L. C. card, 53–60032
For sale by the Register of Copyrights,
Library of Congress, Washington 25, D. C.
Price $10
Table of Contents
Preface
Motion Pictures, 1940–1949, is a cumulative catalog listing works registered in the Copyright Office in Classes L and M from January 1, 1940, through December 31, 1949. It continues the series of cumulative catalogs which began in 1951 with Motion Pictures, 1912–1939. A third volume, Motion Pictures, 1894–1912, is also being published (though not as a part of the series); it lists works copyrighted prior to 1912 and identified as motion pictures by Howard Lamarr Walls. These three volumes, together with the current issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, Parts 12–13, Motion Pictures and Filmstrips, comprise an unbroken record of the copyright registration of motion pictures and, also, an extensive although not complete record of motion picture production in the United States through the entire history of the industry.
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. The card copy was compared with the record books and the file of original applications to make certain that all works registered during the period were recorded in the catalog. At the same time any errors in the names of the claimants or the dates of publication found in the card copy were corrected.