Life and Lillian Gish (1932)

ii4 Life and Lillian Gish Southern mansion; or a hospital; Huck cocked an eye, shifted his quid, and said, "Aw right," and it was so. As a Civil War spectacle, "The Birth of a Nation" will probably never be outdone. The battle-field, with its miles of hand-to-hand fighting; the assembling of the Klan— hundreds of them in white robes, mounted;—Lincoln's assassination—these things were more impressive than even the reality could have been, for no one of them was ever viewed in its entirety, or with deliberation, and it seems impossible that they should ever have been more real. Stirring, appropriate music, fitted by Griffith to the scenes, added a final thrill. The negro aspects of the picture were not entirely fortunate . . . within the facts, but hardly within the proprieties. It attached no blame to the negro for the abuses of Reconstruction, but presented him in an un- favorable light. Negro political domination in the South was an evil growing out of the war—a war and an evil for which the negro was the last person to be held re- sponsible, the last person to be reminded of them. "The Clansman," as it. was first called, was shown pub- licly at Clune's Auditorium, Los Angeles, on the evening of February 8, 1915, all the film colony of Los Angeles being present. Reports had been spread that there would be negro rioting, and the police were out in force. There was no trouble. The theatre was jammed. Here and there in the audience were negroes. Following this presentation, a print of the picture was hurried to Washington, and shown to President Wilson, members of the Cabinet, and their families. A few days later, February 20, this print was run in New York, for