When the movies were young (1925)

Marking Time 217 him. He had noticed in battle scenes that young Mae became terribly frightened; so when he didn't have war's aid to get the needed expression of fright, without her knowledge he would have a double-barreled shotgun popped off a few feet from her head, and the resultant exhibition of fear would quite satisfy the exacting director. Mae Marsh's first hit was in "Sands O' Dee," a part that Mary Pickford had been scheduled to play, and there was quite a to-do over the change in cast. But it was the epochal "Man's Genesis" that brought her well to the front, as it did also Bobby Harron. In the parts of Lilly White and Weakhands their great possibilities were discerned, with no shadow of doubt. "Man's Genesis" was produced under the title "Primitive Man," and Mr. Griffith and Mr. Dougherty had an awful time because Doc said he couldn't see the title and he couldn't see the story as a serious one — as a comedy, yes ! But Mr. Griffith was determined it should be a serious story ; and he did it as such, although he changed the animal skin clothing of the actors to clothes made of grasses. For if the picture were to show the accidental discovery of man's first weapon, then the animal skins would have had to be torn off the animal's body by hand, and that was a bit impossible. So Mae and Bobby dressed in grasses knotted into a sort of fabric. "Man's Genesis" wrote another chapter in picture history. It was taken seriously by the public, as was meant, and every picture company started right off on a movie having some version of the beginning of man. For Mr. Griffith it was the biggest thing he had yet done, and one of the most daring steps so far made in picture production.