Gertie on Tour

Gertie on Tour is a short animated film produced and directed by Winsor McCay. While exact release dates vary across sources due to the film's fragmented nature (fragments were often dated between 1918 and 1921), the film is universally acknowledged as a work from the early silent era. Under the current US copyright law (the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998), all works first published or registered in the United States prior to January 1, 1929, have entered the public domain. As this film was produced and exhibited circa 1921, its statutory copyright term has expired. Any original copyright protections it may have held would have lasted for 75 years from the date of publication if properly renewed, or 28 years if not, but regardless of renewal status, the 1928 cutoff for public domain entry renders the film freely available to the public.