This Week:
Let's Go to the Movies
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone – Excerpt Doc confronts his lawyer.
Writers Notebook: John Steinbeck – Anxious moments.
Let's Go to the Movies
Hollywood Silents 1914-1929 Part 5
D.W. Griffith's broad story concept for Birth of a Nation was not the only new innovation he had planned for the film. Working with his long time cameraman Billy Bitzer they started from day one of the production to implement film making concepts never used before. Camera angles, jump cuts, closeups, fades, lighting effects, and many other technical effects that were unheard of then, but common place today.
Griffith had hired a large cast that was about as talented and versatile as any cast you'll ever find in motion picture history.
The names given star billing in Variety's review were Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish, Donald Crisp and Raoul Walsh. The cast list is long and here are a few more names that would become familiar to the public in the next few years, some in front of the camera, others back of the camera. Wallace Reid, Monte Blue, Josephine Crowell, John Ford, William Freeman, Howard Gaye, Joseph Henaberry, Jennifer Lee, Elmo Lincoln, Walter Long, Bessie Love and Erich Von Stroheim among them.
The shooting schedule took up the last half of 1914 and the costs mounted to more than $112,000.00 – Variety reported it to be $300,000.00.
Any producer today will tell you that the pockets never run deep enough to satisfy everyone and so it was with Birth of a Nation.
The original financing was put up by the Mutual Company, but as weeks ran into months without an end in sight and costs continuing to rise the Mutual directors instructed their president Harry Aitken to cancel the companies participation or assume the investment himself. Aitken did the latter, and he along with Griffith and the Reverend Dixon, the writer of the book, formed the Epoch Producing Company to handle this one exceptional film. It was no easy task and the group had to scramble to round up money in order to make payroll.
But they did complete the picture and once the editing was finished and titles set in place they had a print made and began showing the film to selected audiences in order to get feedback. There was some grumbling about the length, and others had political questions about some of the scenes depicting the post Civil War Reconstruction period. However, that being said, there was an overwhelming majority of positive feedback and enthusiasm for the film.
Griffith had an unprecedented film in size and scope and that alone set up a problem. The picture took up twelve reels and that begged the question for distribution, who could they get to distribute the film? The picture wouldn't fit into any of the regular channels of distribution. How could anyone put up front money at risk to pay the kind of rent they would have to charge?
To solve the short term problem their company Epoch would have to take charge. They rented Clune's Auditorium a 2,600 seat house in Los Angeles. And on the night of February 3, 1915 D.W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation had its World Premiere.
The audience went crazy over the film and from that opening night Birth of A Nation took on a life of its own.
The show business magazine Variety reviewed the film after its New York opening at the Liberty Theater on March 3, 1915 and their reviewer pronounced Birth of a Nation as the last word in picture making.
'...The story involves: The Camerons of the south and the Stonemans of the north and Silas Lynch, the mulatto Lieutenant-Governor; the opening and finish of the Civil War; the scenes attendant upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; the period of carpet-bagging days and Union reconstruction following Lee's surrender; and the terrorizing of the Southern whites by the newly freed blacks and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan . All these including some wonderfully well staged battle scenes taken at nigh

This Week:
Let's Go to the Movies
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone (Spicer hearing excerpt)
Writers Notebook: The growth of Sidney Sheldon's characters.
Let's Go to the Movies
Hollywood Silents 1914-1929 Part 4
Charlie Chaplin was a British comic and grew up in the theater. He was on an American tour when Mack Sennett saw him and signed him to a contract with Keystone. Sennett saw great potential in Chaplin's comedic humor, but was stumped as to how best to transfer that humor and energy to film. Out of frustration he just said, 'Get into a comedy makeup,' possibly thinking along the lines of a circus clown. Chaplin recalled the incident and said he had no idea what kind of makeup Sennett had in mind. He went to wardrobe and it struck him that baggy pants and oversized shoes might work. Fatty Arbuckle contributed a derby hat and a pair of his own pants. Chester Conklin provided a tight fitting cut away tail coat. And to make himself appear a bit older Chaplin added the small mustache.
Once he put the full costume on and added a cane it all felt right – and at that moment the little tramp was born.
Roscoe C. 'Fatty' Arbuckle joined the theater at an early age working for the Webster-Brown Stock Company. Arbuckle was a talented actor and comedian and he could play parts and did from acrobats to circus clowns to singing waiters.
By 1913 Arbuckle had his eye on film and directed several of his own one reel comedy skits.
In 1914 Mack Sennett recognized Arbuckle's talent and signed him with Keystone.
Mary Pickford:
America's Sweethart was born in Canada and her name was Gladys Smith. Her stage mother introduced her to the theater and the talented child fell in love with the theater from the beginning. The youngester was known on stage as 'Baby Gladys,' the public adored her from the beginning of her career and almost immediately made her a star.
At the age of 15 Gladys was mature enough to travel alone to New York. Her goal was to meet the famous producer David Belasco.She was aware that her chances of meeting the great producer was a longshot, however, her talent coupled with ambition and enthusiasm made theater people take notice. She made the rounds of theatrical agents and small time producers and in a very short period time she got that appointment to meet David Belasco. In the summer of 1907 she cabled her mother in Canada 'Gladys Smith now Mary Pickford – engaged by David Belasco to appear on Broadway this fall.'
Mary Pickford was a hit in the only Broadway play she did for Belasco 'The Warrens of Virginia.'
And it was during that time in New York that she discovered the movies. Mary followed her dream, made the rounds and fortunately got a job with Biograph Films working under the direction of D.W. Griffith. During those days in New York Biograph was a factory churning out a film every week.
In 1910 Griffith moved his troupe to California to get away from the New York Winters. Mary went along with the move and once in sunny California she played every kind of role you could imagine. She also wrote a few scenarios and sold them to Griffith for twenty five dollars each.
After appearing in 80 Biograph short films Mary Pickford left the company to work for Carl Leammle's IMP Company. (Leammle later founded Universal Pictures.)
Mary didn't care for the work enviroment at IMP and returned to Biograph and D.W. Griffith.
By that time the general public knew who Mary Pickford was and her films were becoming more and more popular.
The year following Mary Pickford's return to Biograph – the company produced its best body of work.
In the early Hollywood days film companies went in and out of business so fast that you needed a score card to keep up. Production companies were spread out all over the Los Angeles area. At one time there were a dozen or more film companies located on Mission Road in east Los Angeles. Tom Mix and Bronco Billy Anderson made their westerns in an area south of Glendale. Hollywood

Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
Excerpt: During the Spicer Hearings.
Following the November 3rd court session:
Doc walked with Wyatt to the Cosmopolitan Hotel to visit with Morgan and Virgil in order to fill them on their day in court. Wyatt stopped by Virgil's room and Doc simply poked his head in the door and called a greeting to Virg. Then he went down the hall to Morg's room and found his friend sitting in the middle of his bed, cross-legged, rolling a cigarette. He was in pain, but managed a grin. "How did you fellows make out in court today?"
"Could have been better, I guess."
"What happened?"
“Johnny Behan was at it again.” Doc took out his notes and quoted large portions of Behan's testimony and pointed out several discrepancies. Then he said, “Here’s one you might remember. The district attorney was questioning Behan about a conversation Behan had with Wyatt, shortly after the shooting was over. It was when Wyatt said to me, 'Behan, you have deceived me. You said you had disarmed them. Then Behan said, 'I did not say anything of the kind. I had said. 'Earp, I told you that I was there for the purpose of arresting them and disarming them. He said he thought I said that I had disarmed them.’”
“Bullshit!” Morg roared. “That’s exactly what the son-of-a-bitch said, ‘I have disarmed them.’”
“You got that right, Morg.” Then Doc leaned back in his chair, took a long drag from his cigarette. "But that son-of-a-gun finally stumbled into the truth. He said the nickel-plated pistol got off the first round.”
Morg grinned and looked knowingly at Doc.
“Something else, this afternoon, a Mrs. King took the stand and told of a remark you supposedly made to me, in front of Bauer's Butcher Shop, just before the fight.”
"What was it?" Morg asked.
"I don't remember you saying it, but here's the way she put it. ”Doc referred to his notes and then did a pretty good imitation of the lady. 'I heard the gentleman on the outside say to Mr. Holliday, 'Let them have it.' And Mr. Holliday said, 'All right."'
Morg hooted, "Quit that, Doc, it hurts too much to laugh."
Doc chuckled. "Do you remember that?"
Morg shook his head. "Don't remember nothin' like that. But I do remember when we got to Bauer's place we were all jawin' with the sheriff. Seems to me, you had dropped back a ways by then."
"I don't figure Mrs. King to be a liar,” Doc said, “but she could be mistaken. Another thing, she's probably been coached by the prosecution."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Lawyer's sometimes tell witnesses how to say things. Now this might sound picky, but at the inquest she gave two different versions of what you were supposed to have said. I read that inquest transcript. In one place she said, 'Let them have it,' and in another she changed it to, 'Give it to them.' Nobody questioned her about it."
"Comes down to pretty near the same thing don't it, " Morg remarked.
"Maybe, but she never said the second version in Spicer's court.” Doc twirled the end of his mustache. "I think the prosecution made sure the lady used the phrase that pictured us in the worst possible light. Yep, 'Let ’em have it,' sure makes it sound like we were spoiling for a fight.”
"Think the judge saw it that way?"
"Don't know." Then Doc shook his head and grinned, "I'll tell you something, Morg -- of all the poker faces I've read in my life -- that old man's got one of the best. I swear I never know what he's thinking."
Spicer Hearing Excerpts: (To be continued)

Let's Go to the The Movies
Hollywood Silents 1914-1929 Part 3
During 1914 Los Angeles looked like a boom town – film companies forming and location filming was going on all over the city. Local citizens decried the invasion of the movie makers and Frances Marion describes the situation in her autobiography, 'Off With Their Heads.'
'How could anyone resent the lively fun they had brought into this dull environment? You encounter the gyps