Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 41, Number 81, 14 February 1916 — Page 9

HE BIRTH:

i6Hp

ACME OF MOTION PICTURE

$tv ' V &LJ ' . ; ; i

AUTO CROM WMICM PIOTURIt OF RIOIRI WIRI

D. W. Grfffith'o Groat Idoa and How

Ho Workod Out Historically Accu ' rato Bnttlo Sconos With 18,000 Acton and 3,000 Horses

AN iiki'vln ahI'p Qt ii movlnir A (Hir(i('orpoi'iMoH wah wdtclh X, , Ing rtmmn for i HMl film yMra when euiiiUm vVp4) ft(l I' w pt0nfc ht, arrtniot for, tb in I be nmitfe of th tiitllo, would not get overt Ono of thd pUyor In tb fomimny, lender young leidlng man, went up to the producing director nd ealrt, "Why I couldn't it la done so and aoV Jndlcat,tog bit plan. Tle producing director nodded empbatlcaily. "Itlgbt!" be nald, and it waa rigbt. Wbereupon the obserrlng s oflcer flrat mentioned turned to tbo aetor, saying eertouBly, "'Why , don't you try producing-, Ortfflth?" "I wouldn't mind baring a chance to work out a few little ideas," was the answer. "Work them out, then," was the decision. At the Liberty Theater, New York, during the last several months people hat stood In a line which stretched from the box office nearly a whole block, suffering for the privilege of paying 32 a seat. In many cases, to see nothing but a moving picture drama. The man who produced that $2 "movie is the man addressed in the studio seven years before, the man who said he had a few little ideas to work out He was Griffith then, now he la David Wark Griffith, for whom even the most surfeited regular dramatic critic bad words of praise when that movie had its first night in New York and of whom also other men who study and observe rather than direct '' declare that be has raised the film

drama to an art with a capital A and that he has unfolded new possibilities, pioneered in hitherto unsuspected fields. In brief, Mr. Griffith took "The Clansman." a novel by the Rev. Thomas Dixon, and from it evolved an ambitious spectacle for the camera in which, working on a stage roughly speaking five miles long and two miles deep, he employed altogether 18,000 persons and 3,000 horses. He delineated battle scenes conducted according to the records preserved in the War Department at Washington, using artillery, cavalry and Infantry as they were used in n real battle of the civil war. v His artillery duels were real artillery ducts, bis cavalry charges were passed by the men who participated in such a charge fifty years before. His men died

as men had died In the trenches of the - South, and they suffered Just as the men who did suffer said they had. He built or caused to be built no less than five complete Southern towns, faithful to the last architectural detail, and be burned three of them. , He massed and bandied great mobs as history said the real mobs acted. He , reproduced one theater exactly life size and delineated the great national tragedy of the assassination of President Lincoln Just as history says it occurred. He built the legislative halls of a Southern State and with an actual still photograph as a model brought back to life a scene In that chamber fifty years ago. Above all. throughout two hours and forty minutes he ran the threads , of a love story. Thus it was that Mr. Griffith leaned back in his chair puffing contentedly at an after luncheon cigar, taking his first vacation in about fourteen months. He was at that moment digesting, among other things, four questions which would take several hours to answer. "Who are your : "Where did you learn how? , ' "How did you do this?" "What will come after?" , ' Mr. Griffith told bow he was born In Kentucky some thirty odd years ago, the son of Jacob Wark Griffith, a Drevet Brigadier General of the Confederate array. His family comes near to being eligible for about all the patriotic " societies, for bis grandfather was Cap- . tain Daniel Griffith of the war of 1812.

