Motion Pictures 1894 to 1912 (1953)

rections. Misspellings and similar minor errors have been dealt with by corrections written within brackets. In several instances, where titles of fac- tual films are ambiguous as to persons, places, or things, it has been possible to draw on first-hand knowledge to enhance their meaning and signifi- cance. This information is also presented, within brackets, with a view to increasing as much as pos- sible the practical value of the catalog. A general correlation of the films under supplied subject headings was, as in the case of extensive research, considered beyond the scope of the project. Such grouping has been left to those whose special in- terest may require it. To facilitate such further research, the Claimant Index provides a chronologi- cal listing of titles by year to bring them together in their significant time relationships. After an examination of the record, it appears that the earliest motion picture copyrighted was Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, January 7, 1894. The claimant was William Kermedy Laurie Dick- son, West Orange, New Jersey. This film, popu- larly known in film circles as "Fred Ott's Sneeze," and famous as one of the films which launched the modem motion picture industry, now has added fame as the first to be registered for copyright. There were only three other entries to the end of 1894. For some inexplicable reason, there is a total gap from the end of 1894 to October 23, 1896, at which date the registrations substantially began and continued. One highly important irregular- ity in this connection must be pointed out; there is evidence that the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, in its 1902 and 1903 registra- tions, submitted, along with current material, a considerable backlog of pictures produced from late 1895 to 1902. An appreciable amount of re- search would have to be done to clarify the wide discrepancies between the production and copy- right dates of this company. There is no evidence that other claimants followed this practice. Not all motion pictures produced from 1894 to 1912 appear in the copyright record. However, the overwhelming majority do—representing nearly every important advance made in the first 18 years of the medium. The record pertaining to the newsreel type of film affords some surprise. The entries for these are rather profuse and im- portant from 1896 to 1907, after which there are practically no entries during the period under con- sideration. It is clear that by 1908 fictional enter- tainment had become an almost exclusive business with the industry. Although the entries in the record books of the Copyright Office do not indicate the exact physical nature of items submitted by claimants as copy- right deposits, an investigation of the Library of Congress holdings of this material revealed a het- erogeneous collection. Claimants submitted de- posits indiscriminately and variously in the follow- ing forms: Mutoscope reels; sample 35mm frames from every scene in a motion picture, in the form of positive photographic paper prints or on cellu- loid ; photographic stills or enlargements—one each of representative, but not all, scenes from a motion picture; photographs of the sets used in a motion picture; Kineographs (popularly known as thumb books or flip books) ; and, most important of all, complete motion pictures printed on 35mm posi- tive photographic paper rolls. About half of the films listed in this catalog are represented in the Library's collection of paper prints. Other films are available in other collec- tions or are likely to be located in the future in for- gotten storage places. An ingenious way has been found to rephotograph the paper prints on cellu- loid by the optical printing process in order that they may be put to current use. Here is a cross section of the nonfictional film titles, s'^lected at random from this early collection: "Street Scene, Chicago" (1897); "Troop Ships for the Philippines" (1898); "Burial of the Maine Victims" (1898); "Admiral Dewey Landing at Gibraltar" (1899); "Sharkey-Jeffries Fight" (1899); "Automobile Parade" (1900); "Boers Bringing in British Prisoners" (1900); "President McKinley Taking Oath of OflSce" (1901); "Presi- dent McKinley's Funeral Cortege at Washing- ton, D.C." (1901); "Anna Held" (1902); "Prince- ton and Yale Football Game" (1903); "Opening Ceremonies, New York Subway" (1904); "Senator Mark Hanna" (1904) ; "Inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt" (1905); "Scenes and Inci- dents, Russo-Japanese Peace Conference, Ports- vm