davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Weekly journal-miner., 1921-02-23

sealed proposals will be received Saturday, M- in purchase  provided for by resolution adopted March % 1920 and author at held May 8. 1920 Said bonds the denomination of $O0o each numbered conuye from June M each of the 1921 9 inclusive and bearing the payable annually June and December each evidenced by attached said America the office the Treasurer of said County q York eof NeY of
 
 
  the
 Presco Arizona, January 2, 1921.
 R E. DONOVAN, Clerk. No further business appearing before in regular ordere Attest R E. DONOVAN, Clerk
Weekly journal-miner., 1921-02-23
Proceedings of the Board of Supervisors of
 Yavapai County, Arizona.
OFFICE OF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, YAVAPAI COUNTY, ARIZONA

", The Board Supervisors of YaP2 County Arizona met pursuant to Present: W. Mdgey Chairman; C. Sukey, Member; w. H. F. Member; R. E. Donovan, Clerk. st 5rd and sam approved
 payroll County Officials and Employees for the period ending January H been approved by the County Recorder and the of the Jim Warrant
Weekly journal-miner., 1921-02-23

The claim Mrs Ward IT. School $03 $0000 salary half January $33l office approved by the
 U The of $75OO salary the half of January, 1921. approved.
 The tenographes employed the County offices being consideration by the Board of Super all enograph other than chief would exceed the T. E. Thompson, Field Deputy Sheriff, whose salary shall a $5OO0 month
 F. Board for the designating the active depository for County funds 1921 1922 Board the bond the $0O00O0 submitted by the Bank of Arizona
 of Smith County Treasurer and Tax Collector ordered that the Bank Arizona be funds during the 1921 andl9
 John L. Sullivan County Attorney with the Board with the that C. appointed Chief Office Deputy the County office this Mir. SuWan granted by the Board
The New York herald., 1921-10-30
THE Birth of Nation" idea
Came From Company Member

Then came the project of making film
version of The Birth of Nation 1t has
been incorrectly stated that Thomas Dixon
author of the book which contained the
germ of the story, brought it to me; in
stead, a member of my company then play
ing in another picture gave me the book
and said he thought it would make a
movie. | read the book and agreed with
him. When We started to produce this
film we had no intention to make it full
evenings entertainment but as it pro.
gressed we hated to cut. My best argu
ment for preserving all of it was drawn
from seeing a quite inferior play getting
the people into Broadway theatre at
$3.50 per head. | said IL people would give
up for that show they would certainly pay
81 to see ours. And so the great expert
ment was made.
1.-The Birth of Nation made tremen
dous fortune for the men who invested in
it. 1t paid me only my salary, and event
ually IL was the cause of my losing my job
The New York herald., 1921-10-30

/ thought as the piece had been so great a
success that in future outputs | ought to
have in addition to salary a small percent
age of the profits.
They laughed at me, saying. You are
only a cog in a big machine, and if the
cog gets out the machine will run along
quite as smoothly So the cog-that's me
got out
with the Triangle, to whom / went, IL
seemed to me did my best work, although
few people have every heard Of my earlier
pictures made for this company. One Of
these was True Heart Susie When 1t
was shown in England / had letter from
Queen Alexandra. now the Dowager Queen,
complimenting me on the excellence of
the pictures and on their nearness to life.
Let me define what mean by saying some
of my best work is shown in this picture;
really mean that it contains the best
photographs ever made for the film.
Intolerance was the next step, and il
was intended to duplicate the triumph of
The Birth of Nation 1t didn't 1t was
a mistake. 1t was too new and its appeal
could not be universal, besides being more
depressing than hopeful. Shortly after its
inception / told the men who had invested
in it as a separate corporation OF my
doubts, but they pooh-poohed me and urged
me to go on with the picture. without
counting my salary, which | put in the
gamble along with their money, this gigan-
tic film cost s1,70O000.
WAS there holler when it failed to
score? | pray to be saved from hearing
another like It. The holler was effective,
too, for | took over the losses of the in
vestors and have been paying up the notes
| signed ever since.
"'Way Down East has been triwmph
Probably that result is not surprising for
the picture follows telling and SYM
pathetic story. One scene i'm il, the escape
of the heroine on an ice foe, has brought
up a discussion in which some persons
affirm that this particular picture is a
faxed one.
ut was taken at White River Junction
on the Connecticut River. near Dartmouth
College, and we could call. nearly all the
The New York herald., 1921-10-30

