Are Original Sally Rand Revealing Photos In The Public Domain?

I've dug into vintage-photo copyright more than a few times, and the short practical truth is: some original Sally Rand images might be in the public domain, but many are still under copyright or have legal complications that make using them risky without checking first.

Start with the basics: a photograph's copyright usually belongs to whoever took the picture (or the employer if it was a work-for-hire), not the person pictured. For the United States, whether an individual photo is public domain depends on when it was published, whether copyright was properly registered/renewed, and whether it was ever officially released. Many images published decades ago are still protected unless their copyrights lapsed or were explicitly dedicated to the public domain. Also watch for museum or archive claims — institutions sometimes digitize photos and attach their own usage rules, though simple scans of public-domain two-dimensional works generally can’t get new copyrights (see the Bridgeman-type reasoning used by many libraries).

On top of copyright, there’s the right of publicity and privacy: even if a photo is technically public domain, commercial uses (advertising, merchandise) can be limited by state post-mortem publicity laws or by estate control in some places. If you want to reproduce a particular revealing Sally Rand photo, I usually check the photo’s publication date, the photographer/credit line, the Library of Congress and Copyright Office records, and the holding archive’s rights statement before using it. Personally, I love digging through old press photos and discovering which ones have slipped into the public domain — it feels like treasure hunting, but I still hedge my bets with careful checks before posting or selling anything.

Here’s the no-nonsense checklist I use: identify the photo’s publication date and credited photographer; search the U.S. Copyright Catalog for registration/renewal entries; check the holding institution (Library of Congress, state archives, museum) for a rights statement; and look on Wikimedia Commons for explicit public-domain tags and sources. If the image was created by a U.S. government photographer it’s automatically public domain, but that’s uncommon for stage publicity shots.

Remember also that even when copyright has lapsed, post-mortem publicity rights or archive terms might restrict commercial exploitation in some states. If you only want to share an image in a blog post for commentary, fair use may apply in some jurisdictions, but commercial reproduction is riskier. My rule of thumb: assume protection until I can prove otherwise, and treasure the few verified public-domain finds like a careful collector. I enjoy the sleuthing involved — it feels part detective work, part history lesson, and I always find something fascinating along the way.

If you’re hunting for images online, I get excited at the thought of stumbling across a legitimately public-domain Sally Rand photograph — there are some out there, but plenty more that aren’t free to reuse. I often start at Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress; their file pages frequently list copyright status or at least give publication details. If a Commons file is tagged 'public domain' and cites a clear source, that’s promising. But don’t assume every portrait or revealing shot labeled as 'vintage' is safe to use.

A lot of the modern stock and archival services (Getty, Alamy, Bridge) will license Sally Rand photos because they still control rights. Newspapers and magazines that originally published the photos might have retained copyrights, and for images published mid-20th century you’ll need to check renewal records — some were renewed and remain protected, others weren’t and have fallen into public domain. Also keep an eye on local publicity laws: selling prints with a deceased performer’s image can be a different legal question than simply posting for commentary. I usually treat images as copyrighted until I can document otherwise; that saves headaches. Even so, when I’ve found a legit public-domain Sally Rand image, it’s thrilling — those fan-dance shots carry so much theatrical history.