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Super fascinating for copyright nerds because the original Holmes run is still partially locked down. https://twitter.com/THR/status/1275785583806353408
Did you know that for a while, movies couldn't be copyrighted as one media item? Each frame had to be copyrighted. To establish their claims, some companies would submit paper prints, that is, 35mm photo paper reels.
Paper is more stable than nitrate film, so in some cases, the paper prints are all that survive. The quality isn't as high as film, obviously, but they're certainly better than nothing.
William S. Hart's first feature, THE BARGAIN, survives on paper.
William S. Hart's first feature, THE BARGAIN, survives on paper.
A more common method was to slap logos wherever they would fit. The IMP logo is behind Lottie Pickford's hat in THE DREAM.
The "logo on a stick" thing did not prove to be as popular.
Colored title cards were used to mark original prints. (The duping machines would create a black and white copy. This copy could be dipped in one tinting color but snipping out the titles, tinting them a different color and gluing them back together would have been a task.)
It worked the other way too. Unscrupulous early filmmakers (redundant, I know) would use murky legal waters to cash in. An unauthorized version of BEN-HUR helped establish the rules for screen adaptations. https://moviessilently.com/2016/03/29/silent-movie-myth-the-first-ben-hur-film-was-made-in-1907-and-all-subsequent-versions-are-remakes/
And the craze for Irish-Jewish wedding comedies (totally a thing) helped establish the rules for cliches, tropes and stereotypes. (Very difficult to defend a copyright claim if the play is entirely populated by stock characters, as it turns out.)
https://moviessilently.com/2015/01/21/shamrock-rose-1927-silent-film-review/
https://moviessilently.com/2015/01/21/shamrock-rose-1927-silent-film-review/
Library of Congress has the paper print of THE BARGAIN all scanned and viewable, if you want to see it.
