D.W. Griffith at The Biograph Company

-8-

Enoch Arden, 1911 poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson Wilfred Lucas & Linda Arvidson -click video excerpt-

Sennett would soon bring under his direction another Griffith actress, Mabel Normand.

She had listened to the dreams of young Sennett as had other Biograph actors, such as FORD STERLING, DELL HENDERSON and PATHE LEHRMAN.

Sennett gained experience as a director rather rapidly, and the inevitable offer came from Carl Laemmle at IMP for him to leave his $75.00 a week post at Biograph for one with IMP at a figure of $175.00 per week.

Unlike both Lawrence and Pickford, Sennett turns the offer down as he still feels he needs the additional time to learn film craftsmanship from working with and near Griffith.

But by the end of the fourth show, Sennett leaves Biograph as a result of a deal he strikes with two ex-bookies, Kessler and Bauman, to whom he owes money.

The Curtain Pole, January 1909 Max Sennett -click video excerpt-

The three men put up money to form a comedy film company which Sennett quickly develops into the famed KEYSTONE COMEDY COMPANY, with Mack Sennett becoming the King of Comedy, custard pies, bathing beauties and the Keystone Kops.

Another whose career rises at Biograph is ARTHUR JOHNSON.

His relationship with Griffith goes back to Griffith's first directorial effort, THE ADVENTURES OF DOLLIE and henceforth to become Griffith's leading actor, starring opposite both Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford.

As with the female leads, the measure of his own popularity was kept a secret from Johnson at Biograph.

His tall, ruggedly handsome figure was known to have made girls in nickelodeons swoon at his performance.

Griffith's personal friendship with Johnson would grow during the first three shows, but his drinking problem was to become progressively more acute and it made him a very unreliable leading actor.

At the end of the third show, he leaves Biograph for a better offer given to him by the RELIANCE PICTURES CO. To take his place in rank, but never completely filling his shoes were two young extras developed by Griffith, LIONEL BARRYMORE and DONALD CRISP.

Lionel Barrymore is from a distinguished theatrical family with a keen interest in painting, light and design.

He stays with Griffith on and off during the fourth and fifth shows. His acting is augmented by his serving as an assistant to Griffith plus his working on designs for Griffith's backdrops and sets.

Donald Crisp, wellknown for his later career as a character actor, begins with Griffith at the age of twenty-six at the end of the third show.

Over the course of the final two shows, he remains an actor part time and becomes yet another of Griffith's assistant directors along with CHRISTY CABANNE.

HENRY B. WALTHALL is another with whom Griffith develops a personal friendship similar to that with Arthur Johnson.

Walthall begins working at Biograph during the second show, but leaves after the third to go to RELIANCE PICTURES along with Arthur Johnson.

Unlike Johnson, Walthall returns for the last show and the production of JUDITH OF BETHULIA, then continues on to screen immortality with Griffith in THE BIRTH OF A NATION.