Motion pictures and filmstrips, 1972

In Short

This official federal catalog documents the comprehensive copyright registrations for American motion pictures and filmstrips deposited during the first half of 1972. Issued by the Library of Congress, the work systematically registers educational slide decks, industrial training loops, television series episodes, and major theatrical releases alongside twenty-eight-year renewal claims for works originally copyrighted in the mid-1940s. Each entry presents essential bibliographical metadata, including running times, film formats, production credits, copyright claimants, and registration dates. The volume functions as an authoritative legal record that establishes prima facie evidence in court while serving as a preserved snapshot of mid-twentieth-century media culture. It endures as an indispensable historical inventory of the educational tools, entertainment industries, and visual media landscape of its era.

The Story

The volume opens with a formal administrative foundation established by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. Citing statutory authority under Title 17 of the United States Code, the publication defines its mandate to publish catalog entries that serve as prima facie evidence of copyright registration in court. The opening preface outlines the statutory mechanics of copyright administration, detailing ordering procedures through the Superintendent of Documents, subscription pricing, search fees for ownership transfers, and the requirement for physical deposit copies.

Following this statutory opening, the catalog moves directly into its primary content: an expansive, alphabetical index of new motion pictures and filmstrips registered between January and June 1972. This section depicts a vivid panorama of American instructional, corporate, and entertainment media. Classroom filmstrips and audiovisual loops dominate the early entries, offering structured guidance on fundamental subjects. Audiovisual Services at Arizona State University introduces techniques for cataloging non-book materials and contact printing slides, while Eye Gate House and Educational Direction present multi-part series on basic laboratory tools like Bunsen burners and triple beam balances. Leonard Peck Productions provides silent educational films on globe skills, while other specialized producers release instructional slide sets on electrical repair, basketmaking, and mechanical drawing.

Healthcare and technical instruction form a substantial portion of the ongoing catalog record. Series such as Directions in Education for Nursing Through Technology document meticulous instructional modules covering preoperative procedures, fluid electrolytes, pediatric medication, and post-operative care. Educational Research Council of America contributes environmental awareness modules like Tuning Into My Environment, while specialized industrial films examine workplace hazards like overhead pipe rack fires. Industrial firms like the Royal Bank of Canada offer personal finance films on budgeting, while companies like General Motors and Chrysler register employee safety and technical service programs. Simultaneously, publishers like Guidance Associates of Pleasantville release educational filmstrips designed to foster moral development and social awareness in young audiences, tackling consumer literacy, urban challenges, personal truth, and adolescent relationships.

Interspersed among these instructional tools are the commercial television programs and theatrical motion pictures of the era. Network television productions figure prominently, capturing specific episode titles, writers, directors, and cast lists for series like I Dream of Jeannie, Bearcats!, Men at Law, Adam-12, Ironside, and The Men from Shiloh. Major theatrical motion pictures appear with complete production credits, including Cliff Robertson’s rodeo feature J. W. Coop, W. R. Burnett’s crime story Cool Breeze, Henry Jaglom’s A Safe Place, and international thrillers like Henri Verneuil’s The Burglars. Short scientific documentations of historic events, such as Thorne Films' Super 8 records of the first hydrogen bomb explosion and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt, sit alongside local history studies and environmental surveys.

The narrative arc of the catalogue then transitions from contemporary 1972 registrations into the renewal registrations section, turning back twenty-eight years to protect works copyrighted in 1944 and 1945. This historical section secures extended protection for wartime and post-war cinema classics. Famous animated shorts from Vitaphone Corporation and Walt Disney Productions—featuring iconic characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Goofy—appear alongside episodic serials like Columbia’s Brenda Starr, Reporter and feature films such as Son of Lassie, Roughly Speaking, and Rhapsody in Blue. Short subjects covering sports, musical performances, and travelogues are renewed alongside wartime propaganda cartoons and comedy shorts starring Woody Woodpecker.

