Bloom & Hamlin v. Nixon
| Decision Date | 23 November 1903 |
| Docket Number | 18. |
| Parties | BLOOM & HAMLIN v. NIXON et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Thomas W. Barlow, Nathan Burkan, and Hemry P. Brown, for complainants.
William Klein and George S. Graham, for defendants.
The complainant Bloom owns the copyright of a song entitled 'Sammy,' and the complainant Hamlin is the manager and owner of a musical extravaganza entitled 'The Wizard of Oz,' and avers that he has an exclusive license to perform and represent the song in public. The song was not composed as part of the extravaganza, but was a later production, by other hands, introduced because it was believed to be likely to attract. The stage business to be used by the actress who was to sing the song was prepared by Hamlin's stage director, and requires the actress to step to one of the proscenium boxes, single out a particular person in the box, and sing to him alone. A number of girls are also brought upon the stage to sing the chorus, and there are the usual gestures, postures, and other resources of the actor's and of the manager's art. The song, aided by these accompaniments-- especially, as it seems, by the rather striking impertinence of making one of the audience uncomfortable--obtained some popular favor; and Lotta Faust who is the most recent singer of the song, was regarded in the theatrical profession as having 'made a hit.' The defendants are owners and managers of a musical comedy entitled 'The Runaways,' and among the company is an actress named Fay Templeton, who is said to possess unusual powers of mimicry. In The Runaways she imitates the peculiarities and characteristics of five actresses-- among them, Lotta Faust singing the chorus of 'Sammy.' Her performance is preceded by an announcement that it is an imitation of Lotta Faust singing her song 'Sammy' in The Wizard of Oz, and that only the chorus will be sung. Miss Templeton is alone upon the stage, no chorus of girls being present. It is this mimicry that the court is asked to enjoin, and the question for decision is whether such a performance is forbidden by section 4966 of the Revised Statutes as amended in 1897 (3 U.S.Comp.St. 1901, p. 3415), which imposes a liability in damages upon any person 'publicly performing or representing any dramatic or musical composition for which a copyright has been obtained, without the consent of the proprietor of said dramatic or musical composition,' and authorizes such performance to be stopped by injunction.
The first verse and chorus of the song will exhibit its quality:
'Did you ever meet the fellow fine and dandy,
Who can readily dispel your ills and woes?
Did you ever meet the boy who's all the candy
Where'er he goes?
For you I'm pining when we're apart;
Sammy when you...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Loew's Incorporated v. Columbia Broadcasting System
...material. In other words, a parodized or burlesqued taking is treated no differently from any other appropriation. Bloom & Hamlin v. Nixon, C.C.E.D.Penn.1903, 125 F. 977, involved the burlesque by Fay Templeton of the performance of one Lotta Faust in another dramatico-musical work, by sing......
-
Harold Lloyd Corporation v. Witwer
...F. Supp. 73, by Judge Woolsey, U. S. District Court of New York, December 28, 1932), voice, motions, or postures of actors Bloom & Hamlin v. Nixon (C. C.) 125 F. 977; Savage v. Hoffmann (C. C.) 159 F. 584; Chappell & Co. v. Fields (C. C. A.) 210 F. 864, supra, citing Daly v. Palmer, 6 Blatc......
-
Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. v. Campbell
...law fair use doctrine, 7 which has long included parody. Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 549, 105 S.Ct. at 2224; see also Bloom & Hamlin v. Nixon, 125 F. 977 (C.C.E.D.Pa.1903) (a parody fair use involving vaudeville impersonations). Therefore, it is understandable that both the parties and the di......
-
Stern v. United States
...Dymow v. Bolton, 2 Cir., 11 F.2d 690; Chappell & Co. v. Fields, 2 Cir., 210 F. 864; Savage v. Hoffmann, C.C., 159 F. 584; Bloom & Hamlin v. Nixon, D.C., 125 F. 977. 10 The taxpayer refers to that portion of the Treasury Regulations (Treas.Reg. 118, Secs. 39.117(a)-1) which reads as "The phr......