THR ONRUIMINO KU KLUX TAKIN,

In Ilia HPiitirntlmi furl li' nil (liMi'a wnn ) NTPIlt HI'fMllirMlllMP til (lltf UeVMltlltiill' ry war, iinfurs Iliac Uihi thar tlrimilia in Virginia, Ariel' die war, of ooupua, tho flrlf fit In of Kentucky hud, llko many other families, mujnly their memories to Ufa ou-nieiworle and tha product of a farm on the edge of the blue grass, The hoy was born in that altuatlon and received Ma education at tbo nearby country school, The wander year came to tbo boy at twenty. In tbe meantime ho had always liked to act in the dialogues at school Friday afternoons and a little later when they gave the rlavs at. the Cjterary Society, In any event when be went out into tbe world he gravitated to Louisville and very promptly applied for a position with a modest little stock company which waa giving everything from Shakespeare to Charles Hoyt at a local theater. He was engaged, as he says, because they needed somebody. Then there were seven years of the stage now in road companies, now in repertoire, all tbe time getting up a little. He played with Gertrude Cogblan, Walker Whitesides and finally Nance O'Nell, in the last year a leading man. Something else happened. In an odd moment on the road the young actor had written a short story or two and some verses. He came back to New York and sent them to a magazine, which promptly accepted them. Then he wrote a play, "The Fool and the Girl," and James K. Hackett took it. Another great romantic drama was begun and its acceptance promised. This was in the latter part of 190G and the early part of 1007. "That ended the stage for me," he explained. "o more of' the hardships. I was going to be an author and draw down royalties. I woke up in about five months. "The Hackett play failed, and I have MR. GRIFFITH. CONSULTING WITH G.

llf l-i V i I' 3 Sift rVi v w rsjapsjJ to ft firrr:rr y v m .

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM,

OF A pis 1 1. V 0INE alwiyi hid llttlt Mt ttl i Nore arms over that, I know llttlt lilt mora ahuiit Mian innnageinput now, you know. Then abort aitirjr writing waa not ailra iirttntaM, and I en me hack In Maw York from Urn I'oiiiilry and found Ilia inovliitf lih'tiira hhiiih mtowi lug," lie tiegan writing hinting pli'lure Niipiiai'ii) Dun at in iiml fin miioee, That wiia all ilulit If you nmild Inni out imhhimIi of ilii'in, There are IIiiiIIn, however, lo tha pliyalcal capably of even aui h I'hil aa tliey lined in tlmao riuya, and the young man added inov Ing picture acting to hl other work, Ma went Into tha company of a oorpoi ration, tho first ona mentioned, studied tbo game a it waa then, saw that It, might bo mnde an art and hided hU time until tho officer beard blm wake the suggestion to tho producing director, whereupon another era was born, There ia no doubt tbo young man ager grew a little more ambitious about that time, Tbo corporation for which be worked had not been partlc ularly prosperous, although today It is worth millions, but there was somebody In it wise enough not to Impose any rules or regulations on the new director. Perhaps the reader will remember a modest, haunting little film, "Plppa Fasaes," the representation of Browning's poem.-Grifflth did that, and all it was was a day of a young girl with her ancient Italian guitar singing her little song ending, "God's in His Heaven; all's right in the world." Then came "The Merchant of Venice," rather ambitious; "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon," "Enoch Arden," u somber fancy; "Lines of White on a Sullen Sea," all of which led up to "Oil and Water," written by Mr. Grif fith himself. A little more ambition and then came "A Corner in Wheat," the first pictures of which were modeled directly on Millet's "Gleaners," and the audience liked that. Just about that time," he put in. "it came to me that a wonderful thing could be done with 'The Life of Christ.' The divine tragedy has a universal appeal, and adequately done with rev erence it could not fall of nnnroval." He laughed. "I submitted my idea, and it was approved, but when I got A. R. VETERANS FOR DETAILS OF

ML 14; . f-SSr r ,- T s . ' -V, J

' v'2' ? ir'w

NATION"

