 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.120 the black horizontal and vertical lines that outline these. So 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.920 it turns out that Mandrion took his straight lines very seriously. 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.240 In nineteen seventeen, he actually found that a magazine with 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.800 fellow artist Teo von Dusburg. It was called The Style, 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:53.200 which just means you might guess Style and Dutch. It 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.080 was a place where they and other like minded artists 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.920 could share their ideas about art. But in nineteen twenty three, 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.439 after von Dusberg started incorporating these diagonal lines into his art, 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.560 Mandrion formally left it in protest of this. 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.400 I love the idea that like two fellow artists could 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:15.839 be so upset over the idea of incorporating something like diagonal. 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.840 Lines, so offensive, so offensive to some people. 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.120 Why did Mondrion hate diagonal so much? 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.640 You know, he just felt really strongly that horizontal and 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:28.400 vertical lines were aesthetically better And it's funny, I mean, 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.960 like the thing is though he wasn't wrong. Research has 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.920 actually shown that people tend to perceive horizontal and vertical 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.520 lines more easily than diagonal ones. It's a phenomenon known 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.200 as the oblique effect. And in two thousand, psychologists from 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.680 the University of Liverpool actually published a study in which 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.000 they put Mandrion's lines to the test. So they showed 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:53.480 subject slides of eight different paintings by Mondrian. They also 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.560 showed each painting in eight different orientations, so a bunch 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.520 of different angles for a total of sixty images. Then 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.640 the researchers found that participants preferred paintings where they were 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.520 shown in an orientation with horizontal and vertical lines rather 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.720 than the diagonal ones. They also preferred the paintings when 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.000 they were shown in the way Mandrion intended them to 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.760 be oriented. So apparently the guy actually knew what he 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:17.400 was talking about. 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:19.920 That's incredible that it's like backed by science, but also 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.559 like the idea that like you could put a crapozoid 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.120 in front of him and you just be furious. 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:27.840 It's true. It's true. Yeah, it's offensive. 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:29.880 I do love that, like now that his most famous 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.320 work is in the public domain, that it'll be interesting 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.520 to see how people play with it, right, you re imagine, Yeah, 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.040 so will This next work that's entering the public domain 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.440 is both a great book and a great movie. It's 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.920 called The Maltese Falcon. It's by Dashal Hammett. Have you 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:46.800 read it or seen it? 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:49.520 I'm gonna have to confess it's on the list, but 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.920 I have neither read nor seen it before. 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:52.480 How about you? 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.480 Yeah, I've both read it and seen it. But this 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.520 is Hammett's third novel. It's a master work, and it 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:05.160 actually started as a serialized story in Black Mask Magazine. 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.559 It's the story of a tough detective, Sam Spade, who 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.800 gets hired by the mysterious Miss Wonderley to help find 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.520 her sister. And as with any great noir, has got 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.400 lots of twists and turns, and that's how it ended 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.080 up being turned into a hit movie starring Humphrey Bogart 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:21.080 in nineteen forty. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:22.960 That's not in the public domain yet. 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.680 No this year is just the novel. But in addition 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:30.160 to being a great story, it totally revolutionized the detective genre. 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:31.160 And how's that? 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:33.920 I mean, this is incredible to think about. So before 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.440 the Maltese Falcon, it was the British detective story that 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.000 sort of ruled mystery stories. Right, Like mystery writers tend 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.760 to follow rules set forth by people like Edgar Allan Poe, 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.920 Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christine and the basic ingredients 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.840 where you've got this genius, eccentric detective and often they 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:57.280 have a steadfast partner and together they solve an unusual crime, right, 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.880 and the clues are complicated and they're kind of sub 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.520 dropped in through a slow moving plot for the most part. 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:08.600 But Dashel Hammitt, who is an American, gives a detective 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.360 who is more of an anti hero. Right. Spade is 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.200 hard boiled, he's violent, he follows his own code of ethics. 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.880 His world is gritty, and this isn't a place where 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:22.000 like crime is an outlier. Right, criminals are everywhere. They're 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.280 kind of par for the course now. Hammitt also infused 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.560 his story with more action and also a colloquial dialogue 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.200 than readers had ever seen before, and in doing so, 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.480 he created a new template for detective novels, and since 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.680 then it's inspired thousands of imitators. 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:39.640 I love that. All Right, Well, we have to take 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:40.280 a quick break. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.040 But when we come back, a song that changed blues 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.320 forever and the inside scoop on the three Stooges, So 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:57.760 don't go anywhere. 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:04.880 Welcome back to Part Time Genius. We're talking about nine 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.440 works of art that are in the public domain as 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.960 of January first, and now that we're in twenty twenty six, 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:13.960 I can tell you that we are planning a big 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:16.600 year here on the show. So be sure to subscribe 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.640 on your favorite podcast app. We also love hearing from you, 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:21.640 so let us know if you have a question or 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.360 idea we should explore, or if you'd like one of 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.760 our official membership cards. We do have a few left, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.880 so give us a call at three oh two, four 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.720 oh five five nine two five. You can also email 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.480 us at high Geniuses at gmail dot com. That's Hi 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.360 Geniuses at gmail dot com, or you can find us 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:44.240 on blue Sky and Instagram at part time Genius. Okay, well, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.040 so what is our next public domain work? 