author
Howard Lamarr Walls
b. 1912
Best known for preserving the earliest years of American film history, this mid-century researcher turned copyright records into a valuable map of cinema's beginnings. His work remains a useful starting point for readers curious about the silent era and the business side of early moviemaking.
1 Audiobook
Motion Pictures, 1894-1912 Identified from the Records of the United States Copyright Office
by Howard Lamarr Walls
About the author
Howard Lamarr Walls was an American writer and researcher, born in 1912. He is chiefly known for Motion Pictures, 1894-1912, a reference work issued by the Library of Congress Copyright Office in 1953 and later made widely available through Project Gutenberg.
That book focuses on films from the pioneer period of the motion picture industry and identifies works from U.S. copyright records. In plain terms, Walls helped organize scattered early-film information into a form that historians, collectors, and curious readers could actually use.
Very little biographical information about him is easy to confirm from reliable online sources, so most surviving attention centers on his published work rather than his personal life. He is also credited with The Copyright Handbook for Fine and Applied Arts, suggesting a broader interest in copyright and documentation.