Public Domain Films

Here is a poster for the special Holiday Brunch of Santa Claus cartoons and shorts. You can read more about the show at my Café Roxy Blog. All films are in the public domain. This means nobody owns them and you can do anything you want with them, even show them on TV. The programs are intended to be shown in coffee houses, restaurants or bars while your patrons eat brunch on Saturday or Sunday. To help attract diner/viewers you can download and print the poster or display it on your own website. Some restaurants or an ice cream parlor could run the Santa Claus DVD round the clock through Christmas. I will be happy to make anyone a special poster that removes the word "Brunch" or put your name on the poster. Here are posters and programs for additional Cartoon Brunches.

You do need a large screen TV or projection TV system in, say, a party room. Showing films to attract diners, like football in a sports bar, is not a new idea, but take care NOT to just run films. Audiences quickly tire of "Just Films" running. Our programs look fun from the poster and have been tested on audiences. You should also not run copyrighted films without permission or royalty payments. THE LITTLE MERMAID may be 20 years old but it is just as much a copyright violation as showing THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG.

You should run public domain films because....

In a recent, highly-publicized incident, a woman was caught shooting her daughter's birthday party in a movie theater and accidentally filmed 3 minutes of the new Twilight movie. She was arrested and faces 3 years in jail for copyright infringement. This is totally ridiculous! Even the film's director pleaded for leniency. But from time to time the film industry wants to make an example of someone. Don't let them make an example of you for showing a 1940s Donald Duck cartoon that is still fully owned and protected by Walt Disney. You may think that if you don't advertise specific films so you can show anything, but what if you have an enemy who makes a simple phone call. The FBI must investigate such reports. What if your cartoon brunch event becomes popular with good word of mouth and someone reviews it in the newspaper or online, and the review mentions Disney or Bugs Bunny or showing UP!

Cartoon Brunch is a very real idea that is proving quite popular with audiences. Please visit my Café Roxy website to see the many public domain programs and posters available for your use. I will send out the first show free, so you have nothing to lose giving it a try. Cartoon Brunch programs on DVD cost a mere $20. You can email me at ron@caferoxy.com or fesfilms@aol.com to receive a free sample show.

Having said all that, which is hopefully useful information, let me add that this is not my main blog. Please visit
Café Roxy Blog where I write a weekly column about the progress of Cafe Roxy programs and public domain films. This is only my second rambling in Cartoon Brunch Blogspot. I started it to see if those search words "Cartoon Brunch" would show up in a google or yahoo search. So far not on Yahoo, but I spotted a Google link on Dec. 14 to this "Cartoon Brunch Blog."

So getting a free link from Google does work if you start a unique blog! However, who the heck is going to do a word search on Cartoon Brunch? It is not a term in general usage because few have heard of it as yet. People do search from time to time for public domain films which can be resold, shown on TV, used for stock footage, etc.

The Great Experiment
I have a second website for public domain films called Festival Films. I have often wondered if Festival Films would appear higher in the search results if I typed in "Public Domain Films" like a hundred time on my home page. I wonder if it works for blogs??? I wouldn't mind anyone clicking over to my website, so I'm going to try it here! You can stop reading now, or jump down to my earlier post. Only I will check in the weeks ahead to see if this blog post appears in a google search for public domain films. I suspect that it will based on the title of the blog entry: Public Domain Films. The question is whether it will appear high up in the search results because it contains "Public Domain Films" hundreds of times.

Public Domain Films are good. You can profit off using Public Domain Films. You do not need to pay royalties on Public Domain Films. No one owns Public Domain Films. The copyrights to Public Domain Films expired years ago. You may safely and legally show Public Domain Films from Festival Films and Café Roxy. Now lets get down to serious word repetition of, what was it again, oh yeah: Public Domain Films.

Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films.

Many Betty Boop cartoons are in the public domain. Not all of them. Only public domain Betty Boops are used in Cafe Roxy Cartoon Brunches.

Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films. Public Domain Films.

That's enough for now............

Thanks for visiting.

-- Ron Hall


Café Roxy Blog.

Cartoon Brunch!

Cartoon Brunch is the culmination of 9 months creating programs for Café Roxy. My progress creating over 150 special programs is documented week by week at: http://caferoxy.blogspot.com/ These programs of public domain features, shorts, cartoons and TV shows are designed to be shown in coffee houses, bars, restaurants, bowling alleys or wherever people gather to eat, drink and enjoy a little free entertainment.

