In 1929 J.M. Barrie gave the rights to Peter Pan to which London hospital?

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland but moved to London, where he wrote a number of successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (included in The Little White Bird), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a "fairy play" about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland.

In April 1929, Barrie gave the copyright of the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a leading children's hospital in London.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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William Laughlin

J.M.Barrie died on 19 June, 1937. In general, works published after 1977 will not fall into the public domain until 70 years after the death of author. Because of this elapsed time span, the hospital was in danger of losing the money-making ownership to Peter Pan. According to The Guardian, "For Great Ormond Street, however, a special UK legal exception makes the situation less dramatic than it might have been. The various uses of Peter Pan that have given the hospital money throughout most of the years since Barrie's death in 1937, will continue in the UK at least thanks to former prime minister Jim Callaghan. Encouraged by his wife Audrey, who was a chairwoman of Great Ormond Street, Callaghan successfully campaigned to get the UK's 1988 copyright act amended to give the hospital the unique right to royalties from stage performances of Peter Pan and any adaptation of the play forever. That right continues in the UK beyond December 31, 2007 but elsewhere in Europe nothing will be owed on any stage performance, film, TV show or book. 'Just like any other major classic [such as] Alice in Wonderland, or Dickens, or anything like that, it's in the public domain, so people can publish it,' says Christine De Poortere, Peter Pan director at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity."

Ian Swindale

Great Ormond Street is not merely a leading children's hospital in London but a world leading hospital

Evelyn Bauc Hope Fairgrieve

J M Barrie my great uncle on my dad's family. proud of him.

George Oliver Prince

Good for him, makes me admire him even more

Eileen

Great to know the stories behind questions.

Trevor Craddy

Didn't know but Great Ormond Street is a specialist children's hospital so it had to be that.

Paul Vickers

Got that.

lmjmom

Got it.

Louise C.

Thank you spg cool dude, great trivia and because of that, I did not bite the dust with this answer :)

Wendy Emlinger

williamrlaughlin, Thanks for the update. I'd hoped they kept rights to it and it's nice to know in the UK, at least, they did. Tis a charitable contribution after all.