"Though it isn't the kind of thing one hears discussed every day, serious Disney fans do tend to know that Goofy's original name was Dippy Dawg. But how many of the non-obsessive know that Mickey's faithful pet Pluto was first called Rover? (We pass over in dignified silence the quasi-philosophical question of why the former dog is humanoid and the latter isn't.)"
"You can see them all in the video above from Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, with much more information available in their blog post marking this year's "Public Domain Day." The year 1930, write the Center's Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, was one "of detectives, jazz, speakeasies, and iconic characters stepping onto the cultural stage - many of whom have been locked behind copyright for nearly a century.""
The 1930 copyright expirations free a broad set of cultural works and characters into the public domain. Early versions of iconic animated figures appear, including Rover (the precursor name for Pluto) and Dippy Dawg (an early Goofy), alongside Betty Boop's 1930 Fleischer Studios debut. Major novels entering the public domain include William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, and Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage. Significant films include All Quiet on the Western Front and the Marx Brothers' Animal Crackers. Popular songs from the era such as "I Got Rhythm" also become freely usable.
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