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46
GRIFFITH TURNS A PAGE
The picture was, of course, The Birth of a X at ion. Opening at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles, on February 8, 1915, it revealed not only exciting entertainment, but also a document of what, today, would be called social significance. Griffith was born in Kentucky, January 3, 1875, the son of a Confederate colonel, and was inevitably a fervid Southern advocate. His picture, a lurid indictment of the carpetbag era following the War Between the States (you must not say "Civil War" in pictures), and an openly sympathetic chronicle of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, could not fail to arouse heated controversy. Such liberals as Jane Addams, Charles Eliot, and Booker T. Washington attacked it because of its bias and its attempt to belittle the principles and ideals for which the war had been fought. No previous picture had ever been so publicized, and millions flocked to see it. The Birth of a Nation long held the record for box-office grosses— more than fifteen million dollars. It is still shown occasionally and, propaganda or not, is still a great film. Here are its two stars, Lillian Gish and Henry B. Walthall.
BELOW LEFT
The cast was as brilliant as the direction. Besides Lillian Gish and Walthall (the Little Colonel), the cast included: Mae Marsh (the Little Sister), Ralph Lewis (Austin Stoneman), Elmer Clifton (Stoneman's son ) , Wallace Reid ( Jeff the Blacksmith ) , and Raoul Walsh (John Wilkes Booth). This scene shows Howard Gave, as General Lee, and Donald Crisp, as General Grant, at Appomattox Courthouse.
BELOW BICHT
One unknown starlet of the picture is visible in the background of this scene between Walthall and Gish. He was an extra, playing the part of a sentry on guard outside a military hospital. As Miss Gish left the hospital, he gazed at her with such admiration, longing, and doglike devotion that the audience was convulsed. Griffith, always on the alert for a new find, ordered his assistants to discover the man's name and address. But it was too late. The picture finished, he melted into the horde of Hollvwood extras and was never heard of again.