# Motion Pictures, 1912-1939

An official American copyright catalog of motion pictures from August 24, 1912 to the end of 1939, containing 51,112 entries, along with some data about the films
Motion Pictures
1912–1939
CATALOG OF COPYRIGHT ENTRIES Cumulative Series
Motion Pictures 1912–1939
1951
COPYRIGHT OFFICE ☆ THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
L. C. card, 51–60018
For sale by the Register of Copyrights, Library of Congress, Washington 25, D. C. Price $18
Table of Contents
* Page
* Motion Pictures, 1912–1939................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................2
* Index................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................985
* Series List................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................1229
Preface
Motion Pictures, 1912–1939, is a cumulative catalog listing works registered in the Copyright Office in Classes L and M between August 24, 1912, and December 31, 1939. Prior to that period motion pictures were registered in the category of photographs. These earlier works have not been included in this catalog because of the difficulty of identifying the motion pictures so registered.
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. The descriptive material mentioned above is not available for all films. The film itself could not be examined because, in the case of published motion pictures, it was the policy to return the film to the claimant as soon as registration was completed, and in the case of unpublished motion pictures only representative prints taken from the film were deposited.
Each entry contains information which 1) is descriptive of the film, and 2) indentifies the copyright claimant and the author of the motion picture as given in the application, the date on which the term of copyright began, and the copyright registration number. The descriptive portion of the entries varies considerably in fullness, depending on the completeness of the information contained in the sources used.
In the case of each entry the name of the copyright claimant is that given at the time of registration. Any information relating to renewal copyrights or to subsequent changes of ownership recorded in the Copyright Office can be ascertained upon request and upon payment of the statutory search fee to the Register of Copyrights. In addition, information relating to renewal copyrights can be secured by referring to the Catalog of Copyright Entries covering the period in which the renewal registration was made.
In the case of unpublished works the entry contains the date of the deposit of the title, description, and prints. For published works the ​entry contains the date of publication, rather than the date of the deposit of the copies (or copy, as the case may be). Deposit of the published copies has, however, been made as shown by the records in the Copyright Office.
This catalog is a part of the Catalog of Copyright Entries: Cumulative Series. The publication of these catalogs is authorized by sections 210 and 211 of Title 17 of the United States Code. Section 210 provides in part: "The current catalog of copyright entries and the index volumes herein provided for shall be admitted in any court as prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein as regards any copyright registration."
The purpose of these catalogs is three-fold: 1) to meet the administrative needs of the Copyright Office; 2) to provide the legal profession, publishers, authors, and others interested in copyright easily consulted, compact index volumes listing the registrations in the several classes of works; and 3) to produce reference tools useful to libraries, to industry, and to research personnel by making available in printed form bibliographical information on record in the Copyright Office, much of which is not available elsewhere.
Of the same nature as the present Catalog of Copyright Entries: Cumulative Series, but issued before the series was established, is the two-volume work, Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States, 1870–1916. Supplemental volumes to this earlier work and to the present work are under consideration, as well as cumulative volumes for other classes of material.
Catalog entries for motion pictures registered subsequent to 1939 and for copyright renewals which have been or are presently being registered are available in the issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries, covering the particular period of registration. A description (including price and instructions for ordering) of each part of the present Third Series, published semiannually, and of other publications of the Copyright Office, will be found in a list at the back of this volume.
The Copyright Office welcomes inquiries, suggestions, and comments on the content and organization of any of its catalogs. Please address communications of this nature to the Chief of the Cataloging Division, Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington 25, D. C.
Copyright Registrations of Motion Pictures
August 24, 1912–December 31, 1939
| Class L, Motion-picture photoplays | 35,301 |
| Class M, Motion pictures other than photoplays | 15,811 |
| Total | 51,112 |
Class M contains many animated cartoons and newsreels as well as nontheatrical films. The letter P or U has been added to the class symbol preceding the registration number for each entry to indicate whether the respective film was registered as a published or as an unpublished work.
How To Use This Catalog
This catalog consists of three parts: Motion Pictures, 1912–1939, which is a list of main entries under title; an Index of names; and a Series List. Each part is arranged alphabetically.
Motion Pictures, 1912-1939
The elements which constitute each entry in this section are given below in the order in which they appear. The name of the claimant, copyright date, and registration number are always given; other information varies in completeness depending upon its applicability to the film being described and the amount of the data available.
* Title. Main title, followed, as applicable, by subtitle, translated title, alternate title, and series title. Cross-references are made for alternate and translated titles. Series titles are given in the Series List. In those instances when the name of a performer precedes the title of the film, the name has been dropped unless it is an essential part of the title. For example: Sarah Bernhardt in Queen Elizabeth. The entry in this catalog is given under the title Queen Elizabeth, with a cross-reference from the title above. An entry under the performer's name in inverted form appears in the Index. Similar index entries are made when the performer's name is an essential part of the title of the film; for example: Giovanni Martinelli Singing Celeste Aida by Giuseppe Verdi.
* Production statement. The name of the producing company is given if it differs from that of the claimant (see 8 below). The name of a foreign producing company is followed by the city or country in which the company is located. Trade names such as Imp, Rex, First National, etc., are given in brief form. The names of companies or persons responsible for release or distribution follow next.
