The Bat

Post date: Jun 22, 2016 1:2:56 AM

The character may not be in the public domain for the reasons I stated in a Facebook group on 31 July 2017:

– The Bat’s first appearance was in the eponymous 1920 Broadway play, but as far as I’m aware, the script was never published (unless one counts distribution of copies of the script to the cast). Under US copyright law, public performance does not constitute publication, so I would think the play’s copyright would be that of an unpublished work, expiring seventy years after the author’s death. Mary Roberts Rinehart died in 1958, so The Bat would enter the public domain on 1 January 2029. I am not a copyright lawyer; this is just my understanding.

Now, the subsequent 1920 novelization of the play is firmly in the public domain as a published work, and even the 1926 and 1959 movie adaptations are both in the public domain from failure to renew the copyrights. But I would argue that the underlying character of the Bat may not be in the public domain because his first appearance (the play) may still be under copyright.

But I could be wrong.

I was wrong. Although unpublished in its original form, The Bat was registered for copyright on 9 June 1920 with a typewritten script deposited at the Library of Congress and receiving registration number D 54764, so it is indeed in the public domain albeit unavailable to be read online. It was published in 1932 by Samuel French in a version (the “acting version”) apparently different enough from the original to have a separate copyright (DP14930, 13 Feb. 1932) that was renewed in 1959 (R241866). (The 1944 published version is a reprint of the 1932 version.) The version available on the University of Pittsburgh Web site is evidently a 1945 revised version.

Rachel Innes “Aunt Ray” corresponds to Cornelia van Gorder. Gertrude Innes corresponds to Dale Ogden and Dale Bailey. Jack Bailey “Alex” corresponds to Jack Bailey “Brooks” and Victor Bailey. Anne Watson would seem to correspond to Lizzie Allen. Paul Armstrong corresponds to Courtleigh Fleming and John Fleming. Arnold Armstrong corresponds to Richard Fleming and Mark Fleming. Detective Jamieson corresponds to Andy Anderson. In the original, Paul Armstrong fakes his death, whereas in The Bat, Courtleigh Fleming intends to do so but is killed by Dr. Wells. In the original, Mrs. Watson kills Arnold Armstrong, but in The Bat, Lizzie kills no one, and Richard Fleming is killed by the Bat.

Public‐domain bibliography

The Circular Staircase, serialized in The All‐Story Magazine, Nov. 1907–Jan. 1908, The All‐Story, Feb.–Mar. 1908. Does not seem to be available online.

The Circular Staircase (novel), 1908

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circular_Staircase

http://www.archive.org/details/circularstairca00rinegoog

http://www.archive.org/details/circularstairca01rinegoog

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012926055

http://www.archive.org/details/circularstaircas00rineiala

http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7931780/The%20Circular%20Staircase

The Circular Staircase (movie), 1915

http://books.google.com/books?id=ajXwxJuYd5gC&pg=PA89

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The Bat: A Play of Mystery in Three Acts (play), 1920

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat_(play)

http://www.ibdb.com/Production/View/8967

The Bat (novelization), 1920

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hwptej

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2019/2019-h/2019-h.htm

http://www.archive.org/details/bat_0909_librivox

The Bat (movie), 1926 (in the public domain)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat_(1926_film)

http://books.google.com/books?id=ajXwxJuYd5gC&pg=PA21

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Bat_(1926).webm

http://www.archive.org/details/TheBat1926

http://www.publicdomainmovies.net/movie/the-bat-1926

The Bat (movie), 1959 (in the public domain)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat_(1959_film)

http://www.archive.org/details/The_Bat_Vincent_Price

Not yet in the public domain: The Bat Whispers, 1930 film; “The Bat,” episode of Broadway Television Theatre, 23 Nov. 1953; “The Circular Staircase,” episode of Climax!, 21 June 1956; “The Bat,” episode of The Dow Hour of Great Mysteries, 31 Mar. 1960.