How To Use This Catalog

This catalog consists of three parts: Motion Pictures, 1950-1959, which is a list of main entries under title; an Index of names; and a Series List. Each part is arranged alphabetically.

Motion Pictures, 1950-1959

The items which constitute each entry in this section are given below in the order in which they appear. The title, name of the claimant, copyright date, and registration number are always given; other items are included if applicable to the motion picture and available.

1. Title. Main title, followed by subtitle, translated title, and alternate title. Cross-references are made for alternate and translated titles.

2. Production statement. The name of the producing company, i.e., the company responsible for the existence of the picture, follows the title. In some instances two companies or organizations are concerned with the production of a film, one with the physical production, i.e., photographing, editing, sound recording, etc., the other with planning, distributing, and sponsoring the motion picture. In such case the company concerned with physical production is named first, followed by the preposition for and the name of the other company. The name of a foreign producing company is followed by the name of the city or country in which it is located. When the name of a person or organization is given in the records of the Copyright Office preceded by the phrase presented by, the name, together with the phrase, follows the date (see item 3 below). The name of the releasing company appears following the producer, when it differs from the producer.

3. Date. For published works of the period 1950-1953, the year date of copyright, preceded by a lower case c (e.g., c1951), follows the production statement. If a production date different from the copyright year date is given in the records, this information follows the copyright date. In all other entries date information follows the copyright symbol (see item 6b below).

4. Physical description. A full physical description contains information relating to 1) the length of the film, given in running time, footage, number of reels or frames; 2) color or black and white versions; 3) name of color process when stated in the deposited materials; 4) sound or silent versions; 5) width of the film.

5. Notes. Certain information available in the deposited materials is given in the form of notes:

a. Terms identifying special optical or sound systems.

b. The title of the series to which a motion picture belongs.

c. Phrases further identifying persons or organizations connected with the production of a motion picture, such as Warner Bros.-First National picture, Frank Capra production, etc.

d. Information relating to other titles by which the motion picture is known, to other versions, to related material to be used in connection with the showing of the motion picture, or to the source material on which the motion picture is based, including the authors of such material when available.

e. Names of additional authors specified on the application which do not appear elsewhere in the entry.

f. Name of the employer in the case of a work made for hire, if so named in the application, together with the names of the employees when known.

g. Information contained in the application which relates to the registration of an earlier version of the work.

h. Brief statement of the new matter on which copyright is claimed, preceded by the abbreviation “NM,” if this information is given in the application and is not indicated elsewhere in the entry.

6. Copyright claimant, date, and registration number. This statement begins with the copyright symbol ©, and continues with the following:

a. Name of the copyright claimant as it is given in the application.

b. The date of the beginning of the term of copyright: for published works, the date of publication as given in the application; for unpublished works, the date on which the last of all the items required to complete registration (i.e., description and representative prints, application, and fee) was received in the Copyright Office.

c. The registration number, preceded by the respective class symbol (L, motion-picture photoplays; M, motion pictures other than photoplays) and, also, immediately after the class symbol, the letter P to designate a published work, or U, an unpublished work.

For published works, whenever it is necessary to indicate a variation between the information given in the application and in the copy of the work with respect to the claimant’s name or date of publication, the data from the application are given first, followed by the phrase “in notice” and the data given in the work: e.g., © Richard Roe & Co.; 19Jan59 (in notice: 1958).

In the case of motion pictures produced as serials, information relating to the entire serial precedes that relating to the individual numbers or episodes in the serial. More than one entry of a serial is made whenever the descriptive information varies for different parts of the serial. Individual issues of a serial are listed in numerical sequence or by date, or alphabetically by issue title. In those cases where the name or form of name of the claimant has changed, the issues claimed under a specific name are listed below it. The copyright symbol © always appears immediately before the name of the copyright claimant and the copyright date whenever they are in separate statements. 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 in the Copyright Office, since it may be included in the catalog under its specific title.

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Index

The second section of this catalog lists the names of the persons and organizations associated with the production of the motion pictures described in the main section and of the authors of the novels, dramas, or other works upon which these motion pictures are based. 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.

Under each name the titles of the motion pictures associated with it are listed alphabetically.

Series List

The third section of this catalog lists the series titles which are given in the main entries. These frequently appear in varying forms. For each series, therefore, an established form, based on the one most frequently used, is given in the heading. Following the heading are references to other series titles which seem 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, each followed by its date. In the case of serials, the word serial, enclosed in parentheses, is used in lieu of a 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 appear in the published catalogs for this period. For some motion pictures two series titles are given, each of which is entered separately, since the information available makes it impossible to differentiate between main series and subseries.