Motion pictures, 1940-1949: Catalog of copyright entries

About this book

This volume is a comprehensive government‑compiled register of every motion‑picture work that received a U.S. copyright between 1940 and 1949. The opening pages explain that entries for the early half of the decade were drawn directly from the Copyright Office’s original applications and record books, while later entries were transcribed from card copies used in semi‑annual issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries. Each listing supplies the title, claimant, copyright date, registration number and, when available, production details such as length, format, color, sound, series affiliation, credits and cast. The catalog is organized into three alphabetic sections, main entries, an index of names, and a series list, each prefaced with thorough instructions on how to interpret the abbreviations and symbols that appear throughout. In total the work records 18,767 registrations, covering everything from animated shorts and newsreels to feature‑length dramas.

The text reads like a meticulous legal reference, employing the formal, matter‑of‑fact style of mid‑century bureaucratic documentation. It will appeal to film historians, archivists, and researchers who need reliable, item‑by‑item data on American cinema of the 1940s, as well as to copyright scholars tracing the evolution of registration practices. Anyone interested in the production context of classic studios, the provenance of obscure shorts, or the administrative history of intellectual‑property law will find the catalog’s precise entries and exhaustive indexing an invaluable resource.

Opening lines

The information given in the entries for the period 1940–1946 was obtained from the record books of the Copyright Office, the original applications for the registration of the copyright claims, and the descriptive material deposited with the applications and films at the time of registration. For the period 1947–1949, the information was transcribed (with slight changes in the order of the material, for the sake of consistency) from card copy previously used in the preparation of the semiannual issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, Parts 12–13, Motion Pictures. Beginning with July 1, 1949, the title of Parts 12–13 was changed to Motion Pictures and Filmstrips and filmstrips registered in Class J were listed. These filmstrips, however, have been omitted from the cumulative catalog. …

Keep reading free · chapter 1 needs no account