Re: [ARSCLIST] Who Owns the Live Music of Days Gone By? (NY Times 03/12)

[Roger and Allison Kulp <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>]

There are convincing reproductions of the flour sacks out there,but as far as I know,nobody has ever fully documented the history of the names,and how they avoided copyright/trademark infringements.


                                     Roger

Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: King Buscuit Flower Hour was hippy era take off on Sonny Boy Williamson's (Rice Miller's) famous 
"King Biscuit Flour" program that ran in I think Arkansas in the 30's or 40's. I don't have Robert 
Palmer's "Deep Blues" at hand right now but it details the Rice Miller program. When DIR 
Broadcasting or its forebearer developed the King Biscuit Flower Hour, they made a nice play on the 
name, tying in hippy Flower Power.

BTW, old original King Biscuit Flour sacks and postcards are very collectible if you don't mind 
seriously racist artwork.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger and Allison Kulp" 
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Who Owns the Live Music of Days Gone By? (NY Times 03/12)


> Does anybody know the history of the names "King Biscuit Flower" vs "King Biscuit Flour",and 
> indeed if the former is still running new programs ? Did they just change the spelling to avoid 
> legal troubles  ?
>
> I myself,own six King Biscuit Flower Hour programs.I used to see them fairly regularly in 
> "Goldmine".I tried to sell a couple,in 2002 on eBay,and I was told DIR Broadcasting (Do they still 
> exist ?) wanted them pulled under VeRO rules.The King Biscuit Flower Hour 
> http://www.kingbiscuit.com/ site,says they only broadcast from the archives.
>
> Whatever happened to International Grocers,who actually made the flour ?
>
>                                          Roger
>
> "Steven C. Barr(x)"  wrote: ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dave Nolan"
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/technology/12video.html?
>> _r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
>>
>> Who Owns the Live Music of Days Gone By?
>>
>> By ROBERT LEVINE
>> Published: March 12, 2007
>>
>> When it began in 1973, the "King Biscuit Flower Hour" was very much of its
>> time.
>
> First...there is also a major battle about the name, "King Biscuit Flower/
> Flour!" The original King Biscuit Flour (the sponsor's name) program was
> a live blues radio program of the postwar era, featuring "Sonny Boy
> Williamson" (II-Rice Miller)...broadcast in the Helena, Arkansas area
> on a low-power station. These days, Helena presents a "blues festival"
> which, until corporate lawyers intervened, was called the "King Biscuit
> Flour Festival." The lawyers, of course, felt the festival should pay
> gazillions of dollars for using the name. Meanwhile, the original King
> Flour Mills are long since defunct...and didn't assign their name to
> anybody, insofar as is known! This has generated a "take sides" battle
> in the world of blues...
>
> Second...since the audio portion of any surviving video/film archives
> is probably covered under the current copyright law...which places
> sound recordings fixed since 1/1/72 (and previously, albeit indirectly...)
> under pseudo-eternal copyright (it currently lapses on 1/1/2067, but
> a few pen strokes and an approving vote can extend that for the life
> of the planet...) it is possible that the video version could be
> legally made available...sans audio! ("We regret being unable to
> provide the audio portion of this item, but it is under copyright...").
>
> Meanwhile (in the USA) about 99.9% of "the music of days gone by"
> continues in its "dog in the manger" limbo, under the ownership
> of huge multinational firms ("You can't reissue it, because it's
> ours...and we won't reissue it, because our accounting department
> doesn't foresee a large enough profit...!").
>
> Fortunately, my hundred-or-so cassettes I made of live performances
> of my blues band back in 1986-88 aren't in dispute...nobody else
> WANTS the dommed things...!
>
> Steven C. Barr
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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> with theYahoo! Search weather shortcut.
> 



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