Public Domain
Working Girls
1931 · Paramount Publix Corp. · Dir. Dorothy Arzner
Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The film 'Working Girls', directed by Dorothy Arzner, was released by Paramount Publix Corp. and registered for US copyright on December 12, 1931 (LP2685). Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal filing in their 28th year to maintain protection. 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. While other films share the title (notably Lizzie Borden's 1986 film and a 1984 film), the 1931 production is the primary candidate for historical status analysis given its age. Because the 28-year term expired in 1959 without a renewal being filed by Paramount or its successors, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 1960. The 1931 Film Superlist (Hurst) also confirms the lack of a renewal record for this Paramount production.
Note: generated without live web grounding (the grounded research engine was unavailable). Verify the cited sources independently before relying on this determination.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (no record found)
- U Penn online Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) - Motion Pictures 1912-1939
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894-1939)
- IMDb: Working Girls (1931)
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Working Girls (1931)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.