Nearly 100 years ago, Charles Ponzi stumbled across a loophole in the international postal system and turned it into one of the most infamous scams of all time. This time on Sidedoor, we follow Ponzi from his early days until his epic downfall, and hear from a postal investigator trained to catch swindlers like Ponzi who continue to use the U.S. mail for nefarious purposes.
From Duke Law “Center For The Study of the Public Domain”:
On January 1, 2020, works from 1924 will enter the US public domain, where they will be free for all to use and build upon, without permission or fee. These works include George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, silent films by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and books such as Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, and A. A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young. These works were supposed to go into the public domain in 2000, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years.
Films
Buster Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator
Harold Lloyd’s Girl Shy and Hot Water
The first film adaptation of Peter Pan
The Sea Hawk
Secrets
He Who Gets Slapped
Dante’s Inferno
Books
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
E.M. Forster, A Passage to India
Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not… (the first volume of his “Parade’s End” tetralogy)
Eugene O’Neill, Desire Under the Elms
Edith Wharton, Old New York (four novellas)
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We (the English translation by Gregory Zilboorg)
A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle’s Circus
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan and the Ant Men
Agatha Christie, The Man in the Brown Suit
Lord Dunsany (Edward Plunkett), The King of Elfland’s Daughter
Music
Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin
Fascinating Rhythm and Oh, Lady Be Good, music George Gershwin, lyrics Ira Gershwin
Lazy, Irving Berlin
Jealous Hearted Blues, Cora “Lovie” Austin (composer, pianist, bandleader) (recorded by Ma Rainey)
Santa Claus Blues, Charley Straight and Gus Kahn (recorded by Louis Armstrong)
Nobody’s Sweetheart, music Billy Meyers and Elmer Schoebel, lyrics Gus Kahn and Ernie Erdman
(Only the musical compositions referred to above are entering the public domain. Subsequent arrangements, orchestrations, or recordings of those compositions, such as Yuja Wang’s performance of Rhapsody in Blue, might still be copyrighted. You are free to copy, perform, record, or adapt Gershwin’s composition, but may need permission to use a specific recording of it.)
90 years ago today, Maie Bartlett Heard, curator Allie Walling BraMé along with a small group of friends and volunteers spent Christmas Day making final preparations for the opening of the Heard Museum. The next day, December 26, 1929, the Heard Museum began our now nine decade long and ongoing legacy of advancing American Indian Art.
This short video poem written, recorded and edited by longtime artist and friend of the Heard Museum, Steven J. Yazzie (Diné) is our very sincere thank you to you.
Heard Museum 90th Celebration Poem, December 2019
“Home” By Steven J. Yazzie (Diné)
Voiced by: Jenn Henry
Music: Better Now, Phillip Daniel Zach
Why do we come here to these walls painted shades of off white In search of beauty or memory or place Where the sounds of children can be heard echoing in these vast and intimate spaces And where everyone has just arrived here from a journey What brings us to the feet of stone or textile or dried paint In the galleries of our hearts and truths Our histories are revealed and our humanity ensured This place of my youth and older age This place of beauty stewardship and celebration Is home
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