The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-24
Most Noted Movie in Existence
Shown in Topeka.
Small but Select Audience Sees
1t at the Grand.
IT BRINGS TEARS and CHEERS
Faithful Portrayal of Events OF
the Civil War.
And the Reconstruction Period
Following Thereafter.

More than 200 Topeka men and
women-state officials, justices of the
supreme court, county officials and
newspaper men-sat spellbound Sun
day afternoon during the three-hour
production of THE Birth of Nation"
the spectacular movie drama. Intensi-
fled by the work of a big orchestra,
the action of the picture carried the
select audience from laughter to tears
and misses to cheers. No motion pic
ture play shown in Topeka has so
deeply moved an audience as the spe-
cial display of 1.-The Birth of a Ma
ton"
The stirring war drama film was
brought to Topeka by special train
from Lincoln, Neb. With the film
came a carload of sound devices to be
play A special orchestra of 81 pieces
also accompanied the film and a spe-
cial score was played for the drama
built around Thomas DiXon's Clans
man." In bringing the picture to To-
peka with all its spectacular settings
more than $500 The picture was
shown before the state censorship
board and the members of the appeal
board.
Cast Includes 10000 People.
Attention to historical detail was
gwen IN the OIL the
and a cast of more than 1900 people
was used in the setting. From the
first flash of the picture machine I'M
til the close of the play, attention to
detail and the historical events of the
Civil war and the reconstruction days
was the one imposing feature of the
film.
For an hour the little audience in
the Grand theater watched the stag
ing of the events of the Civil War as
they were played before the camera.
When the Union soldiers charged
trench and took a Rebel provision
train, the crowd applauded. Later,
when General Lee handed his sword
to General Grant at AppOmattoX Court
House, the patriotism of the men and
women broke out in noisy handicap
ping. Even state officials forgot that
it was only picture show when the
assassination of President Lincoln was
wildly portrayed in a reproduction of
the scene in the famous Ford theater
Later a supreme court justice was
moved to display of emotion when a
South Carolina negro legislature en-
acted a law carrying a provision for
the marriage equality of the races
Then came the later events of the re-
construction period, the work of the
carpet-bagg the organization of
the Ku Klux Klan-and more ap-
plause from the crowd.
Small But Select Audience.
1t was the story more wildly and
forcefully told than any screen event
Topeka and possibly the nation had
ever seen. The reception which the
picture met was its own testimonial.
1t was not shown before a crowd of
gallery gods nor the daily movie fans.
1t was an audience of prominent men
and women in Topeka and in public
life and personal friends of Roy Craw-
ford, manager of the theater.
Following the production, prominent
men and women denied that the pic
ture was a play on the passions or
prejudices of an audience. Negroes
and ministers in the audience, how
ever, objected to the acceptance of the
play in Kansas in view of the posi-
bility that the races might be driven
farther apart"
The picture was produced for the
acceptance or rejection of the Kansas
picture censorship board. The picture
has been shown in every section of the
United States and in the war nations
of Europe.