Motion pictures, 1912-1939: Catalog of copyright entries

About this book

The volume is a reference work compiled by the Library of Congress Copyright Office that lists every motion‑picture registration filed between August 1912 and December 1939. Its opening pages explain that each entry is drawn from the Office’s record books, the original copyright applications, and any descriptive material that accompanied the film at the time of registration. The catalog records the title, claimant, production details, physical description, notes on source material, credits, copyright date and registration number, with additional indexes of names and series titles. Because the descriptive material varies in completeness, some entries are brief while others include extensive notes on source novels, alternate titles, or the film’s format. The work is organized alphabetically in three parts, Motion Pictures, Index, and Series List, providing a systematic, legal‑focused snapshot of early American and foreign film production.

The tone is formal and documentary, reflecting the bureaucratic purpose of the original series: to serve lawyers, publishers, librarians, and researchers needing reliable bibliographic data. Its language is dense, full of abbreviations such as LU, MP, and ©, and it assumes familiarity with copyright terminology. Scholars of film history, archivists tracing the provenance of silent and early sound titles, and legal professionals examining copyright status will find the catalog indispensable. It also appeals to enthusiasts who enjoy the minutiae of early cinema’s production and distribution networks, offering a window into the administrative side of the industry rather than narrative storytelling.

Opening lines

The information given in each entry for the motion pictures in this catalog has been obtained from the record books of the Copyright Office, the original application for the registration of the copyright claim, and descriptive material deposited with the application and film in the Copyright Office at the time of registration. In addition, when these sources indicated that a particular motion picture was based on a published book or story or on a previously existing dramatic work, the name of the author and the title of such work have been verified, when possible, by reference to the records of the Copyright Office and the Official Catalog of the Library of Congress. Information from other reference tools was supplied in the entry only in the case of missing numbers and titles of parts of a serial, and in the few cases when that occurred the number or title is given in brackets. …

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