-intro page 2-

Griffith is nearly six feet tall with a handsome, elongated face.  He is very self-conscious of his nose, which he considers too long, but it adds, rather than detracts, from his stately, nearly regal manner, which itself is a reflection of his heritage and the manners of the Old South.  

The Civil War was a decade past when he was born; yet his family, his home and the entire social and cultural atmosphere of the Confederacy were to help shape the man who would become the father of all moving picture making.   His deep chest and his articulate, compelling voice, complete with a touch of the Southern accent, completed the portrait of a logical and very rational mind.   His first and last ambition, until fate would turn his attention into picture, was to be a writer, a dream that he had nurtured since he was six years old.  

Ira interviewing Lillian Gish 1972

His Southern background, aided and abetted by his father's military career, added a martial air to Griffith's character, but with the war but a memory, he turned himself to more scholarly pursuits.   He dreamed of becoming a great literary figure, a dream that was to turn more specifically to the interest of becoming a dramatist. In furtherance of this goal, he started acting to better his feel of and for the theatre.   Griffith was very young when his father passed away; with the family wealth also gone, he looked for work along with the other able members of his family.

The Early Career of D.W. Griffith - Photoplay Magazine, July, 1916 As Visualized by Artist Gale

Jobs ranged from the indignity of a wire elevator operator to the somewhat more refined status as a salesman for Encyclopedia Britannica; but eventually his interests would join hands with economic need and Griffith turned to acting.

But survival as an actor meant that he would dig ditches and pick hops among other odd jobs to survive the periods of unemployment that are so characteristic of theatre work.  During this time in his life, free moments were spent reading, writing and in dreaming of goals yet unachieved. Griffith was a dreamer; when it came to his future, he had an ego matching his confidence in himself and his future. 

His dreams and attitudes brought LINDA ARVIDSON into his life. They were travelling together in a road show company and she was taken up in the Griffith personality and dreams. She shared his dreams and wanted to develop with him.

When Knights were Bold
Linda Arvidson (Mrs. Griffith) D.W. Griffith Harry Salter

After they had been married for two years, a time of continued travelling with theatre troupes, our opening show finds them back in New York City. Even as a youth, Griffith seemed an unlikely candidate for marriage.   Within him there was that certain something that rendered him larger than the conventional concept of marriage seemed to require. Yet now he's married and new responsibilities goaded old ambitions.  Upon their return to New York City, David and Linda Griffith were broke and in search of work in the theatre area in New York. Their searching was a futile effort, however; the theatrical season was an unusually slow one and the jobs were not frequently to be found.  In their travelling trunk was stuffed unsold manuscripts, one act plays and full-length dramas, short stories and poems along with his meager items that had been sold; a short poem entitled "The Wild Duck", and a play, "The Fool And The Girl", which had opened and closed with little notice and even less success.   Their spirits were not raised nor a smile loosened by the prospect of a future with no writing sales foreseeable and a dead theatrical season.  Yet each day found Griffith devising fresh plots and working on variations of existing ones.   But each morning, as he faced his writing, he also had to face the fact that he was a failure.

Gen. "Thunder Jake,"fighting father of D.W. Griffith

About the time when Griffith, the youth, was dreaming of a stage career

He was as poor as he had been in his early acting days, but now he was no longer a vagabond; he was in his thirties and he was married.  Linda was a perfect wife; she would stand by her husband now as she had done before, without questioning.

They spoke of better times that lay ahead and dreamt the old dreams of the glory and money he would make from his writing. He sold a play once and he'd do it again.  The writer in him clung to his craft, but the mature man knew that other action was necessary.