The international photographer (Jan-Dec 1935)

Font T h INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER April, 1935 \\ The Birth of a Nation In Retrospect By Seymour Stern (Written tor March, 1935 , Issue of the International Photographer) n IHIS month (March) the moving picture as a J fine art is twenty years old. The picture with which significant cinematic history begins is D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation; hence, the twentieth anniversary of this film affords an excellent occasion for a review of some of the qualities which have made it great. Aside from its signal artistic merit, the world-wide waves of purely external commotion which the picture stirred up form a teeming chapter in the annals of the cinema. It appeared twenty years ago as an unforeseen and unprecedented phenomenon in the old-fashioned movieworld of the day. With it the cinema became at one stroke a self-respecting art, and its first masterpiece was acclaimed by the critics. Simultaneously, the motion picture was once and for all delivered from the gaudy dominion of the vaudeville show, which at that time had a stranglehold upon it — and David Wark Griffith entered into that long and magnificent reign as the king of directors, which is still the envy of his successors. Since its official world premiere at the Liberty Theater in New York, The Birth of a Nation has grossed more than $18,000,000, permanently breaking all boxoffice records both of stage and screen. The cost of production having amounted to $500,000, it is evident how staggering were the net profits. Yet, neither his heroic efforts in the promotion and execution of the film, nor his splendid creative genius, reaped for Griffith more than a negligible share of these returns. The picture was sweepingly successful with all types of audiences throughout the country It took city after city by storm, dazing the immense audiences by its gigantic dimensions and its overpowering emotional content. Along with this miraculous popular appeal it provoked, by its treatment of the Negro question, a bitter controversy that was destined to keep it on exhibition for more than a decade to come. It was first shown on February 8, 1915, at Clune's Auditorium (now the Philharmonic), in Los Angeles; but at this time it was still known by the title of Thomas Dixon's book, from which the story had been taken : The Clans/nan. However, at a special showing at the Rose Gardens, New York, the change of the title came about in a curious fashion. Exhilarated by the avalanche of applause that rocked the auditorium during the climax, Dixon stood up and shouted to Griffith that the picture was too powerful to bear so tame a title. "Let's call it The Birth of a Nation," he said, and as this very idea was expressed in one of his own subtitles, Griffith readily agreed. Equipped with this new and imposing title, the picture was shown, several days later, to President Wilson and members of the Senate and the Supreme Court, at a private exhibition in the East Room of the White House. Distribution proved the great problem of the moment. In order to appreciate the difficulty which Griffith faced in connection with the release of his film, it is neces sary to realize that the picture was twelve reels long — three times the length of the longest American films (Griffith himself had made the the first feature-length film, the four-reel Judith of Bethulia) and four reels longer than the longest picture made up to that date, the Italian Cabiria. It was a cinematic enormity, a behemoth calculated to appall the conservative, commercial-minded stockholders and to frighten away all possible exhibitors. The latter flatly refused to handle the picture — not one could be found with sufficient courage and foresight to experiment with its release even in limited areas; the only step left to Griffith was, therefore, the audacious formation of his own distributing company. This step he took, and not inappropriately christened his venture: The Epoch Film Corporation. Now, seen in the light of historical perspective, it is clear that this was also the logical and only way by which Griffith could have insured the artistic integrity of his film — for to have forced it into the regular channels of commercial distribution, which at this time had already become standardized, would have been fatal to the 12,000 feet of celluloid in which The Birth of a Nation unreeled its varied splendors. Hence it was as an out-and-out independent— indeed, almost as an experimental — production that Griffith's film formally opened on March 3, 1915, at 8:05 P. M., in the Liberty Theatre, New York. Here it ran for 45 consecutive weeks at the unheard of admission fee of $2.00 top (it was the first film for which this price was charged) twice, and sometimes three times, daily (when special morning performances were held) ; and this while running simultaneously at the same top prices in other theaters throughout New York City and the immediate environs. At the end of the forty-fifth week, in January, 1916, The Birth of a Nation had created the historic record of 6,266 performances for this territory alone Astounding, that the cinema's most magnitudinous success should have come so early in its history! The picture's career throughout the rest of the country was as meteoric as this, though the added feature of recurrent and almost institutionalized revivals which later came to attend it, made it seem more like a brilliant planet than a meteor, permanently coursing through the cinematic skies. The initial record-breaking run at the Liberty Theater has been broken by other films only twice since — by The Covered Wagon, which ran 59 weeks at the Criterion Theater, New York, in 1923-24, and by The Big Parade, which ran 97 weeks at the Astor Theater in 1925-26-27. Millions of new film fans were attracted by it to the cinema during its phenomenal runs in this country and its equally phenomenal showings after the War in the capitals of all European countries except France, bv whose government the picture was official!) banned. These European successes have never been even remotely equalled by any other films with the possible exception of Eisenstein's Potemkin. Tn the Southern states of this country, where it aroused tumultuous waves of excitement among the people, it coursed in a fixed Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.