Rogers v. Grimaldi is forerunner of Olivia DeHavilland's Recent Lawsuit...

...both of which were unsuccessful...

(...I'm pretty sure this is Olivia in this pic, but... might be Joan Fontaine as well... well, for our purposes here, let's just say it's either Olivia, or her sister portraying Olivia... ) ***EDIT: Chief GingerHistorian Monica Kelly has informed that the lady in question is neither Olivia DeHavilland OR Joan Fontaine, but some...OTHER woman... so, let's just note in finality that this is a lady portraying Olivia DeHavilland... or perhaps Joan Fontaine... er.... yeah. 

In 1986, Federico Fellini's film "Ginger and Fred" was released, and set for distribution in the United States; however, Ginger (the REAL one) was NOT amused. She sued distributor M-G-M and Italian film producer Federico Fellini on the grounds of defamation, right of publicity, and her 'trademark rights', which is known as the Lanham Act (which was somewhat ironically signed into law by her fellow Independence citizen, President Harry Truman).

Ginger did not win the case, with the court noting that "The Lanham Act does not bar a minimally relevant use of a celebrity's name in the title of an artistic work where the title does not explicitly denote authorship, sponsorship, or endorsement by the celebrity or explicitly mislead as to content."
The case did spawn a new 'legal term', The Rogers Test; in general, one must show that the use of an image, name, or other 'feature' of an entity is of a 'minimal nature', such that the entity would not be adversely affected by said use.  OK - it's getting pretty tedious in here, so, I'm gonna go all Huey on y'all...

The image shown above for the film in question is QUITE misleading as to whether this is actually Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, at least to someone who isn't all that familiar with Ginger and Fred (at least they got the name billing right ;-) ) - of course, there's no question for Gingerologists as to the 'phony' pic above, but... how about someone who is looking for new films, with no idea about what Ginger and Fred looks like (pretty hard to believe, but... work with me here), and assumes this is a true Rogers - Astaire film? Anyway, Ginger lost the case, which doesn't sit well with me... HOWEVER... the general concept of 'how much can one use an image before it is either confusing to the public, and/or defamatory to the person's public image' is not quite as easy as it seems... the Ol' First Amendment comes into play...

(...Yeah, I know Abe didn't have much to do with the First Amendment, but... he probably would have if he would have been back in 1787... and Ginger looks so cool here... interesting she didn't have a pic beside a Washington statue, as she is in George's lineage, it is said (I would like to run that generational line down for verification, but... I'm assuming it's true...))

 ...There are quite a few instances where it makes sense that an image can be used in a 'general' sense without citing copyright infringement...otherwise, it would be purt near impossible to produce ANY movies, books, music, etc. - Lord knows that blogs would be in BIG trouble... An interesting example from right here in South Gingerville is that of the University of Alabama v. New Life Art, who produced paintings of 'great plays' in Alabama football games...  ultimately, the paintings were not considered a 'trademark infringement'. Check out around halfway down the case study, where it cites The Rogers Test. (BTW, the owner of New Life Art (Daniel A. Moore), had his kids graduate from the same school (private) as the one mine go to... so... cool, eh?)

So, the Olivia suit also generally fell victim to The Rogers Test - here's the Variety article on it, which, while not specifically citing The Rogers Test, looks to have the same reasoning described for the dismissal of the case. Even though Olivia claims she was portrayed in a demeaning manner by the FX Networks production "Feud!", it appears that unless one makes false claims against you (which IS kinda what happened here), the First Amendment overrides any grievances... in Olivia's case, the character is specifically HER, whereas the character(s) in the Ginger and Fred film were not actually supposed to be Ginger (or Fred), but a couple who 'emulated' the pair...

 With that... that is THAT.

hope y'all are having a great week... and Keep It Gingery... oh yes, be certain you also pass The Rogers Test as well... ;-)

Hu
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Ginger Rogers Festival is a GO!!! Tickets now available...

Hey, y'all!!!

First off, long time no hear, eh? Hu has been pretty busy lately, which is not a great excuse, but... it's the one I have nevertheless...  ANYWAY, thanks to all who have been checking on the site time-to-time... keeping up with folks on FB, so we're all still Gingery, right?

now, the BIG news!!!

The Ginger Rogers Festival is set in Independence Missouri for the weekend of July 14-15, 2018!!! tickets are now available for purchase HERE.  Miss Missouri Marge Padgitt and her crew have done a magnificent job in the restoration of Ginger's birth house on 100 West Moore Street... and there will be many great presentations and events during the weekend, including keynote speaker Roberta Olden, who should need no introduction to a Gingerologist...   ...BTW, that pic is from yours truly, on GingerTennial Day, July 16, 2011... met Kat and Annaliese there, and got to speak with the owner a bit...

...a few years later, the owner contacted me and wanted to know if I wanted to purchase the house, or knew of anyone who did... was an interesting proposal, but would have been impossible to maintain it from 500+ miles away...but I was worried it fall into the wrong hands, as far as someone who wouldn't appreciate the historic significance of the house.  That's why I am SO glad Marge ended up with it, and has brought it into fully restored status!

I've made my reservations - hope to see y'all there! Only 75 slots available, so... get to it!!!

AND, hope to get more GingerPosts going...

Until then,

KIG, Y'all!!!

Hu
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