If

APTIN THI IATTLI Of PtTIMOUAQ,

to (alklim about neialla, ralestlna ami Jei'iiKilfin, a great ', for f had tdiuMeii (wo of Ilia forenumt. adorn In I ha world an initial otieiilltur of ttimiNaiidatlm thoritmuietep dnipHt, It waa uifliluesa," Mo iauieil. "Hn you know II la a III He urn I lining to me now Hint wlihlii Hie liiMt few day I liHve lieen niii'niHipil liy a k mlli'iiie whli'li Iih Halted mo to do Hint very same Uiliiir, and Ihey Imve ailld Hint 1 need nut worry almul a ll'lle Hiluu U IjWHVHlO 0P IIMHI,1HI0 if I need It," ' fly Hila time It U apparent nrlflilli had awung rntn lila stride, nnd a year ago or a lttl more canm Judith," using about tf,0QQ people, where they built forty foot concrete walls, wide enough to have a Pottle on, Then canio "Tho (!inuian." It Boeron that tho chief producing director, as Mr, Griffith was, changed from one company to another, and according to reports be did so at a salary that would pay the President's yearly salary of 175,000 and more, He wouldn't talk about that. In any event, he bad not worked long before be had tbo Dixon book handed over to htm to read. He read it end lost interest In about everything else. "I read the book," he says, "and I saw it. Not the book entirely, but as an opportunity for me to set forth, first, the birth of the South following the travail of the civil war. "I saw a chance to tell the story of how they suffered through what I believe to be the most dramatic period in the history of the country reconstruction. There was a chance to show what the South thinks of Lincoln; there was a chance to show that the negro of the South did not of his own volition degenerate into the human being who made the Ku Klux Klan necessary, but rather he was seduced by the unscrupulous adventurers, who exploited a situation for their own selfish ends. "There was nothing of race in my Idea, and may I say there is nothing of race antagonism in my production. It is simply the pictorializing of an epoch." Taking the book, reading It -and dreaming about It, however, did not do the work. There were eight montlls of Incubation. First three men, and they ;

SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA, AMPLIFIED HISTORICAL RECORDS WITH

MONDAY, FEB. 14, 1916.

REPR

wfti'e tii'ofoKNors of collpgea, wereiakad In work out the eorrect tiUloHeal data, Thi'i'e were lutervlewa Willi vol em in of I he civil war oh most Imiiortsnt piiliiis, rei'oui'Me o limps and report down at WshIiIiimihii and flnitlly a hi Heitl I'oiiiily Py tmuiily Imip of l,ouil ana, MIssIhsIiiI, Ainimma and Nurlli Ciinilliia iinlll'l'leiliiiont was dlseov fieil, Then fiima Hie location ff (he lialtlio Holds, HfiMi' which Hie veterans Willi their maps went forlli to lay out a lmt llorteld Just as It was at IVferslmrg and Jint as It was In part during tho march of ishorrniiu's army from AtIsnla in Hie aea, Where approved ter rltory was found tho eiperts went to work upon It, If a rood wound this way, If there was a brook or a river or a bouse or a barn, that road, brook, house and barn were found or put in, If a town was needed along tame an architect with bis corps of builders, and they put it up Just as some gray haired old man remembered it. They remembered burnings, and a town, two towns, were put infive altogether were built. One man remembered tffe burning of a town by night. Something must be done about that. A fireworks man said be could build bombs which, exploding la the air, would give enough light for the camera to work at night. Incidentally it may be added tbe bombs cost $80 apiece, but they did the work. ' "Was it difficult to get the actors?" "No," replied Mr. Griffith, "not difficult, but tedious. You see we advertised in the newspapers that we wantso many persons, men, women and children. We established employment bureaus, so to speak, -and made our selections." "How about the negroes?" "They were the easiost. The negro is a natural actor, and I do not mind saying that among the 4,500 of them we took out of the fields, out of the shops and from every other place we found some with remarkable talent. A producer some day may put forth the tragedy of the negro on the film he will find men and women of that race fully competent." Of course, it was explained, they did not use the 18,000 persons, all the five or six months they were actually photographing the drama. While it is. true

ENDEAVOR

MR. 0RIPFITH DIWCTINO ACTOR PROM TOP OR, IXEtt' FOOT TOWIRi Ford's Tho&tro Reproduced In Actual Size and Fivo Southorn Towns Built and Burnod For tho Caho of a Moving Plcturo

