Ramsaye started his professional career as an engineer, but switched to journalism when he joined the staff of the
Kansas City Star and Times in 1905. In the following decade, he worked on newspapers in
Leavenworth, Kansas, and in
Omaha,
St. Paul, Minnesota, and Chicago. The motion picture industry was in its infancy when he joined
Mutual Film Corporation in 1915. While at Mutual, he produced some
Charlie Chaplin comedies and founded
Screen Telegram, which achieved conspicuous success during
World War I. He was one of the founding members of the
Associated Motion Picture Advertisers. until March 1925 as
The Romantic History of the Motion Picture (and excerpts appearing in the
Film Daily Yearbook), which was later published in book-form as
A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture Through 1925. As one of the first extensive overviews of the development of the movie industry, it was highly influential on
cinema historiography (at least in the United States) and remained in print until late in the 20th century.
Thomas Edison's endorsement is included in the book. and
H. L. Mencken spoke highly of it. In 1931, Ramsaye joined the
Quigley Publishing Company as editor of the
Motion Picture Herald, a post he held until 1941. Subsequently, he lectured on motion pictures and contributed articles to various encyclopedias and year books. He continued his association with Quigley as consulting editor and author of a weekly column for the
Herald until his death in 1954. ==References==