To Catch a Joke Thief, or Copyrighting Vaudeville Acts in the New York Clipper Registry

Abstract

In the early part of the twentieth century, the trade publication the New York Clipper created a way for vaudeville artists to claim priority over acts, songs, plays, jokes, and even concepts. The initiative tells us a great deal about the limited legal options facing vaudevillians at the time period as well as the dubious nature of codifying non-dramatic performance acts as clearly defined, own-able, and protectable intellectual property. Drawing on newspaper clippings from Billboard, Variety, and the New York Clipper, as well as rare documents from the American Comedy Archives, this paper offers a look at the American press’s attempt to intervene. It also provides an exploration of a number of rare jokes, gags, novelty acts over which vaudevillians claimed exclusive rights. Ultimately, if the newspapers could not actually protect the performers, they did manage to preserve acts that would otherwise be lost in history.