October 6, 1993 will mark the 100th anniversary of the first U.S.
copyright registration of a motion picture. It was registered under the
title Edison Kinetoscopic Records, but there is no known copy of the
film, nor is it known what images it contained. That this significant first
in film history did not survive is not only symbolic of the fate of
thousands of films in the past, but also of that which may yet await the
majority of the moving images produced today. Although the chemical
composition of nitrate motion picture film is inherently unstable, in
many ways a greater threat to the survival of these films was the attitude
of producers and public alike. Films were considered as mere entertainment
with no importance beyond immediate commercial exploitation.
As a result of many years of deliberate destruction, neglect, fire,
and deterioration, over half of the motion pictures produced before
1951 no longer exist.
Publisher
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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