Public Domain
Streets of New York
1939 · Monogram Pictures · Dir. Anthony Mann
The story revolves around the efforts of the middle-class family Fairweather, newly impoverished by the financial panic, to survive against the villainous banker Gideon Bloodgood.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Originally released by Monogram Pictures under the title 'Streets of New York' (and often re-released or televised under the title 'Abe Lincoln of Ninth Avenue'), this film entered the public domain due to a failure to renew its copyright. The film was registered for copyright by Monogram Pictures Corp. on April 10, 1939, under registration number LP8799.
Under the 1909 Copyright Act, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a formal renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during their 28th year of protection to extend copyright to a second term. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) confirms that no renewal was filed for LP8799 during the 1966 or 1967 renewal windows. Consequently, the work fell into the public domain on January 1, 1968. The film's inclusion in several public domain film catalogs and its presence on the Internet Archive without restriction further support this status.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), Motion Pictures 1912–1939
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1939-1959), Ed. D. Richard Baer
- IMDb: Titles 'Streets of New York' / 'Abe Lincoln of Ninth Avenue'
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.