Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-20
Personal Side of D. W. Griffith as Human
AS His Professional Achievements Are Inspiring
Genius OF the Screen Whose Mastery Work In 1.-THE Birth OF
Nation Has Placed Him SO High Above His Fellows, Is Gen.
e Unassumng, Neghbory and Altogether Regular Guy

Its present startling effect. This Is
another Griffith innovation and the
first time in history that score was
conceived and utilized under such cir
cumstances.
Griffith's memory is highly disciplin-
ed He directed the great spectacle
without scrap of paper before him.
and after taking portions of it in odd
lots all over the country he sat down
in the late nights in the studio in Cali
fornia and there worked out in dra-
matte sequence the story as it is I'M
folded on the screen.
One statistician has figured out Grit
fifth kept in mind million scenes, &C
tons, incidents and details before he
ever began the work of assembling it
in narrative form. Not hitch or an
inaccuracy got by him. AS an evidence
Of this his secretary tells of soldier
who came into view on the film as
bugler all decked out in a spick and
span uniform.
Great heavens, What were you
thinking of" cried Griffith from the
dim shadows Of the projecting room.
why, my boy, you've been fighting
through the hell Of war for four years,
with a half starved and half clothed
army. Go back and get battered
old uniform, and let's do it all over
The evolution Of the motion picture
that measured up to the Broadway
standard of dramatic worth is not sur
prising in view Of the big strides of
the mechanical and the concentration
of big minds with the big ideas on the
silent drama. 1t may be said that
Darwin's theory of the law of natural
selection has worked out in the case of
the motion picture and that the man
with the imaginative faculties has
won out. Griffith grew fast with the
development Of the silent drama. He
got too big for the battered trenches,
and he leaped out into the open. He
wanted to spread himself and had to
have room.
His larger pictures had run the Gus
tomary course Of feature releases
with increasing success, but after all
they were confined within the limita-
tions of the business side of the pres
entation Of motion pictures. This
meant that they would be seen over
the different circuits that are laid out
in FINLAND and then pass out the same
as others Their distinctiveness was
noticed They surpassed other fea
lures. but after all they were just
Griffith features and could only go sc
far.
What was there to do to find an out
let? The time came when he had fin
ished The Birth Of a Nation" He
knew he had fine piece of work. His
vision extended further than that OF
the men who control the finances Of
the motion picture business. A great
sum of money had been invested ir
this undertaking-mor than was evel
expended in the making of a great
spectacle Nearly a year of ceaseless
| tOll lay DenlnO CulS enormous expense
and here was the man who had seer
ahead Of his contemporaries. who hat
evolved the great American epic, who
had multiplied detail until it was stag
gering. and with this behind him the
foreglance was not inspiring.
There were so many theaters and 81
many states and so many channels
through which it could pass and ther
he was done. Griffith is not an cas-!
going sort. He knew the limitations
Of the business. and he wanted tC
break from this narrow field and &C
before that great public which had new
err seriously regarded the motion pic
ture as an art possibility.
Behind him he had the record OF
several great pictures which had beer
hidden like the lights under a bushel
There was Judith of Bethulia," as
fine piece of poetic imagery ant
rhythmic grouping as the art had evel
developed in America.
For contemporary study of the seamy
side Of American life he had vastly i'm
proved upon the late Paul Armstrong
somewhat superficial study in heredity
THE Escape" and made a virile thins
of punch and power. He had combined