[QuadList] Rights and old shows (was 1959 Pontiac Star Parade)

[Ted Langdell]

Hi, Park and David

I'd think the problem with seeing some of these shows being released  
on DVD is related to clearing various rights and making payments.

Rights would include the various "star" appearances and performance  
rights to the music and likely payments to musicians (or their  
estates) who were part of the orchestras involved. The time involved  
might be rather costly. Among other things. :(

Unfortunately, television producers and networks weren't able to or  
didn't "think into the future" and secure the rights for distribution  
50+ years later.

Too bad, since I think there's a market for DVD's of shows like these,  
just as we're seeing markets for current programs and old movies.

As I mentioned in my previous post about the Gene Kelly Pontiac show,  
KTLA Engineer Don Kent and Engineer/Historian Ed Reitan were involved  
in the transfer of the 1958 Astaire special and other early Quad color  
tapes.

As part of a series of e-mails how that came about, Don e-mailed that:

"The Astaire masters were found by a former employee of the UCLA  
Archive who was then working for Universal.  He found them in their  
tape library.  They didn't even know they had them.  They were there  
because Astaire had a distribution deal with them, but primarily (I  
think) because of his movies.

When Astaire died, Universal sold the "restored" shows to Disney.   
They hadn't even been done yet!

The restored D-2 is owned by Universal and is there now.  The original  
quads are in the UCLA Film and Television Archive in Hollywood."

In a follow up he notes: "Mrs. Astaire insisted, through her lawyer,  
that we add a copyright date at the end of the original credits.  We  
did, but I really don't think that show was copyrighted back then."

This LA Times article from 1997... http://articles.latimes.com/1997/aug/17/entertainment/ca-23118

indicates many of Astaire's films are controlled by Turner, and goes  
into the how Astaire's widow, Robyn, was handling clip requests—high  
fees, potential users said—and outlines a legal battle she waged  
against a production company tied to a chain of licensed Astaire dance  
studios.  The videos used public domain clips from old Astaire movies  
at the head of a series of "how to dance" videos.

David: Is this what you might have been referring to?

Astaire's widow fought that usage all the way to the US Supreme Court,  
which rejected hearing an appeal of an appellate court decision in  
favor of the dance video clip usage.

She went to Sacramento and got then Sen. John Burton to sponsor SB  
209, which became law in 1999.
http://www.supnik.com/cc33441.htm

Among other things, it extended the right of heirs to control deceased  
celebrities images from 50 years to 70 years from their death.

The law was amended in 2007 to include people like Marilyn Monroe, who  
died before the 1999 revision was in place. The revision made the  
"Astaire Celebrity Image Protection Act" benefits retroactive:
http://www.hklaw.com/id24660/PublicationId2331/ReturnId31/contentid50127/

So even if any copyrights expire soon... the right to use a deceased  
person's performance in an early videotape may not be something easy  
to come by.

Universal and/or Disney obviously was able to make arrangements for  
the Astaire specials, so it is possible... but it would be nice to  
know the cost.

Ted

Ted Langdell

Secretary for the QuadVideotapeGroup.com:
Preserving Tape, Equipment and the Knowledge to use them, in  
conjunction with the Library of Congress
ted at quadvideotapegroup.com

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