We are the world's foremost private collectors on
the acclaimed silent film director, D.W. Griffith (AKA David Wark
Griffith). WE WILL PAY TOP DOLLAR for the following original
material related to Griffith:
~ Movie Posters (One-Sheets,
Three-Sheets, Six Sheets, Half-Sheets, Window Cards, etc.)
~
Lobby Cards
~
Photographs (movie scene stills, portraits/candids of
Griffith, autographed photos, etc.)
~ Programs, Souvenir Programs
& Pressbooks
~ Glass Slides
~ Original documents signed
by/pertaining to Griffith
~ Personal items belonging to Griffith
If you have any of this
material for sale, please call us at (323) 464-4118 or contact us
via email at info@silentcinema.com.
Thank
you!
About D.W. Griffith
From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._W._Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 -
July 23, 1948) was a premier pioneering American film director. He
is best known as the director of the controversial and
groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent
film Intolerance (1916). Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made
pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and its
immense popularity set the stage for the dominance of the
feature-length film. However, it also proved extremely controversial
at the time and ever since for its highly negative depiction of
black Americans and their supporters, and its positive portrayal of
slavery and the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith responded to his critics with
his next film, Intolerance, intended to show the dangers of
prejudiced thought and behavior. The film was not the financial
success that its predecessor had been, but was received warmly by
critics. Several of his later films were also successful, but high
production, promotional, and roadshow costs often made his ventures
commercial failures. However, he is generally considered one of the
most important figures of early cinema.
In 1907, Griffith, still having goals for becoming
a successful playwright, went to New York and attempted to sell a
script to Edison Studios producer Edwin Porter. Porter rejected
Griffith's script but gave him an acting part in Rescued From An
Eagle's Nest. Finding his way into the motion picture business, he
soon began to direct a huge body of work. In 1908, Griffith accepted
an acting job for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
commonly known as Biograph, in New York City. At Biograph,
Griffith's career in the film industry would also change forever. In
1908, Biograph's main director Wallace McCutcheon grew ill, and his
son, Wallace McCutcheon, Jr., took his place. McCutcheon, Jr.,
however, was not able to bring the studio success. As a
result, Biograph head Henry Marvin decided to give Griffith the
position; Griffith then made his first movie for the company, The
Adventures of Dollie.
Biograph was the first company to shoot a film in
Hollywood, California, the film In Old California (1910). Influenced
by the Italian feature film Cabiria (1914), Griffith was convinced
that feature films were commercially viable. He produced and
directed the Biograph film Judith of Bethulia (1914), one of the
earliest feature films to be produced in the United States. However,
Biograph believed that longer features were not viable. According to
actress Lillian Gish, "[Biograph] thought that a movie that long
would hurt [the audience's] eyes". Because of this, and the
film's budget overrun (it cost $30,000 to produce), Griffith left
Biograph and took his whole stock company of actors with him. He
joined the Mutual Film Corporation and formed a studio, with
Majestic Studio manager Harry Aitken, known as Reliance-Majestic
Studios (which was later renamed Fine Arts Studio). His new
production company became an autonomous production unit partner in
Triangle Film Corporation along with Thomas Ince and Keystone
Studios' Mack Sennett; the Triangle Film Corporation was headed by
Griffith's partner Harry Aitken, who was released from the Mutual
Film Corporation and his brother Roy. Through Reliance-Majestic
Studios, he produced The Clansman (1915), which would shortly be
re-titled to The Birth of a Nation.
Historically, The
Birth of a Nation was the first blockbuster. It is considered
important by film historians as one of the first feature length
American films (most previous films had been less than one hour
long), and arguably it changed the industry standard to one still
recognized today. It was enormously popular, breaking box
office records, but aroused controversy due to its depiction of
slavery race relations in the Civil War and the Reconstruction era.
Like its source material, Thomas Dixon, Jr.'s 1905 novel The
Clansman, it depicts Southern pre-Civil War slavery as benign, the
enfranchisement freedman as a corrupt Republican plot, and the Ku
Klux Klan as a band of heroes restoring the rightful order. This
view of the era was popular at the time, and was endorsed by
historians of the Dunning School for decades, although it met with
strong criticism from the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People and other groups. However, attempts by the NAACP
to stop showings of the film failed, and it went on to become the
most successful box office attraction of its time. "They lost track
of the money it made," Lillian Gish once remarked in a Kevin
Brownlow interview. Among the people who profited by the film was
Louis B. Mayer, who bought the rights to distribute The Birth of a
Nation in New England. With the money he made, he was able to begin
his career as a producer that culminated in the creation of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Margaret Mitchell, who wrote Gone with
the Wind, was also inspired by Griffith's Civil War
epic
However, after seeing The Birth of a Nation,
audiences in some major northern cities also responded by rioting
over the film's racial content. After The Birth of a Nation
had run its course in theaters, Griffith would also respond to the
negative reception a vast amount of critics gave the film through
his next film Intolerance, which dealt with the effects of
intolerance in four different historical periods: the Fall of
Babylon; the Crucifixion of Christ; the Massacre of the Huguenots;
and a modern story. During its release, however, Intolerance was not
a financial success; although it had good box office turn-outs, the
film did not bring in enough profits to cover the lavish road show
that accompanied it. Like The Birth Of A Nation, Griffith put a huge
budget into the film's production, which was also a key factor in
its failure at the box office. The production partnership was
dissolved in 1917, so Griffith went to (part of Paramount),
then to First National (1919-1920). At the same time he founded
United Artists, together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and
Douglas Fairbanks. At United Artists, Griffith continued to make
films, but never could achieve box office grosses as high as either
The Birth of a Nation or Intolerance.
More on Griffith: http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/06/griffith.html From "Senses of
Cinema"
Griffith Filmography:
http://allmovie.com/artist/dw-griffith-92597/filmography
From the All Movie
Guide
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