boys of that college as witnesses of the
realism of the picture, for they spent the
greater part of every day on the banks
of the river watching us while we worked
A force of $50 men had to be employed
to assist in getting the effect we wanted.
as the foe had to be forced and the way
we did it was to dynamite the ice below
the fall There were lots of escapes in
the making of that picture which do not
appear in it and we all got wet over and
over again in attempting to realize our
ideal.
"As you ask me what kind Of subjects
in pictures are what in the profession are
called sure fire. may refer you to this
one, Way Down East, which simply
couldn't fail. Another that we are max
ing now here in Mamaroneck belongs in
the same category. 1t is The Two o.
phans.' In driving up to this Office, which
was formerly the country home of Henry
M. Flagler, you could not have failed to see
the Paris street we have built. While
il looks very old or as being a replica of
a vanished street of old Paris, similar
streets lasted in the French capital, like
the Rue de la Lune, long after the city had
been Hausmannized."
British Department of War Propaganda to
take charge of all cinema men for the
Allies. Armed with personal papers signed
by David Lloyd George end the Earl of
Derby he spent months on the front lines
land was often in No Mans Land. beyond
the lines and within thirty yards of the
lines of the Germans. Through that first
critical year Brig Gen. Crawford worked
IA. I.sI IL
work of picture making was done while
under fire.
Technically, the cinema is continuing
to make progress in Mr.. Griffth's opinion.
Cameras are being improved and these i'm
provements are being more rapidly made
in this country than abroad. There was
a time, he commented when the really fine
cameras came from Europe. Now the
producer has a choice of several of Amer.
lean make that in certain respects are
superior to those made in Europe. While
it seemed to the producer that these me-
chanical things had about touched perfec.
tion, he disliked to put a period to i'm
provement by prophecy.
Technically we are coming nearer and
nearer to our ideal and IL will have to be
admitted by all save those who are preiu
diced unfairly that the work turned out by
the various studios is also improving in
character as an art product and as an
educator.
How could It be otherwise? The movies
in their beginnings did not make a loud
call to brains. They do so now. The best
brains OF the land are now assisting in
their evolution. Still are to be found
traces of brainless, even silly, production
for which there is no excuse to be found,
even in the fact that they continue-these
senseless and improbable concoctions-
to please a type of low intellect. But pic.
lures of this kind are becoming less and
The New York herald., 1921-10-30
WHAT MR. GRIFFITH THINKS OF CENsoRs.

a nev
to a TO 20
should think, o shown
to
OF o
for hem should De mo osely scrutin -
With o nota
o which
quite Harmless
fathers and mott
If fsucha
Il safely to
circulation But all am
the
The New York herald., 1921-10-30
Went First to Brooklyn.
Believing 1t Was Manhattan

Once off the train | didn't know where
to go, and l was almost too shy to ask
how to cross over to New York. When /
did feel bold enough to inquire of a ferry
man he must have misunderstood me, for
| went on a ferryboat that took me to
Brooklyn. But thought it was New York,
and walked about every day for week
staring at the wonders Spf what l took for
the metropolis. Finally / woke up.
THE SIS wouldn't last forever / wasn't
so green as to think it would, so | came
over to New York and set about finding
a job. / went to the newspapers first of
all, but it seemed they were all letting men
go, but l sold some things to THE New
YORK HERALD just the same and got few
dollars.
1T was the fall of the year and some
body told me | looked like an actor, and
why not try to be one? | did try all the
managers, but for several weeks to no pur-
pose. | wasn't too discouraged, strange as
it must SEEM but kept on trying to write
things and to sell them
"Then one day got an acceptance from
the Cosmopolitan Mdgdsine of a poem l
had submitted. l opened the letter on the
subway and it is a mercy that / didn't
jump Out Wullp tHC Train was III I0OLlOU,
my excitement was so great. The check
enclosed by a strange coincidence was for
precisely the sum of money I brought to
the city--that is. SIS. But il looked to me
as big as the Woolworth Building.
"A little later | sold story, and all the
time I was writing plays. One day in the
Public Library l read in book by Pinero
that the way to train ones self to write a
play was to become an actor. remembered
what had been said about my looking like
one and | started another round of the
managers offices. This time l was sue
cessful; i was engaged at tiny salary as
an all round spear carrier in the Walker
Whiteside company. He was playing
Shakespearian repertoire and | was the
Messenger from Sicyon, and similar char
acters not of vast Importance.
"A couple OF seasons with Mckee Rankin
and Nance O'Neil in plays by Shakespeare
and Ibsen followed and concluded my
actual actor experience. For now I had
another string to my poor bow; | had
started to write scenarios for the movies,
then coming into great prominence. 1t
was in 1902 or 1908 that sold my first
scenario for SIS, and that was another
greatest moment in my life
These we're the days when 500 feet of.
reel meant a big picture. II it ran ten
minutes 1t was an event. The business of
The New York herald., 1921-10-30
,aIe of the Cinema
When 1t First Started

