The Wild Women of Wongo

Under the Copyright Act of 1909, US works published between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of their first copyright term to remain protected. 'The Wild Women of Wongo' was released and registered for copyright in 1958 (under registration LP12368). For this copyright to have remained valid, a renewal would have needed to be filed in 1985 or 1986. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the Library of Congress Online Catalog, and the Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) confirms that no renewal was ever filed by Tropical Pictures or any successor in interest. Because the renewal was a mandatory formality for films of this era, the failure to renew caused the film to enter the public domain upon the expiration of its first 28-year term (December 31, 1986). The film is widely recognized as public domain by film historians and is frequently distributed by public domain specialty labels such as Alpha Video and Something Weird Video.