The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-02-13

4" Way Doqvn
East Opens
Final Week

Way Down East" begins Us nnil
week a. PoIrs Theater this afternoon
at o'clock. A presentation VIII be
given tonight at s:l5 and two per-
formances daily at 2:l5 and s;lo for
the balance OF the week.
Way Down East" Is the outstand-
ing hit OF the current season on the
American stage. IL 10 being seen
Throughout the country simultaneous
Ia and playing 10 the greatest CROWDS
that were ever drawn to see an AMER
lean story stree the estnblishpent OF
our stage.
over a quarter OF a million theater-
goers in the different cities IT the
country are weekly witnessing ITS
presentations. This Is good average
attendance for season Tor an ordi-
nary attraction AID speaks palmer
than any words OF description as 30
the merits aud the appeal or the Grif-
nth masterpiece.
The screen version Is based npon
the simple tcle OF plain people. re-
volving around the love u David
Bartlett and Anna Moore IA New
England rural community. as orig
inally played upon the stage n the
dramatic tale by Lottie Blair Parker
| for a decade.
Griffith hes embellished II with
those rare touches that he brings TO
everything he does for motion PIC
ture narrative, but upon such q sca'e
| that he has literally evolved new
art form.
| IL possesses scores OF such sweet
ness and charm that they are pro-
nounced worthy to hang In the art
galleries of the land and he has added
thrilling climax showing the rescue
of Anna by David after her baltic
through the night with the storm and
the great ice jam ard the floe on
| the river which is universally pro-
claimed the greatest scene ever seen
within a theater In the worlds his
| tory.
| fth's master film play, way Down
East" who will never appear in any
other Aim This was an old fashion
ed Down East blizzard.
1t will probably not be surprise
to anyone who has seen Way Down
East" to know that the big storm in
| which Anna was lost, was real
storm-the first one ever put on any
| screen.
In the old play, the outraged Squire
| sent the heroine out into the storm
when he learns of her hapless past"
Mr.. Griffith had been able to buy So
/
| transplanted an old New England
town with the real natives thereof.
He had imported old New England
| sleighing parties and real country
dances and real country fiddlers; but
there seemed not to be any blizzards
In the market With HIS scrupulous
fidelity to detail Mr.. Griffith scorned
the usual wind machine devices.
His staff hopefully telephoned all
over the country plaintively inquiring
for billiards.. but every section re
ported the balm of the South Seas. Mr..
Griffith had just about decided Chat
billiards. had become extinct with the
dodo and the saloon, when a regular
old bowler hit the studio.
1t was like the bell Changing gen.
cral alarm in a fire engine house. ana
camera men began pouring out the
studio on the run. limousine labor
ed UP the road through a binding
storm and disgorgcd Miss Gish who
had not waited to be called.
All day long they fought that
vicious old storm into the film. Work
ing by turns, four husky property
men held down the legs Of the tripods
while Eilly Bitter and Hendrix Sar-
TOW turned the camera crank,
Out IN the teeth OF the blast STOOD
an Esquimau-looking figure rnuffled
in five overcoats. When the figure
turned. the features of D. w. Griffith
were disclosed underneath the hood
In the fury Of the bowling storm, his
words were lost so he had to direct
the storm scene with weird gestures
of a mufflcd-up arm. 90 3.
To the eye Miss Lillian Gish looks
to be a shrinking, delicate. ETHEREAL
little creature: but she showed that
day the pluck of a fighting bull
terrier.
, Mr.. Griffith suffered frozen face,
two or three camera men were blown
over and buried In the snow-but they
got the only real blizzard ever filmed