When the movies were young

by Linda Arvidson

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue

Copyright, 1925,
By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	Eleven East Fourteenth Street	[1]
II.	Endings and Beginnings	[8]
III.	Climacteric—an Earthquake and a Marriage	[14]
IV.	Young Ambitions and a Few Jolts	[22]
V.	The Movies Tempt	[29]
VI.	Movie Acting Days—and an “If”	[37]
VII.	D. W. Griffith Directs His First Movie	[45]
VIII.	Digging In	[53]
IX.	First Publicity and Early Scenarios	[62]
X.	Wardrobe—and a Few Personalities	[71]
XI.	Mack Sennett Gets Started	[77]
XII.	On Location—Experiences Pleasant and Otherwise	[82]
XIII.	At the Studio	[90]
XIV.	Mary Pickford Happens Along	[99]
XV.	Acquiring Actors and Style	[108]
XVI.	Cuddebackville	[115]
XVII.	“Pippa Passes” Filmed	[127]
XVIII.	Getting On	[134]
XIX.	To the West Coast	[143]
XX.	In California and on the Job	[155]
XXI.	Back Home Again	[173]
XXII.	It Comes to Pass	[184]
XXIII.	The First Two-reeler	[190]
XXIV.	Embryo Stars	[201]
XXV.	Marking Time	[208]
XXVI.	The Old Days End	[221]
XXVII.	Somewhat Digressive	[234]
XXVIII.	“The Birth of a Nation”	[245]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

	FACING PAGE
Biograph’s studio, Eleven East Fourteenth Street	[Frontispiece]
“Lawrence” Griffith	[6]
Linda Arvidson (Mrs. David W. Griffith)	[7]
Linda Arvidson (Mrs. Griffith), David W. Griffith and Harry Salter, in “When Knights were Bold”	[22]
Marion Davies, Forrest Stanley, Ruth Shepley and Ernest Glendenning in “When Knighthood was in Flower”	[22]
Advertising Bulletin for “Balked at the Altar”	[23]
Biograph Mutoscope of the murder of Stanford White	[38]
The first Biograph Girl, Florence Lawrence, in “The Barbarian”	[39]
From “The Politician’s Love Story”	[39]
The brilliant social world of early movie days	[54]
“Murphy’s,” where members of Biograph’s original stock company consumed hearty breakfasts	[55]
From “Edgar Allan Poe”	[70]
Herbert Pryor, Linda Griffith, Violet Mersereau and Owen Moore in “The Cricket on the Hearth”	[70]
“Little Mary” portraying the type of heroine that won her a legion of admirers	[71]
Register of Caudebec Inn at Cuddebackville	[71]
Caudebec Inn at Cuddebackville	[86]
From “The Mended Lute,” made at Cuddebackville	[86]
Frank Powell, Mr. Griffith’s first $10-a-day actor, with Marion Leonard in “Fools of Fate”	[86]
Richard Barthelmess with Nazimova in “War Brides”	[87]
From “Wark” to “work,” with only the difference of a vowel	[102]
Biograph’s one automobile	[102]
Annie Lee. From “Enoch Arden,” the first two-reel picture	[103]
Jeanie Macpherson, Frank Grandin, Linda Griffith and Wilfred Lucas in “Enoch Arden”	[103]
The vessel that was towed from San Pedro. From “Enoch Arden”	[103]
The Norwegian’s shack. From “Enoch Arden”	[103]
The most artistic fireside glow of the early days	[118]
The famous “light effect”	[118]
From “The Mills of the Gods”	[119]
Biograph’s first Western studio	[119]
A desert caravan of the early days	[134]
From “The Last Drop of Water,” one of the first two-reelers	[134]
Mabel Normand “off duty”	[135]
Joe Graybill, Blanche Sweet and Vivian Prescott in “How She Triumphed”	[150]
Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand and Fred Mace in a “Keystone Comedy”	[151]
Lunch on the “lot,” Biograph’s “last word” studio, the second year	[151]
Mary Pickford as a picturesque Indian	[166]
The Hollywood Inn, the setting for “The Dutch Gold Mine”	[167]
From “Comrades,” the first picture directed by Mack Sennett	[167]
Mary Pickford’s first picture, “The Violin Maker of Cremona”	[182]
Mary Pickford’s second picture, “The Lonely Villa”	[182]
Mary Pickford and Mack Sennett in “An Arcadian Maid”	[183]
Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett, Joe Graybill and Marion Sunshine in “The Italian Barber”	[183]
Linda Griffith and Mr Mackay in “Mission Bells,” a Kinemacolor picture play	[198]
A rain effect of early days at Kinemacolor’s Los Angeles studio	[199]
A corner of Biograph’s stylish Bronx studio	[214]
The beginning of the Griffith régime at 4500 Sunset Boulevard	[215]
Blanche Sweet and Kate Bruce in “Judith of Bethulia,” the first four-reel picture directed by D. W. Griffith	[230]
Lillian Russell and Gaston Bell in a scene illustrative of her beauty lectures, taken in Kinemacolor	[231]
Sarah Bernhardt, the first “Famous Player”	[231]

WHEN THE MOVIES
WERE YOUNG

WHEN THE MOVIES WERE YOUNG