Copyrighted works from 1929 enter the public domain today, including The Maltese Falcon, The Cocoanuts, and Mickey’s first talkie ― Cultrface

Firstly, happy new year to you all. I hope 2025 is even more prosperous than 2024. If you’re a creative or a lover of the arts, today’s events might help with that.

1st January is Public Domain Day as I’ve documented in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. This year, that means that certain works of art from 1929 become free of copyright in the US and available to the public to do what they want with it and without permission.

From an internet perspective, The Skeleton Dance is probably the most notable work to enter the public domain this year. We also get access to Mickey’s first talking appearance in a cartoon. Oh, and Popeye and Tintin are now in the public domain which is awesome as I loved them both as a kid.

Below you will find a list of works from 1929 you might find interesting. As always, check works from any years prior to 1929 to make absolutely sure you follow any licence requirements (if there are any), particularly in other countries or regions such as the EU. That’s because copyrights may have been extended or follow slightly different laws outside of the US. Happy hunting!

Lists of public domain works from 1928 and more

Notable books

William Faulkner — The Sound and the Fury
Ernest Hemingway — A Farewell to Arms
Virginia Woolf — A Room of One’s Own
Dashiell Hammett — The Maltese Falcon
John Steinbeck — Cup of Gold
Richard Hughes — A High Wind in Jamaica
Patrick Hamilton — Rope
Agatha Christie — Seven Dials Mystery

Notable films

The Skeleton Dance
Lots of Mickey Mouse animations including his first talking appearance in The Karnival Kid
The Cocoanuts
The Broadway Melody
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
Blackmail (directed by Alfred Hitchcock)
Hallelujah (directed by King Vidor and one of the first major films with an all Black American cast)
Spite Marriage (Buster Keaton last silent movie)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (the first sound film to feature Sherlock Holmes)
Woman in the Moon (directed by Fritz Lang)
Un Chien Andalou

Notable characters

Popeye
Tintin
Horace Horsecollar

Notable musical compositions

Singin’ in the Rain
Ain’t Misbehavin’
An American in Paris and the first recordings of Rhapsody in Blue
Boléro
(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue
What Is This Thing Called Love?

Notable artwork

René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images
Salvador Dalí’s The Great Masturbator and The Accommodations of Desire
Wassily Kandinsky’s Upward
Edward Hopper’s Chop Suey
M. C. Escher’s print Strada di Scanno
The first design of the Barcelona chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich

People whose works entered the public domain

In Europe (except Belarus where they were already in the public domain and Spain which has a life + 80 years if they died before 1987 law)

Julian Coolidge
Leonard Eugene Dickson
Frida Kahlo
Henri Matisse
Alan Turing
Zhang Shichuan
Kalki Krishnamurthy

In countries with life + 50 years law

H. E. Bates
Duke Ellington
Dorothy Fields
Charles Lindbergh
William Sloane

Copyrighted works from 1929 enter the public domain today, including The Maltese Falcon, The Cocoanuts, and Mickey’s first talkie