The volume reaches its structural culmination in a comprehensive, cross-referenced index of claimants, producing companies, and individual creators. This master index connects literary authors like Jean Giraudoux, David Goodis, and Patricia Highsmith with the media adapters, corporate sponsors, and educational institutions that brought their concepts to screen. Finally, the catalog concludes with official government printing notices and meticulous transcriber notes that correct typographical errors, corporate titles, and registration dates, ensuring that the federal government maintains an unassailable record of visual media ownership.

How It Unfolds

The statutory foundation The volume opens with the governing statutory rules that mandate federal copyright administration under Title 17 of the United States Code. The Register of Copyrights outlines subscription pricing through the Superintendent of Documents, search fees for tracking ownership transfers, and mandatory deposit regulations for physical film prints. This introductory section establishes that every entry cataloged within the volume carries permanent legal standing as prima facie evidence in state and federal court proceedings regarding intellectual property claims.

Instructional and technical media The primary listings begin with a vast collection of educational filmstrips, laboratory guides, and vocational training slide sets distributed to schools and workplaces. Educational producers like Arizona State University, Eye Gate House, and Guidance Associates register materials covering chemistry apparatus, globe reading skills, and youth ethics. Detailed medical and nursing series systematically detail procedural guidelines for clinical nursing, fluid balance management, hospital admission, emergency care, and pediatric medicine.

Commercial television and broadcast culture The catalog moves into prime-time television broadcasts, recording formal copyright protection for episodic network series produced across the United States. Series such as I Dream of Jeannie, Bearcats!, Men at Law, and The Men from Shiloh log individual episode titles, telecast dates, writers, directors, and starring cast members. Public television stations and university media centers simultaneously register biographical documentary profiles celebrating regional painters, sculptors, and classical musicians.

Theatrical cinema and international releases The contemporary section incorporates feature-length motion pictures distributed to commercial theaters across the nation during early 1972. Major Hollywood studio releases, independent cinema projects like Henry Jaglom's A Safe Place, and crime adaptations like Cool Breeze appear with complete production credits. European co-productions, imported foreign dramas, and historical short documentaries receive equal bibliographical documentation alongside mainstream commercial American cinema.

Wartime renewals and classic animation The catalog turns back twenty-eight years to record formal copyright renewal registrations for works originally registered during 1944 and 1945. Major entertainment companies secure extended legal protection for classic wartime animated shorts featuring beloved characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Goofy. Multi-reel feature motion pictures, historical newsreels, and cliffhanger theatrical serials such as Brenda Starr, Reporter are formally entered into the permanent federal legal archive.

The cross-referenced registry and administrative closure The volume concludes with an exhaustive, cross-referenced index connecting corporate claimants, original authors, and producing entities to their respective titles. Industrial titans like General Motors and Gillette sit alongside celebrated authors such as David Goodis, Jean Giraudoux, and Patricia Highsmith. A final transcriber note details precise corrections to typographical errors, registration numbers, and corporate names across the historical federal record.

The People

The Catalog features several key institutional and creative figures whose competing priorities shape the registry:

The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress seeks to create an unassailable public record of visual media ownership under federal law. Operating under statutory mandates, it must catalogue thousands of physical submissions accurately while establishing legal evidence for federal courts. Through precise administrative standards and indexing, it transforms a chaotic stream of media deposits into an authoritative public registry. The office maintains administrative vigilance over all copyright registrations.

Educational Publishers and Institutional Producers—including Guidance Associates, Eye Gate House, Thorne Films, and Arizona State University—aim to standardize classroom instruction and technical training across America. Facing a rapidly evolving educational market, they produce specialized filmstrips and Super 8 loop films covering everything from darkroom techniques to adolescent ethics. By formally registering their titles, these creators secure their intellectual property while embedding their instructional frameworks into American schools and hospitals. Their instructional productions actively reshape modern curricula and classroom experiences.

