Public domain explanation

• It is unlikely that this image was secured with copyright protection, as stated by film industry experts:

• "Publicity photos (star headshots) have traditionally not been copyrighted. Since they are disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain, and therefore clearance by the studio that produced them is not necessary." — Eve Light Honthaner, The Complete Film Production Handbook, (Focal Press, 2001 p. 211)
• "According to the old copyright act, such production stills were not automatically copyrighted as part of the film and required separate copyrights as photographic stills ... Most studios have never bothered to copyright these stills because they were happy to see them pass into the public domain, to be used by as many people in as many publications as possible." — Gerald Mast in Film Study and the Copyright Law (1989, p. 87)

• If there is any chance that the photograph was copyrighted, under the terms of the 1909 Copyright Act (which was law until 1978) it would have had to be renewed 28 years after publication. A search for copyright renewal records of 1973 ([1],[2]) reveal no trace that this occurred.