The Birth of a Nation (United Artists) (1915)

D. W. GRIFFITH, Presents THE BIRTH OF A NATION AN HISTORICAL DRAMA IN TWO ACTS CAST OF CHARACTERS COL. BEN CAMERON.HENRY WALTHALL MARGARET CAMERON, the elder sister ^MIRIAM COOPER FLORA, the pet sister....MAE MARSH MRS. CAMERON.A JOSEPHINE CROWELL DR. CAMERON.SPOTTISWOODE AIKEN WADE CAMERON, the second son.. j/X. BERINGER DUKE CAMERON, the youngest son MAXFIELD STANLEY MAMMY, their faithful old servant.JENNIE LEE HON. AUSTIN STONEMAN, Leader of the House I RALPH LEWIS ELSIE, his daughter..LILLIAN GISH PHIL, his elder son..ELMER CLIFTON TOD, the younger son.. .-ROBERT HARRON JEFF, the blacksmith.WALLACE REED LYDIA BROWN, Stoneman’s mulatto housekeeper JO MARY ALDEN SILAS LYNCH, mulatto Lieutenant-Governor /^GEORGE SEIGMANN GUS, a renegade negro.. .WALTER LONG ABRAHAM LINCOLN./^JOSEPH HENABERY JOHN WILKES BOOTH.. / . .RAOUL WALSH GEN. U. S. GRANT.DONALD CRISP GEN. ROBT. E. LEE.HOWARD GAYE NELSE, an old fashioned negro.'./.WILLIAM DeVAULL JAKE, a black man faithful unto death WILLIAM FREEMAN STONEMAN’S SERVANT.THOMAS WILSON Cabinet Members, Generals, Military Aides and Attaches, Secretaries, Senators, Representatives, Visitors, Soldiers, Abolitionists, Ku Klux Klansmen, Plantation Crowds and Mobs. Note.—There will be an intermission of eight minutes between Acts I. and II. THE GRIFFITH TRADE MARK All pictures produced by David W. Griffith have the name Griffith in the upper comers of the film and the initials D. G. on the lower border line. There are no exceptions to this rule. Mr. Griffith has several new productions under way which will be announced from time to time. Entire production under the personal direction of D. W. GRIFFITH Photography by G. W. BITZER Music by JOSEPH CARL BREIL FACTS ABOUT “THE There are over 5,000 distinct scenes in “The Birth of a Nation.” 18,000 people and 3,000 horses were utilized in making the narrative. Mr. Griffith worked 8 months without a let up to com¬ plete the picture. The approximate cost of the production was $500,000. The women’s dresses of the period of 1860 used up 12,000 yards of cloth. Over 25,000 yards of white material were sewed into costumes of the Ku Klux Klans. 200 seamstresses worked for two months to make these costumes historically correct and appropriately pictur¬ esque. 5,000 works and reports on the history of the Civil War and the periods immediately leading up to and follow¬ ing the great conflict were searched for authentic data. This research was conducted by four college professors specially engaged upon it. Every piece of ordnance or musketry in the battle scenes is an exact reproduction of the artillery and arms used on both sides during the war of the 60’s. BIRTH OF A NATION” For the assassination of President Lincoln, Ford’s Theatre, Washington, was reproduced to the smallest de¬ tail. The scene itself was taken in the presence of several eye witnesses of the actual occurrence. These witnesses were in Ford’s Theatre the night John Wilkes Booth’s shot laid the great Lincoln low. To depict the ravages of Sherman’s March to the Sea, a city was specially built, only to be destroyed before the eyes of the spectators of the picture. $10,000 a day was paid for the use of an entire county in order to reproduce the wild rides of the Klansmen. West Point engineers laid out the great battle scene of Petersburg from maps and reports in the War Depart¬ ment at Washington. Intimate details of the action were supplied by veterans who fought on either side. Night photography was perfected for the first time to secure battle scenes in the dark. This detail cost $5,000. Great artillery duels actually reproduced. Specially prepared shells exploded at a cost of $80 each. A commissary and two hospital corps were maintained while the pictures were being taken. Not a human life was lost. A musical score for 40 pieces composed and minutely synchronized to several thousand individual scenes. The condensed production represents 12,000 feet of film. Nearly 200,000 feet of film was originally taken. (Copyright 1916 by Theodore Mitchell)