Commercial Filmmakers and Television Producers—represented by figures like actor-director Cliff Robertson, writer Sidney Sheldon, novelist W. R. Burnett, and director Henry Jaglom—seek commercial distribution and copyright protection for popular entertainment. Balancing artistic intent against broadcast schedules and box office risks, they register works ranging from prime-time comedies to experimental cinema. Registration secures their financial interests and solidifies their artistic contributions within the national culture. They navigate shifting audience tastes while building durable creative legacies.

Legacy Studios and Renewal Claimants—such as Vitaphone Corporation, Walt Disney Productions, and Columbia Pictures—strive to preserve the commercial value of their historical catalogs created decades earlier. Faced with copyright expiration twenty-eight years after initial publication, these corporations submit renewal claims for wartime animated shorts, newsreels, and serials like Brenda Starr, Reporter. Their actions successfully extend legal control over foundational 1940s cinema, ensuring ongoing commercial monetization. By filing renewals, they fortify their corporate archives against public domain expiration.

In Its Own Voice

In establishing the statutory authority and legal standing of the federal publication, the opening preface highlights how registration entries function as authoritative documentation within judicial proceedings:

"The current catalog of copyright entries and the index volumes herein provided for shall be admitted in any court as prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein as regards any copyright registration."

To clarify procedural boundaries regarding property rights, the catalog preface explicitly details how inquiries concerning secondary transfers of ownership are processed by federal officials:

"Information as to changes of copyright ownership is not included in the Catalog, but a search of the Copyright Office Assignments and Related Documents Indexes may be requested from the Register of Copyrights."

The introductory guide further describes the comprehensive set of bibliographical and legal data points systematically compiled for every deposited film print:

"The record of each copyright registration listed in the Catalog includes a description of the work copyrighted and data relating to the copyright claim (the name of the copyright claimant as given in the application for registration, the copyright date, the copyright registration number, etc.)."

What It's Really About

Beneath its formal administrative layout, the catalog reflects the institutional codification of mid-century American visual culture. The volume operates as a central node where commercial entertainment, corporate communication, and educational pedagogy intersect under federal authority. By cataloging classroom filmstrips alongside prime-time television broadcasts and Hollywood feature films, the text implicitly argues that all moving-image formats, regardless of audience or distribution channel, possess legal and historical significance worthy of federal preservation.

Furthermore, the tension between contemporary registrations from 1972 and renewal claims from 1944–1945 illuminates how intellectual property laws govern cultural memory. Corporate entities actively manage their back catalogs to extend commercial monopolies and protect valuable brands, while educational publishers use new media technologies like Super 8 film loops to standardize moral and vocational instruction in American schools. Ultimately, the volume poses fundamental questions about who controls the visual artifacts of modern society, how technical media shapes public knowledge, and what mechanisms ensure that ephemeral screen culture survives as permanent legal record.

Why Read It Today

Film historians, archival researchers, and students of twentieth-century American culture will find this volume a uniquely revealing historical source. Reading through its dense, highly structured pages feels like stepping into a vast government archive where the high art, popular entertainment, and educational ideals of 1972 are frozen in time. The juxtaposition of prime-time television listings, instructional nursing loops, industrial safety reels, and classic Looney Tunes shorts provides an unfiltered cross-section of what American society was watching, producing, and preserving during early 1972.

The reading experience is admittedly demanding and dry. The volume consists entirely of statutory notices, legal disclaimers, abbreviated bibliographical entries, registration numbers, and administrative cross-references. It lacks standard narrative prose, fictional character development, or critical commentary, requiring readers to piece together historical context from technical metadata and producer credits. Furthermore, the inclusion of period instructional materials—such as filmstrips on youth discipline, moral conduct, and traditional gender roles—reflects the social attitudes and institutional norms of its era.

Despite these formal challenges, what stays with the reader is a newfound appreciation for the sheer scale and complexity of federal copyright infrastructure. The catalog demonstrates how legal bureaucracy quietly safeguards cultural heritage, tracking ownership rights across decades of technological change. For anyone seeking to understand how mid-century media was created, copyrighted, cataloged, and preserved, this statutory volume serves as an invaluable primary document that grounds film and television history in tangible legal records.