author
Howard Lamarr Walls
b. 1912
Best known for documenting the earliest years of American film, this careful researcher helped preserve a huge slice of cinema history on the page. His work remains a useful doorway into silent-era copyright records and early motion-picture production.
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, born in 1912, was an American film researcher and writer whose best-known work is Motion Pictures, 1894-1912, published in 1953. That volume identified early motion pictures from U.S. Copyright Office records and became an important reference for the study of pioneer-era film.
Available library and catalog records also connect him with The Copyright Handbook for Fine and Applied Arts (1963), showing a second strand in his work: explaining copyright in practical terms for artists and creators. Some reference sources further list him with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which fits the strong focus his career had on film history and documentation.
Reliable biographical detail on his personal life appears to be limited online, so the published record tells the clearest story: he was a diligent compiler of film and copyright information whose books helped make specialized knowledge easier to find and use.