Guide to Motion Picture Catalogs:
Notes on Organization
The catalogs in this edition are arranged on the microfilm by company. All
catalogs issued by a given company, regardless of changes in its name, are collected under the
company heading and are presented in chronological order by date of publication or issue,
except in those few cases where difficulties in filming necessitated minor alterations in this
order. On a more general level, the companies are grouped into four broad categories: 1) producers and agents primarily active before 1900, 2) producers active after 1900, 3) equipment
manufacturers active after 1900, and 4) distributors active after 1900.
The Reel Notes
in this guide provide the reader with a complete list of descriptive
entries for each catalog; these entries are in the same order as material appears on the film. Each
entry contains the company name, catalog title and date, page length, any special information
about the condition of the copy, and an indication of each institution that has the item in its
collections. Each entry also gives the specific frame designation where the document begins.
Each frame of the microfilm is uniquely identified by an alpha-numeric
designation. Each company is assigned a unique letter-code, beginning with A, continuing
through Z, and then running from AA to FF. All frames with material under a company heading
are then continuously numbered from 001. The combination of letter-code and number
constitutes the frame designation, e.g., A-002 or J-963. Using these frame designations, the
reader of the Reel Notes can quickly identify the location of any catalog in the edition. These
designations appear at the top of each frame on the microfilm. For the convenience of the reader,
each frame also has a running head that identifies the company.
On the microfilm, the section for each company begins with a descriptive target that
lists entries for each of that company's catalogs. The entries are in the same order as they appear
on the film. The target entry for each catalog contains the same information as the entry in the
Reel Notes, except that frame designations are not indicated. In some instances, however, the
Reel Notes include corrections and additions made after the microfilming was done.
Both the Reel Notes and the targets list entries for each catalog that appears
on the microfilm. Certain conventions are followed in presenting information in the entries.
When the name of the company on the document differs from that under which it is listed, the
variant name is included in parentheses in front of the catalog title. Where information has been
editorially supplied, it is given in brackets. All institutions that hold copies of a particular
catalog are cited, and each is identified by standard abbreviations (see the Key to Listings of
Participating Museums, Archives, and Repositories
). The institution that is listed first is the one
that provided the catalog or photocopy used in this edition. In cases where an institution holds
only a photocopy, its designation appears in brackets. In a few cases, an original could not be
located for a particular catalog. In these cases, a photocopy was microfilmed, and in the entry for
the catalog this is indicated by an asterisk that appears next to the institutional designation.
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