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The Greatest Thing In Life
''The Greatest Thing in Life'' is a 1918 American silent drama film about World War I, directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, and David Butler. The film is now considered lost as no prints are known to exist.
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This film was released later in the same year as Griffith's more famous World War I film, '''', which also stars Lillian Gish and Robert Harron. ''The Greatest Thing in Life'' was renowned for two main aspects: the groundbreaking portrait photography style of Henrik Sartov,Merrit, Russel, quoted in ''The Griffith Project''. Usai, Paolo Cherchi, and Cynthia Rowell, eds. Vol. 9: ...
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Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. Gish was a prominent film star from 1912 into the 1920s, being particularly associated with the films of director D. W. Griffith. This included her leading role in the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915). Her other major films and performances from the silent era are: ''Intolerance'' (1916), '' Broken Blossoms'' (1919), ''Way Down East'' (1920), ''Orphans of the Storm'' (1921), ''La Bohème'' (1926), and '' The Wind'' (1928). At the dawn of the sound era, she returned to the stage and appeared in film ...
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Adolph Lestina
Adolph Lestina (1861– August 23, 1923) was an American stage and film actor who was a member of D. W. Griffith's stock company of film actors. Career He received positive notice for his performance in Justin McCarthy's ''If I Were King'' and in Laurence Irving's ''The Fool Hath Said There Is No God''. Lestina's performance in the play ''A Citizen's Home'' was noted as being "sympathetic". Lestina was credited with "discovering" D. W. Griffith. "This gentleman saw to it that young Griffith played the role of Old Man Marks in ''The Lights o' London'' with the Meffert company ..The gentleman who "discovered Griffith as an actor, Adolphe Lestina, later appeared in many D. W. Griffith film productions, including ''Hearts of the World'' (1918) and ''The Love Flower'' (1920)". Griffith, speaking of his time with the Meffert Stock Company, said that Lestina told him that to be a playwright, one first had to be an actor. Personal life Adolph Lestina was married to Bessie Lee L ...
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Raymond Rohauer
Raymond Rohauer (1924, Buffalo, New York – November 10, 1987) was an American film collector and distributor. Early life and career Rohauer moved to California in 1942 and was educated at Los Angeles City College. Rohauer made a five-reel 16mm experimental film ''Whirlpool'' (1947) which was not successful. He subsequently became active in film exhibition at the Coronet Theatre from 1950, which was, according to William K. Everson, a "bizarre combination of art house, film society and exploitation cinema". Films shown at the Coronet were generally copied illicitly, occasionally to the irritation of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City because Rohauer often neglected to remove identifying features present in their prints. in 1954, Rohauer met Buster Keaton and his wife, Eleanor; the couple would develop a business partnership with him to rerelease Keaton's films. The Coronet Theatre art house in Los Angeles, with which Rohauer was involved, was showing '' The G ...
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ...
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Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, but stretches into Hampshire. The plain is famous for its rich archaeology, including Stonehenge, one of England's best known landmarks. Large areas are given over to military training and thus the sparsely populated plain is the biggest remaining area of calcareous grassland in northwest Europe. Additionally the plain has arable land, and a few small areas of beech trees and coniferous woodland. Its highest point is Easton Hill. Physical geography The boundaries of Salisbury Plain have never been truly defined, and there is some difference of opinion as to its exact area. The river valleys surrounding it, and other downs and plains beyond them loosely define its boundaries. To the north the scarp of the ...
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Château-Thierry
Château-Thierry () is a French commune situated in the department of the Aisne, in the administrative region of Hauts-de-France, and in the historic Province of Champagne. The origin of the name of the town is unknown. The local tradition attributes it to Theuderic IV, the penultimate Merovingian king, who was imprisoned by Charles Martel, without a reliable source. Château-Thierry is the birthplace of Jean de La Fontaine and was the location of the First Battle of the Marne and Second Battle of the Marne. The region of Château-Thierry (the arrondissement, to be exact) is called the country of Omois. Château-Thierry is one of 64 French towns to have received the Legion of Honour. History In the late years of the western Roman empire, a small town called Otmus was settled on a site where the Soissons-Troyes road crossed the Marne river. During the 8th century, Charles Martel kept king Theuderic IV prisoner in the castle of Otmus. At this time, the town took the name of C ...
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Marne River
The Marne () is a river in France, an eastern tributary of the Seine in the area east and southeast of Paris. It is long. The river gave its name to the departments of Haute-Marne, Marne, Seine-et-Marne, and Val-de-Marne. The Marne starts in the Langres plateau, runs generally north then bends west between Saint-Dizier and Châlons-en-Champagne, joining the Seine at Charenton just upstream from Paris. Its main tributaries are the Rognon, the Blaise, the Saulx, the Ourcq, the Petit Morin and the Grand Morin. Near the town of Saint-Dizier, part of the flow is diverted through the artificial Lake Der-Chantecoq. This ensures both flood prevention and the maintenance of minimum river flows in periods of drought. The Marne is famous as the site of two eponymous battles during World War I. The first battle was a turning point of the war, fought in 1914. The second battle was fought four years later, in 1918. History The Celts of Gaul worshipped a goddess known as Dea Matrona ...
