Public Domain
Cowboy Holiday
1934 · Beacon Productions · Dir. Robert F. Hill
Buck's friend Sheriff Simpson is after the Juarez Kid. Buck knows the Kid and the Sheriff's description does not fit. Buck then meets a one time outlaw who is now the Sheriff's deputy and thinks he is posing as the Kid. When a rancher is killed by the supposed Kid, Buck has a plan utilizing the real Juarez's Kid's ranch that will trap him.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Cowboy Holiday, a Western starring Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, was released in 1934 (distributed by First Division Exchanges) and falls under the 1909 Copyright Act. Under this law, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a copyright renewal with the US Copyright Office during their 28th year of protection to maintain copyright. If no renewal was filed, the work entered the public domain at the end of its first 28-year term.
A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal registration for this title or its production company, Beacon Productions. Most 'Poverty Row' Westerns of this era were allowed to lapse into the public domain as their commercial value was considered exhausted by the 1960s. The film is widely available on public domain aggregations and archive.org without copyright challenge, further confirming its status.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (checked for 1961-1963 renewals)
- Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE): Motion Pictures 1912-1939; 1940-1949
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894-1939) by D. Richard Baer
- IMDb: Cowboy Holiday (1934)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.