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PreGriffith Days
By
FAITH SERVICE
Who made Richard Barthelmess? People say, D. W.. Griffith. But did he? Read what he did before Griffith ever saw him — and decide for yourself
Photograph by Victor Georg, N. Y.
WHO “made” Richard Barthelmess?
Griffith? God? The Public? Himself? (Not in their order of importance.)
This seems to be, of late, a moot question.
The answer most popularly postulated is D. W. Griffith, v As confirmation irrefutable is cited the immemorial “Chinky” of “Broken Blossoms” . . . Cheng Yuen, with his “tears of all the ages” and his spirit shining like a grail thru his yellow flesh. “That,” say some, “was the beginning of Dick Barthelmess . . . Griffith made him.”
This question has more than an individual significance. Can anybody “make” anybody else? Are we mere shapeless clay at the mercy of the Potter’s hands? Are we cast at last into our final mold by the chance of the genius touch or the mischance of mediocrity?
What if the hand of the Potter shakes rather than makes ?
Who “made” Richard Barthel
mess ?
Did Griffith take the shapeless clay and, overnight, evolve the “Chinky” ?
It might seem so, casually thinking. A little talk there was of him, and then came Mr. Griffith with his “Broken Blossoms” and lo, “Chinky” was on every tongue, prosed, poesied and praised the length and breadth of Filmland.
“See the new star Griffith has made,” they said . . .
“My Griffith days,” said Mr. Barthelmess on an occasion, “were the happiest days of my life. But . . .”
But there were pre-Griffith days.
Days too little thought about in the
At the top of the page is the young Barthelmess as he appeared in “War Brides.” Above, as himself. And to the left, with Marguerite Clark in “Bab’s B urglar,” Vintage of , 1917
( Eight etn)