"When the Movies Were Young"
By Mrs. D.W. (Linda Arvidson) Griffith
Dover edition 1969, unabridged and slightly corrected from original 1925 E.P. Dutton edition

A: top of page
B: middle of page
C: bottom of page

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New Introduction by Edward Wagenknecht:

viii: "Beyond a few misspellings ... I have noticed few errors of fact. [However,] complete accuracy is not often achieved in motion picture reminiscences..." (and then points out several errors of fact). Moreover:

ix: Linda Arvidson & David Wark Griffith marred in 1906, separated by 1911. 

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16C: David portrayed Allesandro in stage production of "Ramona" in Los Angeles in late 1905

20C: (While writing a play in 1906) "There were Mexican songs that Mr. Griffith had first heard rendered by native Mexicans who sang in "Ramona" (in 1905)

40C: Biograph's only advertising in 1908: screenshot ("cut") from film plus about 350 words

52B: 1908 - $45 a week salary + one mil ($0.001) per foot of film sold. "The first year his royalty check went from practically nothing to four and five hundred dollars a month - before the end of the year."

57B: (still 1908) "As yet no one had a regular salary except the director and camera man." Principal actors were paid $5 and extras $3. (for what period?)

57C: "In August this first year [1908] Mr. Griffith began turning out two releases a week, usually one long picture, eight to eleven hundred feet, and one short picture, four to five hundred feet."

59: Florence Lawrence became the first Biograph Girl; paid $25/week. (59C:) "It was some years before the company allowed the names of actors to be given out, hence "Biograph Girl" was the only intelligent appellation. After Miss Lawrence left Biograph, Mary Pickford fell heir to the title."

61A: Invention of the closeup

66A: Invention of the dramatic closeup - "the first picture to have a cut-back" ("After Many Years," 1908)

94C/95A: Exhibitors were clamoring for Biograph films - revolutionized day by day with closeup, switchback, light effects, acting

104C/105A: Adolph Zukor's Famous Players were famous players - players who'd achieved fame on the stage, then acted in Zukor's films. First was Sarah Bernhardt in 1912.

134B: Royalty check amounted to $900 to $1,000/month by the end of the second year (1909)

143: Left for Los Angeles "a few days after Christmas" 1909 (pg. 146B). Not the first to go there: Selig had a studio there in 1908 under Frank Boggs; New York Motion Picture Patents Corporation (Bison brand) arrived around Thanksgiving 1909 under Fred Balshofer. Kalem was there, too

143C: Biograph was putting out two 1,000-foot releases per week

146C: Description of San Fernando: parched and cactus-covered desert

147C: Mary Pickford's salary was "about forty dollars a week at this time"

153A: Every member of the company got $14/week expense money

169A-170A: RAMONA (note: there is no Ramona-Felipe wedding in the final cut)

189A: Mary Pickford was still the "Biograph Girl" as "Biograph gives no names" (188C)

189C: David's new contract: $0.008/foot sold & $75/week salary

195B: Theaters wouldn't accept more than 1100 feet of film

196B: Costumes for "Ramona" film came from San Francisco

204A: Got babies from foundling homes (orphanages)

225C: While Griffith was still in L.A., Biograph made a deal with Klaw & Erlanger to turn its Broadway stage productions into 3-, 4- and 5-reel pictures