American Cinema of the 1910s SCREEN AMERICAN CULTURE / AMERICAN CINEMA DECADES Each volume in the Screen Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series presents a group of original essays analyzing the impact of cultural issues on the cin- ema and the impact of the cinema in American society. Because every chapter explores a spectrum of particularly significant motion pictures and the broad range of historical events in one year, readers will gain a continuing sense of the decade as it came to be depicted on movie screens across the continent. The integration of his- torical and cultural events with the sprawling progression of American cinema illu- minates the pervasive themes and the essential movies that define an era. Our series represents one among many possible ways of confronting the past; we hope that these books will offer a better understanding of the connections between American culture and film history. LESTER D. FRIEDMAN AND MURRAY POMERANCE SERIES EDITORS André Gaudreault, editor, American Cinema, 1890–1909: Themes and Variations Charlie Keil and Ben Singer, editors, American Cinema of the 1910s: Themes and Variations Ina Rae Hark, editor, American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations Wheeler Winston Dixon, editor, American Cinema of the 1940s: Themes and Variations Murray Pomerance, editor, American Cinema of the 1950s: Themes and Variations Barry Keith Grant, editor, American Cinema of the 1960s: Themes and Variations Lester D. Friedman, editor, American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations Stephen Prince, editor, American Cinema of the 1980s: Themes and Variations Chris Holmlund, editor, American Cinema of the 1990s: Themes and Variations American Cinema of the 1910s Themes and Variations EDITED BY CHARLIE KEIL AND BEN SINGER RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, AND LONDON LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA American cinema of the 1910s : themes and variations / edited by Charlie Keil and Ben Singer. p. cm. — (Screen decades : American culture / American cinema) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–8135–4444–1 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978–0–8135–4445–8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—United States—History. 2. Motion pictures—United States—Plots, themes, etc. I. Keil, Charlie. II. Singer, Ben. PN1993.5.U6A85733 2009 791.430973—dc22 2008016734 A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. This collection copyright © 2009 by Rutgers, The State University Individual chapters copyright © 2009 in the names of their authors All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu Manufactured in the United States of America CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Timeline: The 1910s ix Introduction: Movies and the 1910s 1 BEN SINGER AND CHARLIE KEIL 1910 Movies, Reform, and New Women 26 SCOTT SIMMON 1911 Movies and the Stability of the Institution 48 EILEEN BOWSER 1912 Movies, Innovative Nostalgia, and Real-Life Threats 69 RICHARD ABEL 1913 Movies and the Beginning of a New Era 92 CHARLIE KEIL 1914 Movies and Cultural Hierarchy 115 ROB KING 1915 Movies and the State of the Union 139 LEE GRIEVESON 1916 Movies and the Ambiguities of Progressivism 160 SHELLEY STAMP 1917 Movies and Practical Patriotism 183 LESLIE MIDKIFFE DeBAUCHE 1918 Movies, Propaganda, and Entertainment 204 JAMES LATHAM 1919 Movies and Righteous Americanism 225 BEN SINGER Sources for Films 249 Works Cited and Consulted 253 Contributors 261 Index 263 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to acknowledge our gratitude to the series editors, Lester D. Friedman and Murray Pomerance, for their valuable input; to Leslie Mitch- ner and her colleagues at Rutgers University Press for their professionalism and patience; to the contributors for their painstaking scholarship and good humor; and to our families for their perennial forbearance. Charlie Keil Ben Singer Toronto Madison March 2008 March 2008 vii TIMELINE The 1910s ■■■■■■■■■■ 1910 5 MARCH The Independent Moving Picture Company launches a concerted campaign to create name recognition for Florence Lawrence. 21 APRIL Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) dies. 25 JUNE The Mann Act, which makes illegal the transportation of women across state lines for the purposes of prostitution, is passed into law, designed to halt so-called “white slavery.” 4 JULY By knocking out Jim Jeffries in the fifteenth round, Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion. 27 NOVEMBER New York’s Penn Station opens, acknowledged as the largest train station in the world and an architectural masterpiece in the Beaux Arts style. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1911 FEBRUARY Motion Picture Story, the first film periodical aimed at moviegoers, releases its inaugural issue. 25 MARCH The Triangle Waist fire kills 146 (almost all female) employees, sparking outrage about labor conditions. 15 MAY The Supreme Court orders the dissolution of Standard Oil because it violates the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. NOVEMBER Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” is published as sheet music. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1912 15 APRIL After striking an iceberg, the ocean liner Titanic sinks off the coast of Newfoundland, taking 1,523 lives. 8 JUNE Carl Laemmle and Charles Baumann amalgamate several Independent production companies to form Universal Film Manufacturing Company. 26 JULY The initial episode of Edison’s What Happened to Mary, the first motion picture serial made in the United States, debuts in theaters. ix x TIMELINE — THE 1910s 12 AUGUST Trade papers announce the formation of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Film Company. 27 SEPTEMBER W. C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues,” credited with establishing the blues as a recognized form of American music, is published. 5 NOVEMBER Democrat Woodrow Wilson prevails in the presidential election, defeating Republican incumbent William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt, who was running on a third-party ticket. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1913 15 FEBRUARY The Armory Show, officially known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, brings together over fifteen hundred works of modern art in New York City. 8 MARCH The Internal Revenue Service begins to levy and collect income tax. 1 APRIL The Pennsylvania State Board of Censors officially begins its activities. OCTOBER D. W. Griffith leaves Biograph, a company where he had been the primary director for over five years. 28 OCTOBER George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat” begins its run as a daily comic strip in the New York Journal. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1914 7 FEBRUARY Charlie Chaplin’s first appearance as the Tramp character occurs when Kid Auto Races at Venice is released. 15 FEBRUARY Reputedly the first feature film shot in Hollywood, Cecil B. DeMille’s filmmaking debut, The Squaw Man (co-directed by Oscar Apfel), opens. 12 APRIL The Strand Theatre, the largest movie house yet built, with a seating capacity of 3,500, opens in Times Square. 26 MAY The New York Times acknowledges the new verb “to film” and the new noun “movie.” 28 JULY Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia initiates World War I. 5 AUGUST The first traffic light is installed, in Cleveland. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1915 25 JANUARY Alexander Graham Bell in New York telephones Thomas Watson in San Francisco—the first transcontinental call. TIMELINE — THE 1910s xi 8 FEBRUARY The Birth of a Nation premieres (with the title The Clansman) at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles. 23 FEBRUARY The U.S. Supreme Court rules that First Amendment protections of free expression do not apply to the movies. 7 MAY A German submarine sinks the British liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland; 1,198 people perish, including 128 Americans. 8 MAY Regret becomes the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby. 28 JULY U.S. forces invade Haiti, beginning a nineteen-year occupation. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1916 27 FEBRUARY Charlie Chaplin signs with the Mutual Film Corporation, beginning an outstanding creative phase in his career. 7 APRIL Hugo Munsterberg’s book The Photoplay: A Psychological Study, arguably the first sustained work of film theory, is published by Appleton & Co., New York. 5 JUNE Louis Brandeis is sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. 16 OCTOBER Margaret Sanger opens the nation’s first birth control clinic in Brooklyn. 7 NOVEMBER Woodrow Wilson wins reelection by a narrow margin over former (and future) Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1917 1 MARCH An intercepted telegram containing a proposal by German foreign secretary Alfred Zimmermann to ally with Mexico and Japan in an invasion of the United States is released to newspapers, tipping public opinion in favor of entry into World War I. 2 APRIL Jeannette Rankin of Montana is seated in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first female member of Congress. 6 APRIL The United States declares war on Germany. 25 APRIL First National Exhibitors Circuit is incorporated by a consortium of major exhibitors aiming to thwart Paramount’s domination of the industry by financing and distributing films themselves. 2 JULY Racially motivated mob violence erupts in East St. Louis, Illinois, leaving at least forty-eight people dead, nearly all of them African Americans. xii TIMELINE — THE 1910s ■■■■■■■■■■ 1918 19 MARCH Congress authorizes time zones and approves daylight saving time. 6 APRIL The Edison Company, the first motion picture studio, releases its very last film. 15 MAY The first regular airmail service begins, between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. 20 JULY Winsor McCay’s groundbreaking animated short The Sinking of the Lusitania is released by Universal. 11 NOVEMBER Armistice Day—World War I fighting ends at 11 A.M. on the Western Front. ■■■■■■■■■■ 1919 6 JANUARY Former president Theodore Roosevelt dies at age sixty-one.