Thousand Horsemen for Griffith's "America" -- October 10, 2023

Motion Picture News, 06-October-1923

I have never seen The White Rose, which was shot on locations in the south. Mae Marsh had worked with Griffith since the Biograph. Ivor Novello was born in Wales. He was a playwright, a composer and singer. Someone called him "a minor league Noel Coward." Carol Dempster, Griffith's protégé, also played a leading role.

Motion Picture News, 27-October-1923

Film Daily, 27-October-1923

DW Griffith gathered many relics of the Revolutionary War when he went to New England to shoot some scenes for America. 

Motion Picture News, 13-October-1923

WC Fields -- In the New Musical Comedy Poppy -- September 15, 2023

New York Daily News, 03-September-1923

100 years ago this month, WC Fields appeared in the Broadway premiere of a new musical, Poppy. Dorothy Donnelly wrote the book and lyrics, and Stephen Jones and Arthur Samuels composed the music. Fields wrote some of his own material. After a long career in vaudeville, WC Fields made his film debut in 1915, but then returned to the stage, including the Follies, the Passing Shows, the Vanities and the 1922 edition of the Scandals. His film career would revive in 1924. He played a mildly crooked carnival barker, Professor Eustace McGargle.

Star Madge Kennedy had a long career on stage and in movies. She played the Professor's daughter, Poppy. 

Robert  Woolsey later teamed up with Bert Wheeler as Wheeler and Woolsey. 

listal.com

When DW Griffith adapted Poppy as a movie called Sally of the Sawdust in 1925, he had no choice but to cast Fields as the Professor. Carol Dempster played Poppy, renamed as Sally.

listal.com

In 1936 Eddie Sutherland directed a talkie adaptation of Poppy. Fields played the Professor and Rochelle Hudson played Poppy. 

DW Griffith -- A Big Revolutionary Film With a Big Idea Behing It -- September 8, 2023

Motion Picture News, 29-September-1923

I have never seen The White Rose, which was shot on locations in the south. Mae Marsh had worked with Griffith since the Biograph. Ivor Novello was born in Wales. He was a playwright, a composer and singer. Someone called him "a minor league Noel Coward." Carol Dempster, Griffith's protégé, also played a leading role.

Film Daily, 07-September-1923

"The White Rose is a Griffith masterpiece."

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Motion Picture News, 01-September-1923

The White Rose was a hit at San Francisco's Strand Theater. By the time I went to the Strand, it was showing quadruple features and was a popular place for homeless people to sleep.

Film Daily, 14-September-1923

Theater owner Sid Grauman liked it, too. 

Omaha Bee, 16-September-1923

Motion Picture News, 29-September-1923

The DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) encouraged Griffith to make America, and epic about the Revolutionary War.

Film Daily, 10-September-1923

DW Griffith -- This Sort of Stuff is a Complete Waste of the Genius of the Man... August 8, 2023

Photoplay, August, 1923

Photoplay magazine felt that DW Griffith's The White Rose was a waste of his talent and "entirely too long." The magazine welcomed the return of Mae Marsh to Griffith and his productions. 

Picture Play, August, 1923

Motion Picture News, 04-August-1923

DW Griffith -- Jolson's Desertion -- July 8, 2023

Film Daily, 09-July-1923

Last month we saw that director DW Griffith wanted to make a movie with Al Jolson who was well-known for performing in blackface. Jolson jumped ship after work started on Black Magic. There was talk of a lawsuit. I have also seen the film referred to as Mammy's Boy. 

Sources say that the same script was eventually produced by someone else as "His Darker Self" with Lloyd Hamilton. I have seen that movie and cannot picture it as a Griffith film. 

Motion Picture Magazine, July, 1923

I have never seen The White Rose, which was shot on locations in the south. Mae Marsh had worked with Griffith since the Biograph. Ivor Novello was born in Wales. He was a playwright, a composer and singer. Someone called him "a minor league Noel Coward." Carol Dempster, Griffith's protégé, also played a leading role. 

Film Daily, 08-July-1923

After Jolson bailed out, Griffith was working on his historical epic, America. I suspect I will be writing quite a lot about that movie.

DW Griffith -- One Exciting Night -- February 9, 2023

Motion Picture News, 03-February-1923

100 years ago this month, DW Griffith was heavily promoting his latest masterpiece, One Exciting Night. Please excuse the racism in this ad. I assume it supposed to represent Porter Strong, who played Romeo Washington. Strong was a white guy who frequently played in blackface.

Motion Picture News, 10-February-1923

In Minneapolis, "the crowds packed every inch of space in the house, jammed the lobby and milled around in the streets." I think the ad displays Carol Dempster and Porter Strong.

Motion Picture News, 17-February-1923

This four-page spread must have cost Griffith and/or United Artists, a pot of money. 