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.080 All right, Well, before the break, you've talked about how 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.080 the novel The Maltese Falcon is now in the public domain, 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:54.600 but we have to wait another decade for the film 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.280 to join it there. But last year Eric Maria remarks, 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.760 novel All Quiet on the Western Front On entered the 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:04.320 public domain, and this year it's now joined by the film. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.000 This is one of those films that I've actually never 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.200 seen as much as I've heard about it, just because 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.720 I'm not as into war films. But tell me a 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:12.480 little bit about it. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:15.240 Well, if you're not into war films, this one actually 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.320 became an instant classic because of its realistic depiction of war. 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.320 So it is pretty intense it stunned American audiences, who 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.560 often had to collect themselves for a moment before quietly 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:29.840 leaving the theater. Critics gave the World War I film 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.359 glowing reviews, and All Quiet won the Academy Award for 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.119 Outstanding Production, which was the early name for Best Picture. 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.520 Director Lewis Milestone also won Best Director. But when it 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.840 was released in Germany and December of nineteen thirty, about 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.159 seven months after the US premiere, the reaction gave the 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.120 world a sense of things to come. Nazi protests broke out, 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.920 including one incident in which they released mice and set 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.320 off stink bombs during a screening of the film. Yeah 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.679 for Real, And they wanted the film banned for what 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:03.600 they claim was slander of German war heroes, and they 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.560 felt it was created by a filmmaking industry dominated by 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:11.080 Jewish Americans. So the Variety headline read quote Berlin riot 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.679 over all Quiet, as much anti Semitic as anything else, 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:17.119 and the Nazis got what they wanted. The film was 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:21.400 banned in Germany for quote damaging the country's reputation. Two 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.440 years later, Hitler became Chancellor and the film wouldn't screen 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.080 in Germany again. Until nineteen fifty two. 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.280 That's crazy. I had no idea, but you know, I 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.119 do remember hearing about a German remake that came out. 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:34.560 I don't know, just like a few. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.159 Years ago, right, Yeah, it was not long ago at all. 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:38.040 It was in twenty twenty two, and it won a 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:42.920 ton of awards, including Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best International 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:47.399 Feature Film, and the critical response was overwhelmingly positive, although 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.160 some people said basically that nothing could top the nineteen 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.199 thirty film or the original novel. They're sort of in 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:54.000 a league of their own. 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.400 Okay, so I already told you about one great detective 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.600 who's now in the public domain, Sam Spain. But here 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.400 is another, the iconic Nancy Drew. Now. The first novels 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.560 featuring the teen detective were published in nineteen thirty, The 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.680 Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery, 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.479 and the Mystery at Lilac Inn. And there's actually a 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:16.960 bit of mystery behind. 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:18.640 Them, a case fit for Nancy Drew. 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.560 Maybe, so for many years the public didn't know who 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.639 wrote Nancy Drew. The series was created by a company 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:30.080 called Stratmeier Syndicate, which released the books under pseudonym Carolyn Keene. 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.479 Authors who wrote Nancy Drew books had to sign a 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.199 contract waiving any rights to talk about their work. But 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:40.360 in nineteen eighty, Stratameier got caught up in a lawsuit 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:42.960 after signing a deal that allowed Simon and Schuster to 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:47.640 publish new Nancy Drew books. The book's hardcover publisher, Grossen Dunlap, 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.680 suit to try to prevent this quote unfair competition, and 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.400 as a result of that lawsuit, the original author had 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.760 to take the stand. So that's how the world learned 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:01.760 that Mildred wert Benson wrote twenty three of the first 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.760 thirty Nancy Drew novels. The shame of it is that 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.400 she earned just one hundred and twenty five dollars per book, 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.760 which is about twenty three hundred dollars in today's term. 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.240 Wow. Knowing how many of those have sold, that is 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:15.520 that's crazy. 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:18.280 Yeah, there were fifty six novels in the original Nancy 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.919 Drew series, and it's believed they were the work of 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.679 several ghostwriters. But Simon and Schuster emerged from that nineteen 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.479 eighty lawsuit with the ability to publish Nancy Drew books, 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.480 and they're still doing that today all still under the 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.360 name Carolyn Keene, of course, but now the first four 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:35.479 novels they actually belong to everyone. 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:35.919 Wow. 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.520 Well, there are probably as many Nancy Drew books as 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.720 there are covers of the popular song Saint Louis Blues, 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:43.920 which was originally composed by W. C. 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.640 Handy. This was back in nineteen fourteen. 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.600 Yeah, and one of those covers was by my fourth 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:53.080 grade middle school band HB. Du Pont in Delaware. I'm 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:55.399 sure that's the recording that everyone is cleimbed. 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:57.280 I think it's the first one that comes up when 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:58.840 you look it up online. 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:00.879 So well, maybe not. 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:03.639 But there is one that stands out from the rest, 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:07.160 and this is, of course Bessie Smith's nineteen twenty five rendition, 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.560 which is now in the public domain. It was inducted 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.280 into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was on Time 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.199 Magazine's All Time one hundred Songs, plus NPR's list of 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.680 the most important American musical works of the twentieth century. 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.320