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The Great Love (1918 Film)
''The Great Love'' is a 1918 American silent war drama film directed and written by D. W. Griffith who, along with scenario writer Stanner E.V. Taylor, is credited as "Captain Victor Marier". The film stars George Fawcett and Lillian Gish. Set during World War I, exterior scenes were shot on location in England. ''The Great Love'' is now considered to be a lost film. This film had footage of several high society and influential British people helping out with the war effort, including Queen Alexandra, the widow of King Edward VII, and Sir Frederick Treves, the doctor who once knew and tended to Joseph Merrick a.k.a. "The Elephant Man". Footage of a Zeppelin air raid on London taken by G. W. Bitzer was also included the film. Plot As described in a film magazine, Jim Young (Harron) of Youngstown, Pennsylvania, reads of the German war atrocities and decides to enlist in the British army, thus becoming a forerunner of the American forces that are subsequently to leave for the ba ...
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Lucille Young
Lucille May Young (March 6, 1883 – August 2, 1934) was an American actress of the early silent film era. Early life Lucille May Young was born on March 6, 1883, in Lansing, Michigan, the daughter of Glendower Young (1858–1927) and Katherine Bessie "Kittie" Young (1861–1942). She had one brother, Howard Earl Young, who was born a year earlier. Some sources give Lucille's birth name as Lucia Medina, her birth year as 1892, and her birthplace as Lyon, France. Her parents marriage was short-lived, and her mother remarried to James Mortimer Terry, gaining Young a half-sister, Ethel Terry, who also became an actress (not to be confused with Ethel Grey Terry). Career In 1905, Lucille and Ethel began performing in vaudeville in Detroit. One production noted in the Detroit Free Press was the "Isles of Spice". She's mentioned as a player in the vaudeville giant, Vaughan Glaser Company in 1907. Around 1909 she made her way to New York, her early film work there being w ...
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Fred Malatesta
Fred Malatesta (April 18, 1889 – April 8, 1952) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1915 and 1941. He was born in Naples, Italy, and died in Burbank, California. Selected filmography * ''Sherlock Holmes'' (1916) - 'Lightfoot' McTague * ''The Legion of Death'' (1918) - Grand Duke Paul * '' The Claim'' (1918) - Ted 'Blackie' Jerome * '' The Demon'' (1918) - Count Theodore de Seramo * ''The Border Raiders'' (1918) - 'Square Deal' Dixon * ''The Greatest Thing in Life'' (1918) - (uncredited) * '' Terror of the Range'' (1919) - Black John * ''Full of Pep'' (1919) - General Lopanzo * ''The Devil's Trail'' (1919) - Dubec * ''The Four-Flusher'' (1919) - Señor Emanuelo Romez * '' The Valley of Tomorrow'' (1920) - Enrico Colonna * ''The Best of Luck'' (1920) - Lanzana * '' Big Happiness'' (1920) - Raoul de Bergerac * ''The Challenge of the Law'' (1920) - Jules Lafitte * ''The Sins of Rosanne'' (1920) - Syke Ravenal * ''Risky Business'' (1920) - R ...
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Carol Dempster
Carol Dempster (December 9, 1901 – February 1, 1991) was an American film actress of the silent film era. She appeared in films from 1916 to 1926, working with D. W. Griffith extensively. Early years Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Dempster was the daughter of a captain on the Great Lakes and the youngest of four children. The family moved to California when her father decided to change careers. While dancing in a school program, Dempster was noticed by Ruth St. Denis and went on to become the youngest graduate in the first class of St. Denis's school of dance. Career Dempster got her start in films as a protégé of legendary film director D. W. Griffith alongside other Griffith actresses of the mid-1910s, Lillian Gish, Lillian and Dorothy Gish and Mae Marsh. Griffith gave Dempster her first role at age 15 in his 1916 film ''Intolerance (film), Intolerance'' playing one of the Babylonian harem girls alongside another teenaged newcomer, Mildred Harris. Dempster eventually becam ...
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ZaSu Pitts
Zasu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas, including Erich von Stroheim's epic 1924 silent film ''Greed'', and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the advent of sound films. She also appeared on numerous radio shows. Her career as an entertainer spanned nearly 50 years, and she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Her parents named her "ZaSu" as an amalgamation of the two maiden aunts she had been named for. Early life ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas, to Rulandus and Nelly (''née'' Shay) Pitts; she was the third of four children. Her father, who had lost a leg while serving in the 76th New York Infantry in the Civil War, had settled the family in Kansas by the time ZaSu was born. The names of her father's sisters, Eliza and Susan, were purportedly the basis for the name "ZaSu", i.e., to satisfy competing family interests. It has been (incorrectly) spelle ...
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