Motion Picture News, 24-February-1923

Mr Ruben of Finkelstein and Ruben Theatrical Enterprises in Minneapolis/Saint Paul called One Exciting Night one of the sixth best pictures he had ever seen.

Griffith Returns to 1922 -- October 7, 2022

Photoplay, October, 1922

100 years ago this month, DW Griffith's favorite leading lady was his protégé, Carol Dempster. The Photoplay caption expresses wonderment because Griffith's new film would be set in the present day. "Carol Dempster is the flapper in chief..." One Exciting Night was not very. Poor previews led him to gather the cast back at his studio in Mamaroneck, Long Island. He decided that the film needed a big climax, so he created a hurricane scene. The film still exists, but I have never seen it.

Motion Picture News, 14-October-1922

At the same time, the Favorite Star Series re-released "twelve western and semi-western features of two reels each." The ad says that the chosen films were "issued under the original titles but re-edited and re-subtitled." The ad also says they were all directed by Griffith, but that is not true. "An Indian's Loyalty" was directed by Christy Cabanne in 1913, under the supervision of Griffith. DW Griffith and Frank Powell co-directed "Gold and Glitter" in 1912. "The Spirit Awakened(1912)," "Fate(1913)," "Heredity(1912)" and "Two Men of the Desert(1913)" were directed by Griffith. All were Biograph productions.

Sherlock Holmes is October Release -- September 26, 1922

Moving Picture World, 02-September-1922

John Barrymore, "America's greatest dramatic artist," played Sherlock Holmes in Sam Goldwyn's production of Sherlock Holmes. 

Moving Picture World, 02-September-1922

Sherlock Holmes was among "The Big Birds On The Horizon!"

Moving Picture World, 16-September-1922

This was the only movie Carol Dempster appeared in that was not directed by her patron, DW Griffith.

Moving Picture World, 30-September-1922

Moving Picture World, 16-September-1922

This item is a little confusing because it reports that FBO was going to produce an adaption of The Hound of the Baskervilles starring Eille Norwood as Holmes. The movie had been made the year before in Great Britain. It was directed by Maurice Elvey, who had directed the two successful series of short stories starring Norwood as Holmes. 

Moving Picture World, 30-September-1922

I like the picture of the hound. 

DW Griffith -- Romance From Moth-Balls -- November 8, 2021

Photoplay, November, 1921.

DW Griffith's last movie with Dorothy and Lillian Gish was Orphans of the Storm, which was adapted from an 1874 French melodrama, The Two Orphans, by Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon.

Photoplay, December, 1921.

Photoplay, March, 1922.

Orphans of the Storm got a rave review from Photoplay.  "Don't miss this."

Moving Picture World, 26-November-1921

Moving Picture World, 26-November-1921

Moving Picture World, 26-November-1921

Motion Picture News, 04-September-1915

Theda Bara appeared in an adaption of The Two Orphans in 1915. Herbert Brenon directed. Like most of Theda Bara's Fox features, it is presumed to be lost. 

Albuquerque Evening Herald, 02-November-1921

Dream Street and Orphans of the Storm were the only features that Griffith released in 1921. Dream Street was not a hit. Many people have said mean things about the leading lady, Griffith's protégée, Carol Dempster.

Albuquerque Evening Herald, 03-November-1921

Screen Snapshots was a series of short films produced by C.B.C. Film Sales Corp and its successor, Columbia Pictures, from 1920 to 1958.

Bemidji Daily Pioneer, 05-November-1921

Way Down East, released in 1920, was still touring the country, doing land office business.

Amarillo Daily News, 20-November-1921

All of these items, a still from the icy river scene, an ad for the showing at the New Diandi Theater and a collection of quotes from eminent people like actor John Barrymore and artists Howard Chandler Christy and Charles Dana Gibson. Way Down East, like many of Griffith's big productions, was shown in a roadshow format, with higher ticket prices, a special orchestra and a limited number of showings daily, as opposed to the continuous programs shown by most theaters. 

Conway, Arkansas Log Cabin Democrat, 11-November-1921

Washington Evening Star, 27-November-1921

Note that many ads for Way Down East featured a large black circle, just like ads for Griffith's Birth of a Nation. 

Rockingham Post Dispatch, 12-November-1921

Birth of a Nation was still in release, giving aid and comfort to the second Ku Klux Klan. 

Moscow, Idaho Daily Star-Mirror, 12-November-1921

Griffith's war film, Hearts of the World, was shown to raise money for the American Legion. 

Amarillo Daily News, 20-November-1921

While Way Down East was playing at Amarillo's New Diandi Theater, the Olympic advertised a 1915 feature film, Martyrs of the Alamo, "Personally Directed by D. W. Griffith." Griffith produced the movie and Christy Cabanne directed. Producers were often called supervisors then.