''The wages / was allowed to offer him
corresponded to the small and even penuri-
Gus methods then existing in making
picture. A director in those days was
supposed to do in three or four days what
we would now take a year to accomplish.
To give you an example, / took my little
company up to a New England village for
the purpose of making a picture and was
allowed exactly $50 for all expenses, includ-
ing their board and my own Our ex.
penses came to that occult sum that fol.
lowed me all through my beginnings, SIS
more than the allowance, and this | ad
vanced out of my own pocket | am not
sure that l was reimbursed, but didn't care,
for that particular picture was success
In my novtiate ! made the picture of
Mary Pickford as The Violin Maker of Gre
mona,' Ingomar Merchant of Venice
Sands of Dee writing all the versions my.
self. l was a sort of universal tinkerer
in dramatic things, like Nicholas Nickleby.
ut took long argument and much per-
suasion to convince the people at the
top that real money must be spent to keep
the people coming to the movies. Their
answers used to be something like this:
We can get 'em just by showing a horse
edIlHS III meadow or a railway train
running across the film. Why should we
spend money for all the foolishIy expensive
things you want to do?
Then, too, a film of 500 or 900 feet that
ran ten minutes served about the limit of
their desires. In order to get one that
should run twenty-five minutes accepted
and run out | was compelled to divide a
picture into two parts, calling one His
Trust and the other His Trust Fulfilled
This was the first movie serial.
MY next attempted innovation a two
Ieel picture, aroused even more opposi-
tion; 1 was accused of attempting to upset
the business.
However we did go on making progress
Judith of Bethulia,' The Escape The
Battle The Conscience were all progress.
sive, and the first named was the first
four reel film ever turned out in this coun-
try. A five reel film was accomplished a
little later by a sort of subterfuge 1t was
Home, Sweet Home based on Payne's
song, but made up of five separate stories
The New York herald., 1921-10-30
His Real idea of Movies
Expressed in Deep Sincerity

With deep seriousness Mr.. Griffith re
Piled:
"The moving picture is a form Of expires
sion as powerful but more alert and agile
than the printed word. The power of the
latter for good and evil has never been
denied. No more can the power of the
moving picture. 1t speaks more easily
and more universally than any other form
of expression. Is It an art form? Yes.
And as it can show what great painting
cannot, a tree with branches and leaves
moving in the wind, II reaches closer to
nature.
"The moving picture instructs. while II
may delight. 1t carries an idea to the
brain as the common vision cannot do
with more swiftness and with greater
fidelity than the eye OF the ordinary man
can gain from his own observation OF
nature. Its scenes being taken away from
their context, so to speak, are revealed
with deeper truth to the gazer.
"Since the world itself is but vision.
an outgrowth of thought and idea, the
value of the moving picture as a trans
lator into simple units is not to be meas
ured. II is immeasurable. The whole
world is embraced Uy the scope of the
movie and all the peoples in IL. Every
where IL has spread without any propa-
ganda. And 1t has just begun its true
work. which is to teach. II Is bound to
have tremendous future"
Another man would have ended this
long sentence breathlessly. The producer
spoke II calmly. slowly. with here and
there a pause, with folded arms and arms
that unfolded and permitted hand to
reach out for flag"
What was evident was his heartfelt be
lief in the truth of what he said. There
isn't little bit of a chance that he will
quit the movies and write those dreamed
Of plays.
The New York herald., 1921-10-30
Fit Mentally and Physically
For Anv SeIf-Made Task

