The Love of the Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald ©1941
The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western is the last novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, left unfinished at the time of his death in 1940. His friend Edmund Wilson compiled the completed material, and published it the next year under the title The Last Tycoon (perhaps appropriate that an incomplete novel have an incomplete title). In the 1950s it was adapted for television starring Jack Palance, and in the 1970s it was adapted as a feature film starring Robert DeNiro, scripted by playwright Harold Pinter, and directed by Elia Kazan.
The titular tycoon is Monroe Stahr, whose story is based on the real-life career of Irving Thalberg, an influential “boy genius” film producer whose partnership with Louis B. Mayer helped establish MGM as a major studio, but eventually ended with him being pushed aside. In addition to its contemporary insight into the history and culture of the era, the novel is a work by one of the great writers of the early 20th century.
The edition published in 1941 should have entered the Public Domain at the end of 1997.
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"The Shower" by Paul Cadmus ©1943
“The Shower” is one of many groundbreaking paintings and illustrations by Paul Cadmus. It depicts three figures at a beach: one nude male using a semi-open shower, a nude male seated facing away from the shower, and a woman wearing a wrap, standing a short distance away and looking generally toward the shower.
The social significance of Cadmus’ work is substantial. Although the visual style of his works typically called back to earlier realistic schools of painting (counter to the trends of the time), the subject matter and its treatment challenged social norms. His earlier “The Fleet’s In” (commissioned by the US government) depicted members of the US Navy in a drunken and bawdy scene. Works such as “The Shower” unapologetically eroticized the nude male figure while remaining chaste and inexplicit enough to deflect accusations of being pornography… while serving as the inspiration and template for much artistic gay porn of the following decades. His works also routinely commented silently on other social issues.
Cadmus died on December 12, 1999 at the age of 95. Under the copyright laws in effect when “The Shower” was created, it should have entered the Public Domain a few weeks later.
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Posted in 1940s, Fine Art
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Rebel Without a Cause ©1955
Rebel Without A Cause is a landmark of American culture, identified by the Library of Congress as culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.
It features James Dean in his next-to-last role, with Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, and a supporting cast that includes Jim Backus and young Dennis Hopper. It adopted the title of a 1940s psychological study and dramatized the “generation gap” (before the term existed). The central theme of it – a suburban middle-class teenager rebelling against parental authority and society’s expectations of him – has influenced countless movies and entire genres of music (starting with rock-and-roll), and has profoundly affected that society itself.
Released in 1955 (shortly after Dean’s tragic death), it should have entered the Public Domain in January 2012.
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Posted in 1950s, Movies
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"Rocket 88"
"Rocket 88" is arguably the first Rock and Roll song. It’s a celebration of the new Oldsmobile 88, one of the archetypal pleasure-craft automobiles of the era, and (almost as obviously) a celebration of sex. It was recorded in March 1951 by Ike Turner and his band, with vocals by saxophonist Jackie Brenston (under the name “the Delta Cats”), and went to the top of the Rhythm and Blues charts. A few months later, Bill Haley’s Saddlemen – a Country and Western band – recorded a version which was a big hit in the northeast US. It was that version, with its genetic mixing of Black R&B and White C&W, that gave birth to American R&R.
The song was based on a couple of previous tunes (a common practice in those pre-litigious days of cultural ferment and experimentation): the song “Cadillac Boogie” and an instrumental called “Rocket 88 Boogie”. But the version credited to Brenston, as a 1951 composition, would have entered the Public Domain at the end of 2007.
Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner ©1939
The Sub-Mariner – known to his friends as Prince Namor – is one of the first superheroes, and probably the first super anti-hero. He was created by Bill Everett and introduced in 1939 by Timely Comics (the publisher now known as Marvel). He was the half-human champion of undersea Atlantis, seeking vengeance upon the surface dwellers of America, though he quickly turned his wrath against the Axis, becoming one of the publisher’s most popular characters. In addition to strength and breathing underwater, he could fly (a popular new super-power at the time) and duplicate the abilities of any marine species (a power his writers have since discarded).
He was one of the inspirations for Aquaman (who appeared a couple years later) and for the 1970s TV series Man from Atlantis. His popularity waned along with other superheroes after World War 2; although he has had periodic revivals in the decades since then, and remains a stock character in the Marvel Universe, his popularity has never returned to that early high. He was originally scheduled to enter the Public Domain at the end of 1995.
Posted in 1930s, Comics
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