Photo of Jack Benny preparing to enter the vault at his home. One aspect of Benny's comic persona was that of a miser who pinched every penny, driving a 1908 Maxwell auto to save money. The home vault was a long running joke, as was the Maxwell; both of which moved from radio to television when Benny did. Benny's vault was complete with a 24 hour guard.
Date
between circa 1932 and circa 1962
date QS:P,+1950-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1932-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1962-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Because I couldn't view a back to the photo to establish dating and no copyright marks on the back of it, the first copyright searches were done for original registrations in artwork from 1932 to 1962. Jack Benny started in radio in 1932 and MCA was forced to give up its talent agency division in 1962. MCA had purchased Decca Records and the acquisition of Decca meant that the US Department of Justice viewed the possession of both companies as a violation of US antitrust laws.[1]
There were no registrations for photos of Jack Benny nor any photo registrations of them at all for MCA. Discovered were original copyrights on ads for General Foods (Jell-o was a long-time sponsor of Benny's show) and for Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer; these were filed circa 1930-1940. An original work by Sam Berman for NBC File:Como stafford supper club 1947.jpg of Benny, who had a radio program on the network at the time, was found for 1947, and a 1960 oil painting of Benny was copyrighted by the artist.
To be certain, another search was done at copyright.gov for "Jack Benny". The renewals found pertain to either Benny's television program episodes or films Benny appeared in. There were no photos listed at all. There's no evidence that the photo is or was under copyright.
↑MCA Inc.. Baker Library-Harvard University. Retrieved on July 5, 2014.
Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
{{Information |Description=Photo of Jack Benny preparing to enter the vault at his home. One aspect of Benny's comic persona was that of a miser who pinched every penny, driving a 1908 Maxwell auto to save money. The home vault was a long running jok...