Father of the bride 1950 promo

• Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy in a promotional image for the 1950 film Father of the Bride.
• Such images were taken on set during filming, or as part of an organized photo-shoot, by a studio photographer. They were then disseminated to the media and the public to promote the film (see Film still).

Public domain explanation

• It is unlikely that this image was secured with copyright protection, as stated by film induustry expert Gerald Mast in Film Study and the Copyright Law (1989) p. 87:

"According to the old copyright act, such production stills were not automatically copyrighted as part of the film and required separate copyrights as photographic stills ... Most studios have never bothered to copyright these stills because they were happy to see them pass into the public domain, to be used by as many people in as many publications as possible."

• If there is any chance that the photograph was copyrighted, under the terms of the 1909 Copyright Act (which was law until 1978) it would have had to be renewed 28 years after publication. The movie had its copyright renewed in 1977, but searching for artwork renewals in this year find no trace of this image. If it was renewed in 1978 it would be documented on the US Copyright Office website. Again, there is no evidence that any images related to the film had their copyright renewed.