David Wark Griffith looks like man in
the best of health, completely fit for any
exertion. physical or mental, he sets for
himself; full, indeed, of surplus energy
hard muscled, spare and enduring. He
doesn't play much, has no golf or bill
iards, no indoor games. He likes long
walks and shares the opinion of former
British Prime Minister that the outside
of horse is the best thing for the inside
of a man. Also he looks as completely
competent, discerning clear headed and
fesourceful as man could be.
II am always busy" said he II direct
everything myself, leaving to an under.
study only thing like flash back but
amid all details Of whatever occupation
| try to keep myself fit.
Calm and masterful, but reasonable,
withal, swayed by impulses that are never
rheless kept sternly in leash, ready to en-
gage the right actor for his purposes and
- ready to discharge the wrong one, he
can be stern and yet is capable of kindli-
ness. In sum, the impression he left 10
The New York herald., 1921-10-30
DAVID WARK GRIFFITH, MOTION PICTURE IDEl
Personality of Man Who Made The Birth Nation
Revealed in Unusual nterview-Born in Kentucky He Came
New York Twenty-Five Years Ago and Realized His
Ambition by Developing the Cinema Play

writing" these things absorbed me, | wrote
easily $50 or 400, and l sold four or five at
prices varying from S. to SIS each. Most
of my sales were made to the Biograph,
which had the field 'cinched and was
almost without rival. My connection with
the company through my little scenarios
led me to try for a job of acting in them;
l got it.
my chance in the movies" said the
now famous director, "came when in the
progress of making a picture director fell
sick. 1t was known that / had written
some scenarios Chat the big people had
sort of liked and that had been real
actor. | was permitted to try my hand
and l did finish the picture satisfactorily.
Then l had my second chance, which
was to produce my own piece called The
Adventures of Dolly-sounds like comedy,
doesn't it? BY no means, | was too new
to write comedy and this piece was built
up on situations Of tragedy 1t needed an
actor who could both look and act like
gentleman-who, in fact, was one. Here
chance again helped me. | had sought
in vain for what l wanted when I saw in
the outer room of a managers Office the
actor / wanted. / followed him out into
the street and accosted him, asking him if
he didn't want to go into the movies. He
wasn't keen about it, but l persuaded him
to try. The big figure was able to offer
him was SIS day. I won't name him, but
this man is now one of the recognized
figures in movie land
The New York herald., 1921-10-30

less for the very good reason that they
do not pay.
when ] say that the movies are calling
to them the best brains | mean just that.
/ do not know of any great and accepted
writer of fiction who does not see his op-
portunity to extend his influence by this
attractive medium. To prove this | need
only instance Wells, Barrie, Kipling among
the Englishmen and Rex Beach and Ru
pert Hughes among our own novelists.
The latter two by themselves going into
the direction of their stories are on the
right track.
1T is not necessary in the face of staring
facts to add that no actor has proved too
great for the movies. And it would sur
prise you to be told how many applications
we have here weekly from people well
known in society who would like to become
associated either as actors or in some
capacity in the work of picture maxine
The daughter of William j. Bryan has
gone into directing moving pictures ser-
ously and she and her father paid us 4
visit here for the purpose of getting az
simlable ideas and criticism of a film
she had made"
From what had gone before the ques-
toner of the poetic, literary producer who
had admitted that his greatest ambition
remained what it had been in his boyhood
way back in La Grange, KY, to live on
a farm and write plays. felt no trepidation
in asking question as he might have done
had the interview proceeded differently
Then he might have anticipated an answer
made up of lot of trite and obvious
things.
Here is the question:
Now tell me with perfect candor. heart
to heart and soul to soul. what do you
really think of the movies?"
The New York herald., 1921-10-30

