50 Fun Facts About D. W. Griffith

In which state was D. W. Griffith born in 1875?

His father, Roaring Jake Griffith, was a Confederate colonel and state legislator.

What do the initials D. W. stand for?

He first acted under the stage name Lawrence Griffith.

In which year was The Birth of a Nation released?

It became the most successful box-office attraction of its time and provoked riots and NAACP bans.

Which Edison Studios producer rejected Griffith's script in 1907 but gave him an acting part instead?

The film was Rescued from an Eagle's Nest.

How many shorts did Griffith direct for Biograph in 1908, his first year as a director?

Biograph co-founder Harry Marvin gave him the job when the McCutcheons faltered.

What was Griffith's 1908 directorial debut?

A kidnapped girl floats down a river in a sealed barrel toward a waterfall.

Which cameraman did Griffith meet at Biograph and work with for years?

Bitzer had filmed McKinley's nomination in 1896 for Biograph's first programme.

Which novelist's technique inspired Griffith's cross-cutting between parallel stories?

Criticised for it, he replied: Well, doesn't Dickens write that way?

Which 1910 Griffith short was the first film shot in Hollywood?

Biograph had wintered its company in Los Angeles.

Which 1911 short has a telegraph girl fending off robbers until help arrives?

It intercut three primary spaces, unusual for the time.

Which 1912 Griffith short is regarded as an early gangster film?

It was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

What was Griffith's first feature film, made in 1914?

Biograph feared a film that long would hurt the audience's eyes.

Who starred as Judith in Griffith's 1914 biblical feature?

Griffith left Biograph soon after, taking his stock company with him.

Which Mexican revolutionary played himself in a Griffith co-production shot during the civil war?

The Life of General Villa was made for the Mutual Film Corporation.

With which two producers did Griffith form the Triangle Film Corporation?

Harry Aitken and his brother Roy headed the company.

Whose 1905 novel and play was the basis of The Birth of a Nation?

Griffith paid $10,000 for the rights, though he could only afford $2,500 up front.

Under what title did Griffith first produce his 1915 epic through Reliance-Majestic?

It was renamed The Birth of a Nation and is often called the first Hollywood epic.

Which president watched The Birth of a Nation at the White House?

Dixon had been Wilson's friend at Johns Hopkins.

Where did The Birth of a Nation premiere on 8 February 1915?

It played to 3,000 people and ran there for seven months.

Which organisation campaigned to have The Birth of a Nation banned?

The film is blamed for helping revive the Ku Klux Klan months later.

Which Wagner piece did Joseph Carl Breil use as the Klan's leitmotif in the score?

Breil's love theme, The Perfect Song, is called the first marketed film theme song.

The Birth of a Nation's love theme was later used for which radio and TV sitcom?

It was published as The Perfect Song.

How many historical periods does Intolerance intercut?

Babylon's fall, the Crucifixion, the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and a modern story.

What recurring image links the stories of Intolerance?

The figure represents Eternal Motherhood and the passing of generations.

What was Intolerance's actual production cost, according to the film's accounts?

Publicity claimed close to $2 million; a third went on the Babylonian sequences.

Who played the Mountain Girl in Intolerance's Babylonian story?

Prince Belshazzar was played by Alfred Paget.

Which government asked Griffith to make the 1918 propaganda film Hearts of the World?

It aimed to shift neutral American opinion about the war.

With which three stars did Griffith found United Artists in 1919?

The idea was to let artists control their own interests rather than depend on studios.

Which 1919 Griffith film was the first ever distributed by United Artists?

It stars Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess and Donald Crisp.

Griffith's 1919 East End melodrama is based on a story from which collection by Thomas Burke?

The story was called The Chink and the Child.

What is Way Down East remembered for?

The ice-floe sequence was filmed at White River Junction, Vermont.

Orphans of the Storm is set during which upheaval?

Griffith used it to warn about the rise of Bolshevism.

Orphans of the Storm was the last Griffith film to star which pair?

It was a commercial failure next to his earlier hits.

Which 1924 flop forced Griffith out of United Artists?

He then made a part-talkie, Lady of the Pavements, in 1929.

Who played Lincoln in Griffith's 1930 sound film Abraham Lincoln?

Stephen Vincent Benét co-wrote the script.

What was Griffith's final feature film, released in 1931?

He had made nearly 520 films by then, all but three completely silent.

For which Clark Gable film did Griffith help shoot the earthquake sequence, uncredited?

Director Woody Van Dyke had been his apprentice years earlier.

Which producer hired Griffith to help on Of Mice and Men and One Million B.C.?

Griffith left after disagreements and asked for his producer credit to be removed.

In what year did the Academy give Griffith an honorary Oscar?

He was held in awe by much of the industry for decades.

Where was Griffith found unconscious on the morning of his death in 1948?

He died of a cerebral hemorrhage on the way to hospital.

Why did the Directors Guild rename its D. W. Griffith Award in 1999?

It became the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Which director called Griffith The Teacher of Us All?

Eisenstein admired him too but called Birth of a Nation disgraceful propaganda of racial hatred.

What did Vanity Fair dub Lillian Gish in 1927?

Her career ran 75 years, from 1912 shorts to The Whales of August in 1987.

Griffith's first wife, actress Linda Arvidson, kept their marriage secret for what reason?

They met on a production where he acted as Lawrence Griffith.

Which fellow Biograph alumnus founded Keystone Studios and the Keystone Cops in 1912?

He had started acting at Biograph in 1908, the same year Griffith began directing.

What was the nickname of Griffith's father, a Confederate colonel and Kentucky legislator?

Jacob Wark Griffith died when his son was ten, leaving the family in poverty; Griffith later quit high school to work in a dry goods store.

Which ex-apprentice of Griffith's had him help shoot the 1936 San Francisco earthquake scene?

The 1936 film starring Clark Gable was the year's top grosser, but Griffith received no credit.

On which 1946 Selznick western set did Griffith hide behind scenery to avoid distracting old actors?

Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore became self-conscious with their mentor watching, so he ducked out of sight.

How many of Griffith's films are preserved on the US National Film Registry?

They span from A Corner in Wheat and Lady Helen's Escapade in 1909 to Broken Blossoms in 1919.

Which Soviet director called Griffith a master but The Birth of a Nation 'disgraceful propaganda'?

Griffith was also admired by Hitchcock, Renoir, Kubrick and Lev Kuleshov, and was honoured on a US 10-cent stamp in 1975.