A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes

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While not a towering work of literature, the first set of comic strips featuring Popeye also are joining the public domain. Popeye first made an appearance in Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929. Initially just a side character for an adventure arc featuring gambling and sailing, Popeye rose quickly to fame. By February 4, 1931 the Thimble Theatre would feature a subtitle, Starring Popeye, before being renamed just Popeye later on.

Below is a further selection of works from the year:

Rope by Patrick Hamilton
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do by E. B. White and James Thurber
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
Dive into Archive’s literary collection to unearth more classics from 1929.

Films



Last year Mickey Mouse made a splash with Steamboat Willie cruising into the public domain. This year TWELVE more Mickey shorts join to flesh out the notable events of Mickey’s young career. He speaks his first words in The Karnival Kid, he wears gloves for the first time in The Opry House, and Ub Iwerks leaves the studio at year’s end with Wild Waves. Disney animation also kickstarted their Silly Symphonies series with the haunting tales The Skeleton Dance and Hell’s Bells.

In 1929, if your film wanted to have any attention it rcs data sound. Musical films were everywhere with The Broadway Melody winning the second ever Best Picture award at the Oscars, The Hollywood Revue introducing the world to “Singin’ in the Rain”, and the Marx Brothers making their big screen debut with The Cocoanuts.

Below is a list of more significant films from the year:

All Americans (dir. Joseph Santley)
Blackmail (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Lambchops (dir. Murray Roth)
The Wild Party (dir. Dorothy Arzner)
Spite Marriage (dir. Buster Keaton and Edward Sedgwick)
Say It with Songs (dir. Lloyd Bacon)
Hallelujah (dir. King Vidor)
Welcome Danger (dir. Clyde Bruckman and Malcolm St. Clair)
The Black Watch (dir. John Ford)
The first five Silly Symphonies (dir. Walt Disney or Ub Iwerks)
Our film remix contest is ongoing until January 17, 2025, so please upload your submissions! Read more here.