Anthony Slide was born in Birmingham, England on November 7, 1944 and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Ashton, Birmingham. In his 2002 book Silent Players, Anthony Slide remarked "My first involvement in film in the mid-1960's was as honorary secretary of the Society for Film History Research, a group of dedicated scholars and non-scholars concerned with the more esoteric aspects of motion picture history." In 1968 he co-founded The Silent Picture, the only quarterly seriously committed to the study of the art and history of the silent film. He served as its editor and publisher until it ceased operation in 1974. Anthony Slide organized Britain's first silent film festival at the London National Film Theater in 1970 as part of the London Film Festival. From 1968 until 1971 he was assistant editor of International Film Guide . In 1970 he published his first book, Early American Cinema . Anthony Slide came to the United States in 1971 as a Louis B. Mayer Research Associate with the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film Studies in Beverly Hills, California. He would then move to the Institute's Washington D.C. headquarters and set up the American Film Institute Catalog: Feature Films, 1911-1920 and by 1973 become their associate film archivist in charge of the acquisition and preservation of over 2,000 films in the Library of Congress National Film collection. Beginning in 1975 until 1980, Anthony Slide served as resident film historian at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in Los Angeles. He coordinated its educational and cultural activities; headed the National Film Information Service and handled the in-house exhibits, film programs and tributes. He continued to work part-time through 1986 at the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library, cataloging its special collections holdings. Between 1986 and 1990 he was co-owner of Producers Library Service, one of the two oldest and largest independent stock footage libraries in the United States with more than six million feet of film. Since 1990, Anthony Slide has been an independent film scholar, archivist and consultant. His numerous writing, editing and consultant credits are listed in the enclosed vitae. He has authored over 70 books and edited over 150 others. (Excerpted from Anthony Slide's vitae.)
From the guide to the Anthony Slide Collection, 1964-2004, 1980s, (Bowling Green State University - Browne Popular Culture Library)