* Date. The year date appearing in the copyright date (see 9 below) is given here. It is preceded by the copyright symbol © when it applies to an unpublished motion picture. For serials, inclusive dates are given.
* Sponsor. Following the date is the name of the organization (other than the producing company) which is responsible for the production of the motion picture or which cooperates with the producing company in the making of the picture.
* Physical description. A full physical description contains information relating to 1) the length of the film, given in running time, footage, or number of reels; 2) color or black and white versions; 3) sound or silent versions; 4) width of the film. Few of the entries in this catalog contain full physical descriptions, because the records of the Copyright Office were incomplete on these points. Filmstrips are distinguished by the use of the term frames, preceded by a numeral indicating the number of frames.
* Notes. Certain information which helps describe the motion picture more completely is given in the form of notes:
** Information is supplied relating to the novel, drama, or other work upon which a picture is based. Included are the title and author of such work when known. The name of the author is given as it appears in the Copyright Office records, followed by the established form of the author's real name, enclosed in brackets, when a pseudonym has been used.
** When a single motion picture is made up of a number of separately titled parts, these titles are listed.
** The title under which a picture was previously released either in the United States or abroad is given. ​
** When two separate pictures are included on a single reel, and only one is registered, the title of the other is given, if known, after the phrase, "On same reel with."
* Credits. The name of each person associated with the production of the picture is given, preceded in each case by a term indicating the nature of his contribution; i. e., producer, supervisor, director, writer, music composer, etc. For some of the earlier pictures the nature of the contribution is not available for all persons. In such cases the names of these persons appear first in the list of credits.
* Claimant and author of motion picture. Following the copyright symbol © the name of the copyright claimant is given as it appears in the application for registration. Address (city or country) follows the name if the claimant is also a foreign producing company. The name of the author of the photoplay as given in the application follows next when it differs from that of the claimant. The presence of two asterisks before the copyright symbol indicates that the name of the author was not stated in the application.
* Copyright date. For published motion pictures the date of publication is given. For unpublished motion pictures the date, or dates, of receipt in the Copyright Office of the title, description, and prints taken from the motion picture are given.
* The Copyright registration number is preceded by 1) the class letter L (motion-picture photoplays) or M (motion pictures other than photoplays), and 2) the letter P or U designating, respectively, published and unpublished works.
In the case of serial entries information relating to the entire serial precedes that relating to individual numbers or episodes of the serial. When the name, or the form of the name, of the copyright claimant of a serial changes, each name precedes its respective entries. The copyright symbol © always appears immediately before both the name of the copyright claimant and the copyright date. When duplicate numbers appear in a sequence of issues, arrangement of the duplicates is by copyright date. Omission of an item in a sequence does not necessarily mean that the item has not been registered for copyright; it may be included in the catalog under its specific title if the source information did not give the serial title.
Index
The second section of this catalog is a list of the names of the persons and organizations associated with the production of the motion pictures listed in the first section, and of the authors of the novels, dramas, or other works upon which these motion pictures have been based. The names of the persons listed in the statements of credits in the main entries are not included. The name of each person or organization is used as a heading, the form of which is either that appearing in the Official Catalog of the Library of Congress, or that most frequently found in the records of the Copyright Office. Similar names have been listed separately unless it is clear that they identify the same person or organization. Cross-references from different forms of the same name and from pseudonyms are included in the list.
Brief forms of names, particularly in the case of trade names, appear in the list when it has not been possible to identify exactly the full form of the name.
Under each heading are listed alphabetically the titles of the motion pictures associated with it, together with their respective year dates, or, for serials, the word serial, enclosed in parentheses, in lieu of a date. An asterisk preceding the title indicates that the name appearing in the heading is that of the copyright claimant.
Series List
The third section of this catalog lists the series titles which are contained in the main entries. The titles of the series are frequently given in varying forms. For each series, therefore, an established form, based on that most frequently used, is given as the heading. Following the heading are references to other series titles which appear to be related because the names are similar and the claimants are the same.
​Listed below the headings are, first, the names of the claimants, and, second, the titles of the motion pictures. Dates of the respective motion pictures follow the titles. In the case of serials the word serial, enclosed in parentheses, is used in lieu of date.
The lists of titles under each series may be incomplete for the period covered by this catalog, because only those titles have been included which are so identified in the sources used in compiling this catalog. For some motion pictures two series titles are given, both of which are entered separately, since it has not been possible to differentiate between main series and subseries from the information available.
Abbreviations and Symbols
The following list includes abbreviations and symbols used in this catalog with specific copyright or bibliographic meanings. Definitions are not given for abbreviations in common use.
| a.k.a. | —also known as |
| b&w | —black and white |
| © | —copyright symbol |
| d.b.a. | —doing business as |
| descr. | —description |
| ft. | —feet |
| LP | —published motion-picture photoplays |
| LU | —unpublished motion-picture photoplays |
| min. | —minutes |
| mm | —millimeters |
| MP | —published motion pictures other than photoplays |
| MU | —unpublished motion pictures other than photoplays |
| pseud. | —pseudonym |
| sd. | —sound |
| si. | —silent |
| t.a. | —trading as |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse