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W D James Biography & Facts

David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the narrative film.To modern audiences, Griffith is known primarily for directing the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. One of the most financially successful films of all time and considered a landmark by film historians, it has attracted much controversy for its degrading portrayals of African Americans, its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and support for the Confederacy. The film led to riots in several major cities all over the United States, and the NAACP attempted to have it banned. Griffith made his next film Intolerance (1916) as an answer to critics, who he felt unfairly maligned his work. Together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, Griffith founded the studio United Artists in 1919 with the goal of enabling actors and directors to make films on their own terms as opposed to the terms of commercial studios. Several of Griffith's later films were successful, including Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921), but the high costs he incurred for production and promotion often led to commercial failure. He had made roughly 500 films by the time of The Struggle (1931), his final feature, and all but three were completely silent. Early life Griffith was born on January 22, 1875, on a farm in Oldham County, Kentucky, the son of Jacob Wark "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a Confederate Army colonel in the American Civil War who was elected as a Kentucky state legislator, and Mary Perkins (née Oglesby). Griffith was raised as a Methodist, and he attended a one-room schoolhouse, where he was taught by his older sister Mattie. His father died when he was 10, and the family struggled with poverty. When Griffith was 14, his mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville, Kentucky; there she opened a boarding house, which was unsuccessful. Griffith then left high school to help support the family, taking a job in a dry goods store and later in a bookstore. He began his creative career as an actor in touring companies. Meanwhile, he was learning how to become a playwright, but he had little success. Only one of his plays was accepted for a performance. He traveled to New York City in 1907 in an attempt to sell a script to Edison Studios producer Edwin Porter; although Porter rejected the script, he gave Griffith an acting part in Rescued from an Eagle's Nest instead. As a result of this experience, Griffith decided to try his luck as an actor, and he appeared in many films as an extra. Early film career In 1908, Griffith accepted a role as a stage extra in Professional Jealousy for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, where he met cameraman Billy Bitzer. In 1908, Biograph's main director Wallace McCutcheon Sr. fell ill, and his son Wallace McCutcheon Jr. took his place. McCutcheon Jr. did not bring the studio success; Biograph co-founder Harry Marvin then gave Griffith the position, and he made the short The Adventures of Dollie. He directed a total of 48 shorts for the company that year. Among the films he directed in 1909 was The Cricket on the Hearth, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel. Showing the influence of Dickens on his own film narrative, Griffith employed the technique of cross-cutting—where two stories run alongside each other, as seen in Dickens' novels such as Oliver Twist. When criticized by a cameraman for doing this technique in a later film, Griffith was said to have replied "Well, doesn't Dickens write that way?".His short In Old California (1910) was the first film shot in Hollywood, California. Four years later, he produced and directed his first feature film Judith of Bethulia (1914), one of the early films to be produced in the U.S. Biograph believed that longer features were not viable at this point. According to Lillian Gish, the company thought that "a movie that long would hurt [the audience's] eyes". Griffith left Biograph because of company resistance to his goals and his cost overruns on the film. He took his company of actors with him and joined the Mutual Film Corporation. There he co-produced The Life of General Villa, a silent biographical-action movie starring Pancho Villa as himself, shot on location in Mexico during a civil war. He formed a studio with Majestic Studios manager Harry Aitken, which became known as Reliance-Majestic Studios and later was renamed Fine Arts Studios. His new production company became an autonomous production unit partner in the Triangle Film Corporation along with Thomas H. Ince and Keystone Studios' Mack Sennett. The Triangle Film Corporation was headed by Aitken, who was released from the Mutual Film Corporation, and his brother Roy. Griffith directed and produced The Clansman through Reliance-Majestic Studios in 1915. The film later became known as The Birth of a Nation. It is one of the early feature length American films. The film was a success, but it aroused much controversy due to its depiction of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, race relations in the American Civil War, and the Reconstruction era of the United States. It was based on Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan; it depicts Southern slavery as benign, the enfranchisement of freedmen as a corrupt plot by the Republican Party, 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 for decades by historians of the Dunning School, but it met with strong criticism from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other groups.The NAACP attempted to stop showings of the film. This ban was successful in some cities, but nonetheless it was shown widely and became the most successful box-office attraction of its time. It is considered among the first "blockbuster" motion pictures, and it broke all box-office records that had been established until then. "They lost track of the money it made", Lillian Gish remarked in a Kevin Brownlow interview. Audiences in some major northern cities rioted over the film's racial content and the violence. Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him the following year to produce Intolerance, in which he portrayed the effects of intolerance in four different historical periods: the Fall of Babylon; the Crucifixion of Jesus; the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (during religious persecution of French Huguenots); and a modern story. Intolerance was not a financial success; it did not bring in enough profits to cover the lavish road show that accompanied it. Griffith put a huge budget into the film's production that could not be recovered in its box office. He mostly financed Intolerance himself, which con.... Discover the W D James popular books. Find the top 100 most popular W D James books.