lliflt y (ha Hum ha Imd finished Ills long term of study Me, Mrltttili did not ue a scran of pit per, a nook or scenario, yet lit had arranged It all In his mind, The areaf multitude for tha flight from Atlanta and the town scene were not actually wnder employment longer than two weeks, Tow it may be added that tbe expenses ran far up Into tha thousands every day, "The only way we could handle them was by military dtoclpllne," said Mr, Griffith. "We laid out a camp for the whites and a camp for tbe blacks. We set up two commissaries. v Then we divided our forces into sections, each section commanded by a captain, who bad bis stuff under blm. That la bow the picture was worked out. "Every section leader in the big battle scenes or the town scene kept his section, rehearsed it and looked after It Complete telephone systems were Installed for every section, and the orders delivered from headquarters were megaphoned by the captains to their commands." The headquarters alluded to in the battle scenes was a sixty foot tower In front of tbe whole scene. It was there that George W. Bitzer, "best camera man in the world," Mr. Griffith says, and five assistants set their cameras. Every scene, it may be said, wag taken six times. , . Finally when" every move of every section had. been gone over again and again in rehearsal, when the soldiers knew when to charge or fall back, when to die or drop, even when the ar tillery knew the exact second wen to wheel Into action and the cavalry had its time schedule perfect, even to the exact place where a horse must stum ble or fall, the section leaders cam to headquarters. ' Back la the hills the thousands were waiting. They daaVed back to their commands. Word came that all INTERESTING REMINISCENCES.

?AQ6 2UNEJ.

ESENTS

was ready, and t tha heat of wtet undep telepheaa orders the tello) ttm gan, Tha air HIUsl with amoke-tiM soldiers appeaifd If In real Ugh.1 Trains of panto atrtakea) refigssM wound ever the hilla l Otghtf nn4 then they atopped, "We used the greatest number in ail the scenes where they appear wtthott reference to tbe position the ptctnrasa appear In tbe production, said MfrJ Griffith. "That ia always done, Thai multltndea were takes flrat and gradtH ally tbe number was ent down until! at last we bad only the princtpeJe la; their ecenee, i "Some ef tbe scenes which appear la order today were taken three or fear months apart. That made more trouble, bnt it bad to be done that way,! You must remember exactly what the, individual did tbe first time to order to preserve uniformity, exactly bow hej or she wore a hat, catered boose, j wore the hair, or did anything else.! That brings grey hair. Then we badP a few little stunts. j "You remember that case where the negroes are shot and fall when tbe Ku Klux come into the town. Tbe horses jump over them as they lie la the street. Jt took considerable per suasion to get men to do that, although tbe horses and their riders were tbe best trained obtainable. Ws took It up with some men. 'Boss, we won't do that for less'n $5 day they said. They got it, "Take another case in the guerrilla, invasion of the town. It may be recalled that a man shot falls from the roof of a front porch bead first on tba ground. Many think tbe fall is made by a dummy. A real man does it and practiced it in a fire net until be got his fall just right, timed exactly as it had to be done to fit in with the scene. 'There is one case where a rider, coming out of a house makes a flying 1 leap into tbe saddle over the tall of his horse. That took time, and it does not show, bat the man who did that bad to jump over a railing encumbered by a robe. ' "Many things were done in the work that do not appear in the film. There are twenty-five field guns in tbe battle scene pounding away, and they were too far away for the eye of tbe camera. Houses are burned of which you catch only a vague glow, people are fleeing over the bills and you can hardly see them." The actual work was all over in five months, Mr. Griffith said. From their first camp they went to California for interiors and the honeymoon scenes, the allegories and theater scene showing tbe assassination of President Lincoln. "The theater was the exact size of Ford's in Washington," Mr. Griffith explained, "and it was an exact duplicate. Old prints gave us every detail even down to tbe appearance of Laura Keene and her company in "Our American Cousin.' We sought long before we got a man who could satisfy us as President Lincoln, end every man who became a member of his Cabinet was required to look like the original ia size and general makeup. ; "It was there that detail became almost overpowering. Men who lived ia tbe old days were besieged. How did this man walk; how did he gesture; how did be wear bis clothes; did be have any mannerisms? I tell you it kept a great many people awake nights. We took tbe famous painting of the surrender of Lee, and we never laid it down until I believe that every man ia it had an exact double before our cam eras.? Thus it all came out There were more months as tbe film was perfected and made ready for tbe public. But at last it was done. "Now what is the future of the mov ing picture?" The man being interviewed lifted his bands. "Why, there are no limits to Its possibilities in artistic work. This is

only child's play."