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Re: Publicity photos



At 01:38 PM 11/1/2000 -0500, you wrote:
Greetings
Can someone tell me what the ruling is on the use of publicity stills taken
for a film (in this case Carnegie Hall, released in 1947) by a company that
no longer exists where the photographer and actors were under contract to
that company. If someone has purchased the film does he inherit the rights
of the former studio.   Can a still which was given to us by one of the
actors in the movie be used as an artifact "from the collection of" ?
Thanks....
Gino
It's always tricky to figure out who has what rights to which pieces of a
feature film; it often varies according to the terms of the original
contracts.  Someone else on the list may be able to tell us whether there
is any general rule of thumb for using publicity stills, but in this
particular case...

Carnegie Hall is credited to United Artists, but  Edgar G. Ulmer, the
director, was mostly working for Producers Releasing Corporation during the
'40's.   PRC was later absorbed by United Artists, whose records are at the
Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Research in Madison.  If indeed this
was a PRC film, you can probably find out (lots) more, according to the
finding aid, which says:

Title:                   [United Artists Collection] Series 2G : PRC legal
file, 1940-1950.

Summary:           Records of Producers Releasing Corporation.... The file
documents pictures produced during the 1940s.
The file contains materials dealing with the ownership of motion pictures:
production contracts, certified copies of resolutions dealing with powers of
attorney, letters amending contracts, assignments of perpetual title to motion
pictures, warranty statements relating to ownership of pictures, exhibits
relating to
loans, affidavits of payment of costs, delivery certificates from film
processing
laboratories, and bills of sale for pictures....

Processing that collection was one of my first archives jobs, and I'm still
flabbergasted over how many lawyers it takes to make a
movie.                       --Steve Masar
                        Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison Archives

Gino Francesconi
Archivist & Museum Director
Carnegie Hall
gfrancesconi@carnegiehall.org

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