[78-L] O/T Films

[Malcolm Rockwell]

Throughout this thread, and even on the website given
http://yukon-news.com/arts/a-different-sort-of-klondike-treasure/
I have yet to see a list of what films and partials survived, or any 
other solid data.
Malcolm

*******

On 8/4/2014 2:00 AM, David Pierce wrote:
> In a report for the Library of Congress published last year, I documented
> the fate of one category of films - those from the silent era. "The
> Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912–1929" can be downloaded for
> free from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub158
>
> The report discusses why most films are lost and many of the reasons that a
> small proportion survive.
>
> David Pierce
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 7:50 AM, Elizabeth McLeod <
> lizmcl at midcoast.com.invalid> wrote:
>
>> For as long as the films were under copyright, the content belonged to the
>> studio that originated it, regardless of who posessed the physical artifact
>> of the film. That remains true of "lost films" today -- if the studio that
>> created them renewed copyrights, they still own the productions, even if no
>> physical copies exist. If somebody turns up a complete copy of "Gold
>> Diggers
>> of Broadway" tomorrow, for example, they will have no legal right to
>> exhibit
>> or otherwise exploit it because the production still belongs to Warner
>> Bros,
>> which renewed the copyright in 1957. Because it was under copyright when
>> the
>> copyright revisions of 1976 were enacted, it remains under copyright today.
>>
>> Films that weren't renewed because their originating studios were out of
>> business when the initial 28-year term expired would have probably fallen
>> into the public domain, assuming there were no underlying story rights that
>> could be claimed by the heirs of the original author or some such. The
>> Dawson City find would be all public domain anyway, since with few
>> exceptions all American-made films prior to 1923 have been ruled PD.
>>
>> It wasn't uncommon for theatrical film exchanges to sell used film reels to
>> manufacturers of toy projectors. These reels would be cut into 60 foot
>> lengths and these clips would be packaged in little metal cans and sold
>> along with the toy projectors for home use without regard for fire safety.
>> It was even possible for consumers to buy entire 1000-foot reels of used
>> film from mail order companies -- well into the 1930s the Johnson Smith
>> novelty catalog listed film reels. "No choice of subject, all reels shipped
>> by Railway Express." These sales did not include the right to exhibit the
>> reels for profit, and may explain why random bits and pieces of "lost
>> films"
>> sometimes turn up in attics and garages with no explanation for how they
>> got
>> there.
>>
>> Elizabeth
>>
>>
>> On 8/4/14 6:21 AM, "Julian Vein" <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Despite what one of them said, there was no real environmental
>>> consideration given to how the films were to be disposed of, no official
>>> policy of any sort. No concerns about pollution or the poisoning of the
>>> water table etc. "Out of sight, out of mind" seems to have been the
>>> philosophy of the day.
>>>
>>> The other question is who became the legal owner of the film if the
>>> distributor didn't want it back?
>>>
>>>        Julian Vein
>>>