1914 C.B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith

Let's Go to the Movies
Hollywood Silents 1914-1929 Part 2
During the early days of 1914 Hollywood and the general public were anticipating great comedies with Mack Sennett leading the way. The nickelodeon days had set the public up for comedy and Hollywood for the most part aimed to fulfill their wishes.
But no one could have ever guessed that back in 1914 two giants of the movie industry were working and growing along with Hollywood. D.W. Griffith was a journeyman producer director and C.B. Demille was a neophyte producer, both men were ambitious and hard working.
Griffith worked for Biograph Films writing, producing and directing. His first feature length film, Judith of Bethulia, (1914) had cost overruns that brought the total production cost to thirty thousand dollars. Biograph paid the bill, but let Griffith know that they would not give him authority to make any more long films.
Griffith left Biograph and eventually hooked up with the Triangle Film Corporation and Keystone Studios -- Mack Sennett.
DeMille's background in the theater working under Charles Froman and later David Belasco gave him a wide range of knowledge dealing with theater production, story lines, sets and lighting but he had no motion picture experience. However, the Lasky Featuree Play Company, which he became a part of gave him the chance to develop in that area. His close association with film director Oscar Apfel during the making of the 'Squaw Man' gave him a good foundation in film making. DeMille worked with Apfel on 'Brewsters Millions' and the 'The Master Mind.' On the next two films 'The Only Son' and 'The Man on the Box' he was named Co Director along with Apfel. On the sixth film, 'The Call of the North' C.B. DeMille wrote the screenplay and directed the film. He got screen credit for both and from that time forward DeMille directed and produced all of his own films, which included five more during the year 1914: The Virginian, What's His Name, The Man From Home, Rose of Rancho and The Ghost Breaker.
D.W. Griffith followed up his first feature film with Waits, The Massacre, The Battle of the Sexes, Brute Force, Home Sweer Home, The Escape and the Avenging Consience.
And while C.B. DeMille was going with stock actors, Griffith was assembling a group that were soon to become stars or well known feature players. Blanche Sweet, Henry Walthll, Lionel Barrymore, Harry Carey,. Mae Marsh, Lilian Gish and Dorothy Gish.
It was during that same year that D.W. Griffith began adapting a book for the screen called The Clansman – later called The Birth of a Nation.
(To be continued)


'Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone.' Excerpt:

Shootout at the OK Corral.

Doc Holliday, Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp face off with the cowboy's.

Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, Tom McLowry, Frank McLowry and Billy Claiburn.. Tom McLowry stood nearly hidden behind Frank's horse.
Doc calmly looked over the opposition lineup. With the exception of the two men in front of Virgil, they were all even man for man.
Billy Claiborne turned pale and cowered behind Ike Clanton.
Virgil knew he was bucking the odds for a peaceful settlement, but holding Doc's cane out like an olive branch, he said, "Throw up your hands boy’s! I've come to disarm you."
Frank McLowry and Billy Clanton answered by drawing their six-guns.
"Hold on now. I don't mean that," Virgil said calmly, "I've come to disarm you."
Billy Claiborne grabbed Ike's coattails for a moment, then lost his nerve and bolted toward Fly's Photograph Gallery.
Virgil saw a glimmer of hope as cold sweat broke over Ike Clanton's face and he threw up his hands.
Hope was short lived though -- Frank McLowry and Billy Clanton leveled their pistols and commenced to cock the hammers.
Wyatt and Morgan responded to the outlaws by drawing their own six-guns.
Tom McLowry struggled to steady Frank's horse by holding onto the saddle girth and at the same time reaching for the Winchester in the scabbard. When he was unable to get a hand on the rifle he went for the revolver that he had concealed in his right front pocket.
Doc followed Tom McLowry with the Parker tucked in the crook of his left arm. Then he drew his Colt thirty-eight with his right hand. Fish or cut bait.
Doc's pulse quickened and he fixed his concentration on Billy Clanton's trigger finger... watched it tighten then just as the hammer responded Doc’s thirty-eight flashed a quick preemptive strike on Billy's forty-five.
Doc scored a hit on Billy's right wrist. And at that same instant, a shot from another angle doubled young Clanton over and drove him backwards with a slug to his belly.
Sweat poured off Ike Clanton's face. He grabbed Wyatt's coat collar and whined, "I'm not armed, please don't kill me."
“Either fight or get out, Ike!" Wyatt shouted over the din of gunfire.
Ike Clanton turned and ran away, leaving his brother and the McLowry’s to do his fighting.
Tom McLowry hid behind the horse, but poked his revolver over the animals’ loin, fired and hit Morgan Earp with a searing shot that traced across his upper back. Morg yelled as he fell to the ground. But like a stunned fighter, he bounced right back to his feet.
Close gunfire spooked Tom's cover. The horse bucked and jerked the reins out of Frank McLowry's hands and raced east on Fremont Street. Tom McLowry stood exposed and panic stricken, but quickly collected his wits and aimed again at Morgan.
Doc read Tom's sight line and took his own measure as he squeezed the triggers and fired both barrels of the Parker.
Tom McLowry reeled from the buckshot's impact; recovered, grabbed his bloody chest, then shuffled forward, staggered and fell bleeding into Fremont Street.
Doc glanced at the fallen cowboy, then turned to his left only to be looking down the muzzle of Frank McLowry's forty-five. Doc tossed the empty shotgun away, ducked and wheeled into a crouch position. Dammit! He felt the hot sting of Frank's bullet and an unmistakable sharp pain. But he was still on his feet and stared directly into the shooter's eyes.
Doc, Wyatt and Morg zeroed in on the outlaw and all three guns exploded as one, and Frank's body immediately bent and jerked like a broken piñata before falling hard onto the dusty street.
A chilly wind swirled, but the gun smoke hovered and clung head high above the place. In less than thirty seconds it was over. The only action left was a blood soaked Billy Clanton, sitting on the ground, glassy eyed, waving his forty-five and searching for a target.
Buck Fly came out of his boarding house and mercifully took the gun out of Billy's hands.
Frank and Tom McLowry appeared to be dead and Billy Clanton was bleeding to death from his several wounds.
Virgil and Morgan Earp, wounded, gritted their teeth and suffered the pain.
Doc determined his own hit was no hit at all, but a ricochet off his gun belt that had caused a painful bruise.
Numerous bullets pierced the skirt of Wyatt's coat, but he didn't have a scratch.
(Spicer hearing continues next week.)

Writers Notebook:
Inside the front flap of my writer’s notebook are several notes; among them is one that always makes me stop and think.‘What is the single most important piece of advice you’ve ever gotten about writing?’ I’m not quite sure, but this note contained in that same flap is high on the list. Stephen King once said, ‘I write about four hours a day – first draft – just write. Let it all hang out – don’t stop for misspelled words – punctuation – nothing. Let the passion and heat of the moment take charge. And don’t rewrite that same day. Write in am and rewrite in pm – no, no, no. Leave it alone, at least overnight.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://TheHurricaneHunter.blogspot.com