The Movie Copyrighted as a Photo

The story as it is told

In 1903 a short film from Edison's studio changed what movies could be. The Great Train Robbery was the first Western, the story goes, and the first movie to tell a real story: a gang of outlaws, a train, a hold-up.

The last shot is the one everybody remembers. An outlaw turns, looks straight into the camera, and fires at the audience. People in the seats ducked and screamed.

What we can confirm

The film's fame is earned, but two of its famous claims are legends. It was not the first Western, and it was not the first film with a plot; Wikipedia's article on the film calls both inaccurate legends that grew up during the twentieth century. The panicking audience is harder to pin down. AFI traces it only to a 2013 newspaper article, and the Edison catalogue says merely, "The resulting excitement is great."

Edwin S. Porter made the film for the Edison Manufacturing Company in November 1903. The Library of Congress record says it was shot at Edison's New York studio, in Essex County Park in New Jersey, and along the Lackawanna Railroad, probably between Denville and Dover. The copyright record reads: "Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 1Dec1903; H38748." AFI's catalog finds an advertisement for the film in the New York Clipper of Dec 12, 1903, and showings at the Comedy Theatre in New York in the week of Dec 19, 1903.

The "H" in that number matters. In 1903 the copyright law did not mention motion pictures, and it did not until August 24, 1912. The Copyright Office's own 1953 catalog of early films explains: "The only course open to pioneer producers was to register their works as photographs and hope that the desired protection had been obtained." From January 1, 1901, photographs were Class H. Many producers deposited "complete motion pictures printed on 35mm positive photographic paper rolls."

Edison had just won the right to do this in court. In Edison v. Lubin, decided April 20, 1903, a federal appeals court ruled on Edison's film of the launch of Kaiser Wilhelm's yacht Meteor, a film of 4,500 pictures on a single 300-foot strip. A lower court had held that each frame would have to be registered separately. The appeals court disagreed: "To require each of numerous undistinguishable pictures to be individually copyrighted... would, in effect, be to require copyright of many pictures to protect a single one." It reversed and ruled for Edison.

The Edison catalog sold the film as fourteen scenes. Scene XIV was "A life size picture of Barnes, leader of the outlaw band, taking aim and firing point blank at the audience. The resulting excitement is great. This scene can be used to begin or end the picture." Exhibitors chose where the most famous shot went. The Library of Congress identifies the actor as Justus D. Barnes, "head bandit."

AFI says that by June 1904 it was Edison's most popular film, and the title was soon reused. The Copyright Office catalog lists, a few lines above Edison's entry, a different "GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY" registered by S. Lubin on June 27, 1904. The defendant who had just lost the Meteor case was also a Lubin, named in the opinion as Sigmund.

The paper deposits outlived much of the celluloid. The Library of Congress says that because the law did not cover films until 1912, producers sent paper contact prints, and "In most instances they remain the only record of early films."

The facts

• Copyright Thomas A. Edison, 1Dec1903, H38748; Justus D. Barnes as head bandit; shot November 1903 in New York and New Jersey. LoC catalog record, loc.gov
• Same registration in the Copyright Office's list; Lubin's "GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY" © 27June1904, H47533. Walls, Motion Pictures 1894 to 1912 (Copyright Office, 1953), PG 56966
• Films had to be registered as photographs until Aug 24, 1912; Class H from 1901; deposits on paper rolls. Walls, preface
• Edison v. Lubin, 122 F. 240 (3d Cir., decided April 20, 1903). OpenJurist
• Scene XIV text; Clipper ad Dec 12, 1903; Comedy Theatre, week of Dec 19, 1903. AFI Catalog
• Paper prints are often the only record. LoC essay

Related: What enters the public domain in 2027

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