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  • Janice M. Bohnenkamp v. James D. synopsis, comments

    Janice M. Bohnenkamp v. James D.

    Supreme Court of North Dakota

    ERICKSTAD, Chief Justice. In this case, Janice M. Bohnenkamp, the plaintiff in an action for divorce against James D. Bohnenkamp, appeals from those parts of the judgmen...

  • Matter Donald W. Tompkins v. James P. Melton synopsis, comments

    Matter Donald W. Tompkins v. James P. Melton

    Supreme Court of New York

    Proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 (transferred to this court by order of the Supreme Court at Special Term, entered in Albany County) to review a determination of respondent r...

  • State West Virginia v. James D. Bennett synopsis, comments

    State West Virginia v. James D. Bennett

    Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals

    1. When individual voir dire reveals that a prospective juror feels prejudice against the defendant which the juror admits would make it difficult for him to be fair, and when the ...

  • James D. Porter and Others, Plaintiffs in Error v. Bushrod W. Foley synopsis, comments

    James D. Porter and Others, Plaintiffs in Error v. Bushrod W. Foley

    United States Supreme Court

    Mr. Headington opposed the motion to dismiss the writ upon the ground that the statutes in question violate the seventh section of the compact of 1789 between Virginia and Kentucky...

  • State Missouri v. James D. Edwards synopsis, comments

    State Missouri v. James D. Edwards

    Eastern District, Division One Missouri Court of Appeals

    James D. Edwards appeals from the judgment rendered and sentences imposed after a jury found him guilty of burglary in the second degree, § 569.170 RSMo. 1978, and attempted steali...

  • Otto B. Kiehl and James H. Smith v. Barry D. Brown synopsis, comments

    Otto B. Kiehl and James H. Smith v. Barry D. Brown

    Third District Court of Appeal of Florida

    After the reversal of the dismissal of the amended complaint which was ordered in Anderson v. Brown, 524 So.2d 457 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988), review denied, 531 So.2d 1352 (Fla...

  • The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents, Part 2 synopsis, comments

    The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents, Part 2

    Steven F. Hayward

    A book to challenge the status quo, spark a debate, and get people talking about the issues and questions we face as a country!

  • A Brief Guide to Spiritual Classics synopsis, comments

    A Brief Guide to Spiritual Classics

    James M. Russell

    This very readable brief guide examines a wide range of spiritual writing that can be read for enjoyment or inspiration, including some books that come from beyond any religious tr...

  • James W. Hole v. General Motors Corporation synopsis, comments

    James W. Hole v. General Motors Corporation

    Supreme Court of New York

    charge to plaintiff. These offers were flatly rejected by plaintiff who advised G M that he was rescinding the entire transaction and that G M could either provide him with a new S...

  • Wm. S. Baker v. James D. Sims synopsis, comments

    Wm. S. Baker v. James D. Sims

    Dallas the Fifth Court of Civil Appeals

    The question presented on this appeal is whether a party may raise for the first time in this court the argument that the judgment does not conform to the pleadings in compliance w...

  • State Nebraska v. James D. Walker synopsis, comments

    State Nebraska v. James D. Walker

    Supreme Court of Nebraska

    Claiming that the trial court should have sustained his motion to suppress evidence obtained from a bedroom he was temporarily occupying in a friend's home, James D. Wal...

  • Willis D. Powell v. James R. Brown synopsis, comments

    Willis D. Powell v. James R. Brown

    United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

    Failure to renew a probationary teachers employment contract is an administrative act that entitles the teacher to a grievance procedure hearing, where such procedure has been adop...

  • James W. Brownlee Et Al. v. Hot Shoppes synopsis, comments

    James W. Brownlee Et Al. v. Hot Shoppes

    Supreme Court of New York

    A new trial is required for the following reasons: Considering the evidence adduced in the aspect most favorable to plaintiffs and according them every favorable inference which ca...

  • Kenneth D. Wymer v. James Holmes and synopsis, comments

    Kenneth D. Wymer v. James Holmes and

    Supreme Court of Michigan

    We granted leave to determine the applicability of Michigan's recreational land use statute, MCL 300.201; MSA 13.1485, where the plaintiffs in these cases were social gu...

  • James D. Trehan v. State Missouri synopsis, comments

    James D. Trehan v. State Missouri

    Southern District, Division Two Court of Appeals of Missouri

    Patrick L. Beck appeals the judgment of his conviction, after a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Morgan County, of assault in the second degree, section 565.060, for which he was...

  • James D. Richardson v. State Texas synopsis, comments

    James D. Richardson v. State Texas

    898 Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas No. 42

    The offense is rape; the punishment, 35 years. Appellant's first ground of error relates to the motion to suppress the in court identification of the prosecutrix because ...

  • James O. Gerst v. L. D. Cain Et Al. synopsis, comments

    James O. Gerst v. L. D. Cain Et Al.

    Austin Court of Civil Appeals of Texas

    L. D. Cain and others, appellees, filed an application with R. A. Benson, at the time, Savings and Loan Association Commissioner of Texas, for the issuance of a charter for, and fo...

  • James J. Fields v. R.S.C.D.B. synopsis, comments

    James J. Fields v. R.S.C.D.B.

    Eastern District, Division Four Court of Appeals of Missouri

    Bates, C.J., Parrish, J., Shrum, J., and Barney, J., concur. Prewitt, J., concurs with Judge Rahmeyers opinion. Rahmeyer, J., concurs in part and dissents in part in separate op...

  • Denise A. Lenigan v. James W. Lenigan synopsis, comments

    Denise A. Lenigan v. James W. Lenigan

    Supreme Court of New York

    In 1987, after 7 1/2 years of marriage, plaintiff and defendant separated. The parties have one child, Kelly, who is currently age eight. After the separation, plainti...

  • James D. Harlow v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company synopsis, comments

    James D. Harlow v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company

    Austin the Third Court of Civil Appeals

    This suit was brought in the court below against the Insurance Company by Appellant for medical payments resulting from injuries received by his son while riding as a passenger in ...

  • George W. Hume and Jill D. Hume v. James J. Royal and Carole E. Royal synopsis, comments

    George W. Hume and Jill D. Hume v. James J. Royal and Carole E. Royal

    Fifth District Court of Appeal of Florida

    The issue on this appeal concerns venue and arose when Arthur Li, plaintiff/appellee, filed a complaint against Magic Wok International, Inc. and Standard Investment Group, Inc., d...

  • James D. Ables v. State Texas synopsis, comments

    James D. Ables v. State Texas

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

    Appeal is taken from a conviction for sale of a barbituric acid derivative. Punishment was assessed by the jury at two years.

  • State Missouri v. James D. Brigman synopsis, comments

    State Missouri v. James D. Brigman

    Western District Court of Appeals of Missouri

    FERNANDO J. GAITAN, JR., JUDGE Defendant, James D. Brigman, Jr. was convicted by a jury of forcible rape and felonious restraint, §§ 565.120 and 566.030.2 RSMo 1986, and received a...

  • D. James Kuehl and Another v. National Tea synopsis, comments

    D. James Kuehl and Another v. National Tea

    Supreme Court of Minnesota

    On appeal after remand in a contempt proceeding for failure to pay childsupport arrearages, appellant alleges the district court erred by (1) drawing negative inferences from appel...

  • State Florida v. James W. Cox and Rodney M. Jackman synopsis, comments

    State Florida v. James W. Cox and Rodney M. Jackman

    Second District Court of Appeal of Florida

    Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Geoffrey D. Cohen, Judge; L.T. Case No. 9612312 CF10A.

  • James D. Porter Et Al., Plaintiffs in Error v. Bushrod W. Foley synopsis, comments

    James D. Porter Et Al., Plaintiffs in Error v. Bushrod W. Foley

    United States Supreme Court

    The writ of error in this case was issued on the 27th day of December last, and made returnable on the third Monday in January, and the defendant in error cited to appear on that d...

  • Jack D. Truly v. James D. Austin Et Al. synopsis, comments

    Jack D. Truly v. James D. Austin Et Al.

    Fifth District, Dallas Court of Appeals of Texas

    The issue in this case is whether a party who has breached an express contract may nevertheless recover under a theory of quantum meruit. Petitioner Jack Truly performed certain se...

  • D. A. Doggett v. James G. Nitschke synopsis, comments

    D. A. Doggett v. James G. Nitschke

    The Supreme Court of Texas No. B-3857

    Per Curiam ON REHEARING OF APPLICATION FOR WRIT OF ERROR This is an action in the county court to determine the ownership of a $9,000 condemnation award which was deposited in the ...

  • James D. Armstrong v. Potlatch Corporation synopsis, comments

    James D. Armstrong v. Potlatch Corporation

    En Banc Supreme Court of Minnesota

    Based upon all the files, records and proceedings herein, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the decision of the Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals filed August 21, 1987, be...

  • Vincent J. Semprevivo v. James W. Wormuth synopsis, comments

    Vincent J. Semprevivo v. James W. Wormuth

    Supreme Court of New York

    [49 A.D.2d 993 Page 993] This action for money damages for personal injuries allegedly sustained in an automobile accident on October 20, 1968 was commenced by service of a summon...

  • State v. James D. Florence synopsis, comments

    State v. James D. Florence

    En Banc Supreme Court of Missouri

    In felony proceedings before the District Court of Ramsey County, defendant moved to dismiss the complaints on the ground that there was an insufficient showing of probable cause t...

  • James D. Sellens v. Elvin Christman synopsis, comments

    James D. Sellens v. Elvin Christman

    Supreme Court of Missouri Division 2

    The injuries for which plaintiff sues were occasioned by a felled tree, lodged in the top of another partially sawed tree on defendant's land, falling upon him necessita...

  • James D. Harris v. State Tennessee synopsis, comments

    James D. Harris v. State Tennessee

    First District, Houston Court of Civil Appeals of Texas

    This is an appeal by the State of Tennessee from a Court of Criminal Appeals judgment affirming an order of postconviction relief for petitioner, James D. Harris. Relief was grante...

  • James D. Cox v. State Missouri synopsis, comments

    James D. Cox v. State Missouri

    Western District Missouri Court of Appeals

    TURNAGE, Judge James Cox filed a motion under Rule 27.26 seeking to vacate the judgment and sentence imposed upon him for robbery in the first degree and possession of a controlled...

  • James D. Noah v. State Texas synopsis, comments

    James D. Noah v. State Texas

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

    This appeal arises out of a conviction for possession of heroin wherein the punishment was assessed at 50 years.

  • James D. Casto v. Donna L. Casto synopsis, comments

    James D. Casto v. Donna L. Casto

    Supreme Court of Florida

    James D. Casto, the husband in a dissolution proceeding, petitions for review of Casto v. Casto, 458 S. 2d 290 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982), affirming the trial courts setting aside of a pr...

  • Ethel Ann Knudsen v. James W. Lyons synopsis, comments

    Ethel Ann Knudsen v. James W. Lyons

    Supreme Court of North Dakota

    A defendant by accepting the benefits may be estopped from assailing the general nature of his appearance and may be held to have submitted to jurisdiction. Armstrong v...

  • People State New York v. James W. Brown synopsis, comments

    People State New York v. James W. Brown

    Supreme Court of New York

    Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Chemung County (Monroe, J.), rendered September 1, 1983, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of operating a motor vehicle...

  • State Ex Rel. James D. Nelson v. R. H synopsis, comments

    State Ex Rel. James D. Nelson v. R. H

    Supreme Court of Minnesota

    This is a consolidated appeal from two orders dismissing petitions for . Petitioner was charged with two separate crimes, desertion and forgery. On October 6, 1955, he entered plea...

  • Craig S. Adams v. Gary D. James synopsis, comments

    Craig S. Adams v. Gary D. James

    Eastern District, Division Three Court of Appeals of Missouri

    On May 1, 1992, Craig S. Adams filed a petition for damages alleging defamation by Gary D. James, age sixteen, consisting of statements accusing plaintiff of criminal acts. He alle...

  • James D. Biggs v. United State Fire Insurance Company synopsis, comments

    James D. Biggs v. United State Fire Insurance Company

    Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

    This action for workers compensation presents the sole question of whether James D. Biggs was injured in the course of employment within the meaning of the Texas Workers Compensati...

  • Charles W. Maccabee Et Al. v. James Nangle Et Al. synopsis, comments

    Charles W. Maccabee Et Al. v. James Nangle Et Al.

    Supreme Court of New York

    [33 A.D.2d 918 Page 918] Appeal from order dated April 8, 1969 dismissed as academic in view of the determination herein on the appeal from the order dated November 20,...