The Alaska citizen., 1915-08-30

IOOOOOOOOOOOOOO which was giving everything from Shakespeare to Charles Hoyt at a local theatre
 He was engaged as he says. be- cause they needed somebody Then there were seven years of the stage, now in road companies. now in rep ertoire. all the time getting up q little He played with Gertrude Coghlan. Walker Whitesides, and finally Nance O'Neill. in the last year 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 10 New York and sent them to a magazine. which promptly accepted them Then he wrote play, The Fool and The Girl" and James K Hackett tool, it. Another great TO- mantle idea was begun. and it's ac- ceptance promised. This was in the latter part of 1906 and the early part of 1907.
 That ended the stage for me he explained No more of the hard ships l was going 10 be an author and draw down royalties. I woke uD in about five months
 The Hackett play failed and have always had a little bit of a sore spot over that I know a little bit more about stage management now, you know. Then short story writing was not extra profitable and I came back to New York from the country and found the moving pie ture game growing"
 He began writing moving picture scenarios at & and $10 apiece That was all right if you could turn out enough of them. There are limits, even such plots as they used in those days and the young man added moving picture acting 10 his other work He went into the company of a corporation, the first one men toned. studied the game as it was then. saw that it might be made an art, and bided his time until the officer heard him make the sugges- tion to the producing director, where upon another era was born.
 There is no doubt the young man ager grew a little more ambitious about that time. The corporation for which he worked had not been particularly prosperous, although to- day 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 modest, haunting little film, "Pippa Passes" the representation of Brown ing's poem. Griffith did that and all it was was day of a young girl with her ancient Italian guitar sing ing her little song ending: Gods in his Heaven: all's right in the world
 Then came "The Merchant of Venice" rather ambitious; "The Blot on the Escutcheon," "Enoch Arden,' a sombre fancy: Lines of White on Sullen Sea-" all of which led up ! to "Oil and Water.' written by Mir. 1 Griffith himself A little more am bitiOn then came "A Corner in ! Wheat" the first pictures of which were modelled directly on Millet's "Gleaners," and the audience liked that.
 Just about that time" he put in, it came to me that wonderful thing could be done with The Life of | Christ The divine tragedy has a universal appeal, and adequately done with reverence, it could not i fail of approval" He laughed, 'l submitted my idea and it was ap- proved, but when I got to talking about details, Palestine and Jerusa- i lem, a great cast, for l had chosen two of the foremost actors in the world-the initial expenditure of thousands-the thermometer drop ped. It was madness" He paused. Do you know it is little gratifying to me now that within the last few days l have been approached by a syndicate which has asked me to do that very same thing, and they l have said that l need not worry about a little thing like $500O0O or $1,OOO,OOO if I need it."
 | By this time it is apparent Grif- | filth had swung into his stride and year ago or little more came Judith" using about 1000 people, where they built forty foot concrete walls, wide enough to have a battle on.
 Then came The Clansman. It seems that the chief producing dlrec- tor, as MT. Griffith was, changed