Evening star., 1948-07-23

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Incidentally, st. Peter also will
answer the telephone in the birth
registration section. -.
| Griffith
Continued From First Page.)
wood Knickerbocker Hotel. He had
been active until few days ago.
Saw His First Film Here.
1t was In Washington that David
Wark Griffith saw his first motion
picture Pickering few feet of cel-
lucid in a nicke1oGeon.
That was in 1904 when he was a
struggling actor and playwright.
The movie he saw here was an adap-
tation OF a play he had written.
Three years later, after q road
tour with Nance O'Neil, Mr.. Grif-
fifth remembered that motion pic
ture and decided to do something
about putting his own ideas to work
in the new field. The result was
that his name will live in cinematic
history as the man whose genius and
courage developed diSreputable in
dustry into an art.
Mr.. Griffith was credited with
developing the flashback, the close
up, mist photography, the fadeout
and other revolutionary ideas which
caused gasps of astoniShment when
first flashed on the screen.
His Cameraman Quit.
When fate took Griffith from in
front of the camera and put him
behind it, he Immediately voiced
those changes he had been vision
ing, only to be laughed at by his
fellow workers. How radical he was
considered is proved by the fact that
Billy Bitter, his first cameraman
and one who was with him for
many years, quit when the master"
suggested a shot close enough to
show expressions on the human
face.
But the director had his way. And
when the audience first saw the
closeup, so widely used today. it is
recorded they hissed enthusiastically
and yelled, Where are their feet?"
In another picture, Mr.. Griffith
cut away from scene to show the
reaction of the people nearby. The
cut from girl in barrel sub
merged in a river to people on shore
registering fright at her predica-
ment, thus was another giant step
toward establishing the modern
technique of all motion picture
making.
That and the closeup released
the movies from the Greek idea OF
dramatic unity and spread forth the
magic carpet of the world before
them.
Made Many Stars.
The public responding more
quickly to the romantic phase of
the art, knew Mr.. Griffith best as
a maker of careers and stars and
a personality fused with the motion
picture tradition.
Mr.. Griffith developed more stars
than any other one man. Some of
those he either broughtto the screen
or developed were Dorothy and
Lillion Gish, Blanche Sweet, Mae
Marsh, Owen Moore, Alice Joyce,
Mabel Normand, Wallace Reid,
Richard Barthelmess,s Henry .B.
Walthall, James Kirkwood, Lionel
Barrymore, Harry Carey and Mack
Sennett..
Mary Picford was, Of course, his
first and most famous discovery"
1t was Mr.. Griffith who induced her
equally famous husband, Douglas
Fairbanks. sr., to leave the stage for
the screen.
Was Born in Kentucky.
"The Master" as Mr.. Griffith be-
came known in motion picture cir
cles, is listed in biographies as hav-
ing been born in La Grange, KY.
January %, $780, Court actions and
events during his lite indicate he
was 73. His father was Col. Jacob
Wark Griffith and his mother was
Margaret Oglespy. a direct descend
ant of a long line of Welsh kings.
Mr.. Griffith gained most of his early
education from his sister, Matte,
who read all the classics to him.
At IT, he became a reporter for
the Louisville Courier-Journal, but
after year he quit to become an
actor. Between infrequent engage
ments, he wrote poetry, worked in a
Tonawanda, N. Y, iron works and
scraped rust in the New York
subway.
In 1907, the same year that he
played his first movie role, at the
Biograph studio, he and an actress
named Linda Avidson were married
Four years later, in 1911, they
separated, but neither sought
divorce. A property settlement was
reached at the time by which Mrs.
Griffith was to receive one-half of
her husbands income Friends es-
innate she was paid close to
$5, 100000.
This status endured Is years, then
Griffith obtained divorce. He had
established his legal residence in his
birthplace, La Grange KY, and got
his decree under Kentucky statute
which permitted a divorce after a
couple had lived apart five years or
more. In his deposition, Mr.. Crit
fifth stated that he did not know his
wife's whereabouts. The decree was
granted March 2, 1886, and that eve
ming Mr.. Griffith married Evelyn
Marjorie Baldwin of New York, who
gave her age as 26.
When Mr.. Grifntn went to work