On January 1, 2025, thousands of copyrighted works from 1929 will enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1924. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon.
2025 marks a milestone: all of the books, films, songs, and art published in the 1920s will now be public domain. The literary highlights from 1929 include The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, and A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. In film, Mickey Mouse speaks his first words, the Marx Brothers star in their first feature film, and legendary directors from Alfred Hitchcock to John Ford made their first sound films. From comic strips, the original Popeye and Tintin characters will enter the public domain. Among the newly public domain compositions are Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Ravel’s Bolero, Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’, and the musical number Singin’ in the Rain.
Here are some highlights of the works entering the US public domain in 2025. Will you incorporate any of these newly available pieces into your art? Which are you most excited about? Have you drawn inspiration from the public domain before?
Characters:
E. C. Segar, Popeye (in “Gobs of Work” from the Thimble Theatre comic strip)
Hergé (Georges Remi), Tintin (in “Les Aventures de Tintin” from the magazine Le Petit Vingtième)
Films:
A dozen more Mickey Mouse animations (including Mickey’s first talking appearance in The Karnival Kid)
The Cocoanuts, directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley (the first Marx Brothers feature film)
The Broadway Melody, directed by Harry Beaumont (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture)
The Hollywood Revue of 1929, directed by Charles Reisner (featuring the song “Singin’ in the Rain”)
The Skeleton Dance, directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks (the first Silly Symphony short from Disney)
Blackmail, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Hitchcock’s first sound film)
Hallelujah, directed by King Vidor (one of the first film from a major studio with an all African-American cast)
The Wild Party, directed by Dorothy Arzner (Clara Bow’s first “talkie”)
Welcome Danger, directed by Clyde Bruckman and Malcolm St. Clair (the first full-sound comedy starring Harold Lloyd)
On With the Show, directed by Alan Crosland (the first all-talking, all-color, feature-length film)
Pandora's Box (Die BĂĽchse der Pandora), directed by G.W. Pabst
Show Boat, directed by Harry A. Pollard (adaptation of the novel and musical)
The Black Watch, directed by John Ford (Ford’s first sound film)
Spite Marriage, directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton (Keaton’s final silent feature)
Say It with Songs, directed by Lloyd Bacon (follow-up to The Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool)
Dynamite, directed by Cecil B. DeMille (DeMille's first sound film)
Gold Diggers of Broadway, directed Roy Del Ruth
Books and Plays:
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon (as serialized in Black Mask magazine)
John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold (Steinbeck's first novel)
Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica
Oliver La Farge, Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story
Patrick Hamilton, Rope
Arthur Wesley Wheen, the first English translation of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
E. B. White and James Thurber, Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (only the original German version, Briefe an einen jungen Dichter)
Walter Lippmann, A Preface to Morals
Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee), The Roman Hat Mystery
Musical Compositions:
Singin’ in the Rain, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown
Ain’t Misbehavin’, lyrics by Andy Paul Razaf, music by Thomas W. (“Fats”) Waller & Harry Brooks (from the musical Hot Chocolates)
An American in Paris, George Gershwin
Boléro, Maurice Ravel
(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue, lyrics by Andy Paul Razaf, music by Thomas W. “Fats” Waller & Harry Brooks (a song about racial injustice from the musical Hot Chocolates)
Tiptoe Through the Tulips, lyrics by Alfred Dubin, music by Joseph Burke
Happy Days Are Here Again, lyrics by Jack Yellen, music by Milton Ager (the theme song for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 presidential campaign)
What Is This Thing Called Love?, by Cole Porter (from Porter’s musical Wake Up and Dream)
Am I Blue?, lyrics by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst
You Were Meant for Me, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown
Honey, lyrics and music by Seymour Simons, Haven Gillespie, and Richard A. Whiting
Waiting for a Train, lyrics and music by Jimmie Rodgers
Sound Recordings from 1924:
My Way's Cloudy, recorded by Marian Anderson
Rhapsody in Blue, recorded by George Gershwin
Shreveport Stomp, recorded by Jelly Roll Morton
Lazy, recorded by The Georgians
Krooked Blues, recorded by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band featuring Louis Armstrong
Deep Blue Sea Blues, recorded by Clara Smith
The Gouge of Armour Avenue, recorded by Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra featuring Big Charlie Green
Mama’s Gone, Good Bye, recorded by Ray Miller and his Orchestra
It Had To Be You, recorded by the Isham Jones Orchestra and by Marion Harris
California Here I Come, recorded by Al Jolson
Art:
Copyright will also expire in 2025 over works of art that were published or registered in 1929, including drawings, paintings, and photography.
You can click the link below to Duke University School of Law for more info on Public Domain Day or to find more public domain material from 1929:
https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/