Free Movies is the key note. Show films free on a large screen TV or projection TV system, advertise the movie shows on your website using the free posters that I also supply, and make money off the extra food and drink sales. The first program is free to see how (or if) it will work with your customers in your particular venue. Write me to request the free show at fesfilms@aol.com or ron@caferoxy.com.

Early reception to the Cartoon Brunch idea is incredible. Everyone loves weekend brunches and here is a family activity that families seem anxious to try. The interest and potential for quick growth is why I have created this blog for Cartoon Brunch. I may not post much at this site, but I noticed that my Café Roxy blog comes up when I do a google search on "Café Roxy." I don't know if anyone else in the world does a search for Café Roxy! Are more apt to google Cartoon Brunch? This entire blog spot is simply an experiment to see 1) if Cartoon Brunch gets listed by the search engines, 2) If anyone by chance looks for Cartoon Brunch, and 3) if anyone finds me by this circuitous route.

So if you have read this far, please visit my Café Roxy website and also the active Café Roxy Blog.

So what is Cartoon Brunch anyhoo? If you have an eating emporium, create a special brunch menu for Saturday and Sunday. If you have a coffee house, then coffee drinks and donuts may be enough. It may take some effort to put in a large screen TV connected to a DVD player. If you are a Sports Bar, all done! Now all you need is a free poster that you can take right off my cartoon poster page. Drag any poster to your computer desk top, click and it will be ready to print full size. You can add your show date info in empty area at the bottom. Display the poster a week in advance, talk up the Cartoon Brunch with all your regular customers, send out press releases, put the news on your own website, etc. Saturday rolls around and you start the cartoons at a set time. People come and go, order food, enjoy films and depart after they have seen enough. Each show runs one hour and repeats twice on a single DVD. You can re-start a show in seconds (every two hours) and let it run until the last customer departs.

I almost forgot to mention that you can buy specially crafted, "Original" Cartoon Brunch DVD programs from Café Roxy. These are more than cartoons slapped on a DVD. You can't get these in a dollar bin. The cartoons are selected for variety, history and fun. Black and white cartoons alternate with color ones. Each show starts with a Felix the Cat, Alice or Koko cartoon from the silent film era, so some education is involved. My lesson is: "Hey, these old cartoons are incredibly funny!" More than cartoons, each show includes "Matinee Memories," which are brief clips from the old Saturday Matinees like horror trailers, comedy tidbits, serial chapter endings, action excerpts, etc. All programs are carefully crafted and tested to prevent boredom and short attention span syndrome. If any segment does not grab a viewer, well they can talk or eat until the next course comes on screen six minutes later.

A Cartoon Brunch is currently running weekends in the Suburban World Theatre in the Uptown are of Minneapolis, and doing better every week as the word gets around.

A promo for the new Suburban World Cartoon Brunch is now available for viewing! It includes some nice interior shots of the theater plus a mini-brunch show with both cartoon snippets and "Matinee Memory" clips of a chapter ending for Flash Gordon and the ever-popular Giant Claw Trailer. My thanks to the Woody Woodpecker public domain cartoon "Pantry Panic" for the image of Woody eating! If you start holding Cartoon Brunches, you can add a link to this video on your website. I think it shows how much fun each show is. If you order six shows, you might persuade me to make you a video with your name and shots of your restaurant.

All films are in the public domain and may be legally shown in any situation whether or not admission is charged.

As I often ask in my main blog, if you put up the posters shown above, will anyone come? Are these film shows people want to see. My answer is YES, but you can test the waters by printing out the poster and showing it to your regulars.

Was this new blog really necessary. No way! I had done a Yahoo search for "Cartoon Brunch" a week ago and found nothing. After putting this post up I tried a new search on both Yahoo and Google. This time my several blog posts with the key words "Cartoon Brunch" are indeed listed, so I did not need to start a blog called Cartoon Brunch.

What I could use is a national article or fifteen minutes of fame highlighting this new concept as personified at the Suburban World weekend "Vintage Cartoon Breakfasts," as they currently call it. Cartoon Brunch is more concise and does get picked up by the search engines!

www.caferoxy.com