Monthly Archives: December 2025

Ninety-five (or 100) years is a very long time for copyrights to last. But Olaf Stapledon saw a much longer future for us in Last and First Men (reviewed here and here). His book tells a story of successive human … Continue reading →

Yale’s 1905 commencement ceremonies included a honorary doctorate for British composer Edward Elgar, and a portion of his first “Pomp and Circumstance” march. It’s been a staple of graduation processions ever since. The full suite of five marches that Elgar … Continue reading →

David Seubert writes that more than 2500 records from 1925 digitized by the UC Santa Barbara Library will soon be freely downloadable there. A full listing of these recordings is online (though note that recordings made in 1925 but not … Continue reading →

Marlene Dietrich enjoyed success on stage and screen in 1920s Berlin, but became an international star in 1930. That year she came to the United States to star in Morocco alongside Gary Cooper. Her performance was nominated for an Academy … Continue reading →

Struggle over academic freedom in Texas state universities has a long history. Today it’s often over race and gender; in the 1940s, it was over things like John Dos Passos’s USA trilogy. When the University of Texas Board of Regents … Continue reading →

In 1925 the Associated Glee Clubs of America put on a concert like no other. 15 choral groups, with over 850 singers in all, came together in New York’s Metropolitan Opera House to sing a program broadcast on radio across … Continue reading →

Moss Hart wrote the first draft of Once in a Lifetime, a comedy about Hollywood’s transition to “talkies”, as a 25-year-old unknown. Established playwright George S. Kaufman helped revise it into a Broadway hit. Steve Vineberg calls it the “the … Continue reading →

Given how much “Dick and Jane” have been used sardonically, one might think Zerna Sharp’s schoolbook characters were already public domain. But you can’t copyright names, expressive style, or stock situations, and fair use allows limited copying for purposes like … Continue reading →

Four writers get credit on the 1930 copyright registration for “Body and Soul”: composer Johnny Green, and lyricists Robert Sour, Edward Heyman, and Frank Eyton. But many more artists shaped the perennial jazz standard we know today. Among its more … Continue reading →