wasn't burdensome But there were influ-
ences in our home that urged me beyond
these small beginnings.
my father old Thunder Jake, was all
soldier, but he had profound respect for
what he called book knowledge He fought
in the Mexican war and was Brigadier-
General in the First Kentucky Cavalry in
the war between the States. In his book
on Kentucky Col. Polk Johnson declares
that my father was the first officer who
ever directed a cavalry charge in a buggy.
Badly wounded in a previous engagement,
he had to go on the field this way or not
at ALL Rough soldier as he was he never
forgot the refining influences of our old
home in Virginia.
Praises His Sister Matte
For Influence in Boyhood
But it was to my sister Matte that 1
looked and never failed to receive encour-
agement I'm my efforts for self-improve-
ment and in my ambitions. 1t is difficult
to imagine nowadays how straitened we
were in Kentucky for the means of i'm
provement She remembered though, the
lyceums, the lectures, the library societies
of Virginia, and the refining help of these
half sad recollections she endowed me with.
I owe her so great debt that l wish there
was some way to repay it, but she left us
long ago.
We'll, what do you think my ambitions
were? | aspired to be playwright. That
sounds absurd as the ambition of Ken
lucky farm boy, eh? All the same kept
the hope constantly in mind. I used to
try to write play after had got my first
job. 1t was on country newspaper in
Smithville, KY"
What did you write for the paper?"
Mr.. Griffith laughed his deep, short laugh
and lighted another cigarette.
Il never got as Tar as writing anything
for it, said he; my job was to run the
hand press and to wrap up papers, mixed
with hunting out The subscribers and gath
ering in the wood and green stuff. eggs,
&C., which they gave up in payment. 1
remember vividly how used to hope they
might pay in fresh killed chickens.
For this first job I was paid 81 week
and my board. From here l graduated to
a second newspaper job with a man who
ran what he called syndicate 1t con-
sisted of three country papers, one of them
being the Baptist Record. He gave me a
little more in wages and occasionally he
let me write a short piece for the paper.
"All the time I was growing up 1
thought of when l should get away and
come East. New York, without being
aware of it, beckoned to me. As 10 sold
my bicycle, my brother gave me a small
sum of money, enough for railway ticket,
and East | came. l landed in Jersey City
with SIS.
The New York herald., 1921-10-30

- TT boy hungering for knowledge
back in the hills of Kentucky
t,yan+y6,,o vaors % had heer
Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1921-06-15
MINERAL POINT EDITOR DEAD.

Services for Robert Moffett Craw-
ford, 81, veteran Wisconsin newspap-
erman. were held in the Episcopal
church at Mineral. Point, Monday
Mr.. Crawford, who had been a resi-
dent of Mineral Point for more than
60 years and engaged in the news
paper business for more than so
years, died Saturday at Bradley Me-
mortal hospital at Madison He was
born in the town of Kendall, Lafay-
cite county, June Z, 1854.
For years he had been editor of
the Iowa County Democrat. He was
lifelong Democrat and was a mem
Der of the Masonic lodge. He had
held the position of alderman, county
commissioner, postmaster and assem-
blyman.
Surviving Mr. Crawford are his
/! widow, Martha Galsworthy Crawford
two sons, Robert S. Crawford, Madi-
son, alumni secretary and editor OF
! The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine, and
! Willard G. Crawford, Coleraine, MINI.
chief chemist of the Oliver Mining
Co.; two brothers, William Crawford,
/ Helena, Mont, and George Crawford,
postmaster at Mineral Point, and a
sister, Margaret Crawford, librarian.
Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1921-06-15
OBITUARY-MRS. MARION YAGER

Julia Alta Welch was born in Du-
buque, Iowa, on Sept. 1, 1891, married
to Marion Edward wager on Sept. II,
1911 and died at Burton, Wis, on
May End, 1921 aged 20 years, months
and one day. She leaves to mourn
her loss the husband and one son,
aged years, father, mother and two
brothers, Harry WEIGH, John WEIGH,
and two sisters, Mrs. Ora wager, Mrs.
Glen Pauley of Burton, Wis, one sis
ter Mildred preceded her to the grave
some three years ago.
She was a member of the Royal
Neighbor camp at Burton, Wis, who
took charge of the services at the
grave She was loved by all who
knew her, always ready to help where
help was needed She is sadly missed
by her husband and little son, father,
mother, sisters and brothers, besides
a host of friends as was shown by
the large funeral procession and the
floral offerings. She was laid to rest
in the Burton cemetery, Rev. Teller
of the Methodist Episcopal church
preached a very appropriate sermon.
We wish in this way to thank the
many friends and neighbors who
helped us so much in the sickness
and death of our dear wife and mo-
Their also for the many floral offerings.
M. E. wager and son Leonard
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Welch
and children.
"A Friend.