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Posted: |
Feb 3, 2018 - 12:19 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Warner Bros. still has the rights to the film. They copyrighted it in 1952, then renewed their copyright in 1980. That gives them rights to it through 2047.
Copyright in the songs was held by the Frank Music Corp. Frank Music Corp. was created by Frank Loesser to control and publish his work, and eventually included other song writers such as Richard Adler, Jerry Ross, and Meredith Willson. But in 2004, the rights to the songs of WHERE'S CHARLEY, held by both Frank Music Corp. and Warner Bros. were terminated by a notice filed by Allen H. Arrow, the lawful agent of Jo Sullivan Loesser, widow & executor of the Estate of Frank Loesser, Susan Loesser Gallagher, John Loesser, Hannah Loesser & Emily Loesser Stephenson, children of deceased author Frank Loesser. So, the song rights are now in the hands of the estate. It would seem that if the estate had wanted Warner Bros. to release the film, it wouldn't have terminated Warners' song rights.
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I think I remember reading that the copyright complications have more to do with the original source material, the ancient farce "Charley's Aunt," a staple of worldwide repertory theater, than with Loesser's musical version. The relatively recent release of the Jack Benny non-musical film on DVD made it through, so some kind of legal miracle seems possible. Anyone more knowledgeable have details?
Found the old thread:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=56280&forumID=1&archive=0
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Jo Loesser blocked any release for several years, but she finally said it would be okay - I believe the standard line now is it needs a lot of restoration work and Warners doesn't think there would be enough sales to justify it - which is pretty true.
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