DescriptionThe Stardusters with May McKim approx 1940.jpg
English: Early publicity photo of the Stardusters with May McKim, posing onstage before an NBC Radio microphone
Date
Photo has no dating information. May McKim, the female artist in the photograph, worked with the Stardusters from about 1939 until replaced by June Hutton in 1941[1], which dates the picture to 1940 plus or minus a year. Ms McKim can be identified through this and several other photographs posted on her daughter's website and Facebook pages as seen in these links:
[2][3]
This photograph belonged to Starduster vocalist Dick Wylder, my father. Other online sources include, as noted in date info, May McKim's daughter, singer-songwriter Laura-May Azpiazu of Honolulu, HI, who posted it on her own and other websites in 2012
Author
Photographer-Ray Lee Jackson, New York, NY, USA
Other versions
The photographer's name is well within the margins of the photo, and there are no visible copyright markings, as can be seen in this image and in the links above.
It was created for publicity purposes-distribution to the media. The image was meant to bring attention and publicity for the artists pictured, the same as the publicity photos for actors and actresses in the film industry were intended to do.
(Having been published without copyright notice in the United States between 1923 and 1977 also places it in the public domain there.)
Film production expert Eve Light Honthaner in The Complete Film Production Handbook, (Focal Press, 2001 p. 211.):
"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."
"There is a vast body of photographs, including but not limited to publicity stills, that have no notice as to who may have created them." (The Professional Photographer's Legal Handbook By Nancy E. Wolff, Allworth Communications, 2007, p. 55.)
Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.