Subject: [removed] Digest V2015 #105
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 12/31/2015 4:18 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
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                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2015 : Issue 105
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Question on the ASCAP ban             [ "Ronald W. Vickery, PE" <rvickery@v ]
  Secret Squadron Leader, Captain Midn  [ skallisjr@[removed] ]

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Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 18:52:14 -0500
From: "Ronald W. Vickery, PE" <rvickery@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Question on the ASCAP ban

In Issue 104, Joe Mackey wrote:

One of the most popular songs to be played was
"Happy Birthday to You"; which was performed in many different languages
just to get past the ban.  The original song is now, in fact, a copyrighted
piece of music, though it wasn't at the time.

My question, which may not apply to this group, is how did it become a
copyrighted material after being in the public domain for so long?  Did the
sponsors of the Lone Ranger copyright the William Tell Overture?  Has this
happened to other songs that were OTR theme songs?

Thanks,

Ron

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Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 18:51:40 -0500
From: skallisjr@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Secret Squadron Leader, Captain Midnight

A Joseph Ross asks

So if Ovaltine wasn't the original creator of the character, how did
they manage to claim ownership to the point of requiring the second run
of the show to be under a different name?

The name/trademark "Captain Midnight" originated with Skelly Oil (most of
the Skelly episodes have been recovered).  Skelly was losing interest in
sponsoring the show, and, with war clouds building, Ovaltine acquired the
character and launched its run in the Fall of 1940.
The 1949 season shifted the program to 30-minute programs with a complete
story in each airing rather than remaining an adventure serial.
by 1950, the United States was shifting to television, and a number of TV
Captain Midnight stories were filmed.
After the television show had its run, Ovaltine dropped it, but retained
the name/trademark for future use.  It was during this period that the
shows were run as Jet Jackson.
[The Ovaltine-sponsored serial adventures are care in transcription, with
only about two dozen episodes have been recovered.  The stories are
preserved, however, in two books: my /Radio's Captain Midnight: The
Wartime Biography/ and Leonard Sane's /Captain Midnight's Postwar Radio
Adventures/, both derived from the original scripts.]
Ovaltine, years after the TV show, resurrected Captain Midnight for
nostalgia items -- basically, tee shirts.  Emblazoned on the tee shirt
front was a picture of the TV version, but a drawing, not a photo of the
star.  Consumers desiring a shirt had to send in some cash and an
Ovaltine label.  This happened in the 1970s.
Ovaltine eventually abandoned the trademark.
As an addendum, a toy manufacturer, Klutz, In., registered the trademark
for a(n incomplete) replica of the 1941 Code-O-Graph "decoder."  I
haven't  followed Klutz for years, but apparently they've stopped
marketing them.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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End of [removed] Digest V2015 Issue #105
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