Motion Pictures 1894 to 1912 (1953)

Preface The first public showing of motion pictures for a fee took place at the Holland Brothers' Kinetoscope Parlor, 1155 Broadway, New York City, April 14, 1894. The making of motion pictures soon became a highly competitive business, and producers were eager to obtain some sort of protection for their works. The copyright law at that time did not provide for the registration of motion pictures as such, and was not amended to do so until August 24, 1912. The only course open to pioneer producers was to register their works as photographs and hope that the desired protection had been obtained. This became the practice in the new industry. Before 1900, all items were recorded in sequence as they were received and registered (or "entered" as the law stated prior to 1909) in the Copyright Office. The different types of material were dis- tinguished from one another only by a descriptive word or phrase; i. e., photograph, book, musical composition, etc. On January 1, 1900, the Copy- right Office established Classes A, B, C, and D. Class D, Graphic Arts and Miscellaneous, included photographs. On January 1, 1901, photographs were placed in a class of their own—Class H. On March 4, 1909, photographs were assigned to Class J and included both published and unpub- lished works. All motion pictures copyrighted as photographs from 1894 to 1912, the period covered by this catalog, fall correspondingly into these cate- gories. They are recorded in over five hundred official copyright record books, each of which con- tains about two thousand entries. To compile the catalog it was necessary to search approximately one million entries, and to determine—by title, or copyright claimant, or both—which items recorded as photographs did, or did not, represent motion pictures. The task was sizable and presented many difficulties; but I hope that, with the margin for error customarily allotted even to the best of com- pilers, I have produced an acceptable list. And, while Dr. Luther H. Evans, Librarian of Congress, and Mr. Arthur Fisher, the Register of Copyrights, have made it possible for this work to be produced, it is only fair to say that the responsibility for omis- sions which may later be discovered is certainly mine. The first problem encountered, that of identify- ing the work, was the biggest. Then, although the information in the record books was acceptable in the light of requirements for copyright registra- tion, it was found all too frequently to be unsatis- factory from the standpoint of a full description or a complete identification of the motion picture. Lengths of films were seldom given; claimants had not always made it clear as to whether numbers accompanying titles stood for parts, scenes, reels, or production numbers; some films, copyrighted as separate entities, were obviously only parts of a unified subject which the claimant had failed to furnish; the articles in the titles were often omitted; and, for the pre-1900 years, it was not always clear as to whether certain titles referred to a Kineograph (thumb book), a Mutoscope reel, or a 35mm film. There were numerous other deficiencies, such as misspelling of names or words and omission of words other than articles from titles. A complete solution to the complexities and limitations existing in the project would have re- quired motion picture research, but such research is beyond the scope or function of the Copyright Office, and of the project for which I was em- ployed. Hence, the record is passed along to you precisely as it stands with minor additions and cor- VII