It is a story of Northern Stoneman family and the Cameron family from Piedmont, South Carolina. Through their eyes we see how their friendship is affected by the Civil War. The consequences of the War in their lives are shown in connection to major historical events, like the development of the Civil War itself, Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.

The movie was based on Thomas Dixon Jr’s ‘The Clansman’. Dixon had committed his entire writing career arguing in favor of the superiority of whites and the Ku Klux Klan’s use of violence. After being angered by a staging ‘Uncle Brown’s Cabin’ in 1901 he decided to produce a play that offered his own interpretation of race relations. He said: “My object is to teach the North, the young North, what it has never known—the awful suffering of the white man during the dreadful Reconstruction period. I believe that Almighty God anointed the white men of the South by their suffering during that time . . . to demonstrate to the world that the white man must and shall be supreme.”

After the release of the film in 1915, the NAACP and other groups protested the film. The NAACP published a pamphlet titled ‘Fighting a Vicious Film: Protest Against The Birth of a Nation’. W. E. B. Du Bois published scathing reviews in ‘The Crisis’, which helped spur a debate among the National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures to whether the film should be shown in New York. In the years after Griffith released ‘The Birth of a Nation’ there were massive race riots throughout the country, peaking in 1919.

President and former history professor Woodrow Wilson after viewing the film at the White House proclaimed it not only historically accurate, but like “history writ with lightning.” Many whites feeling it to be a truthful and accurate portrayal of racial politics flocked to join the rejuvenated Ku Klux Klan.

‘The Birth of a Nation’ went on to become one of the most admired and profitable films produced by Hollywood during its silent phase. Many Film scholars agree that it is the most important and a key film in American movie history. It contains many new cinematic innovations and refinements, technical effects and artistic advancements with a formative influence on future films.

The first agreement allowed the principles to release four pictures a year. A number that soon they found they could not reach. They did turn to others such as Buster Keaton, King Vidor and Samuel Goldwyn to fill the schedule.

One of the reasons it was formed, perhaps the single most important reason, was that these artists didn’t like the practice of ‘block booking’ that the movie studios of the era had developed. This practice required movie houses to take a block of motion pictures, whether they wanted all of them or not, just to get the ones they may want. United Artists would deal with the exhibitors with each single picture.

The first United Artist released movie was Douglas Fairbanks “His Majesty, the American” on September 1, 1919

By the late 1940s, United Artists existed mostly in name only. Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford was contacted by Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin, two lawyers, in 1951 asking if they could run United Artists. They agreed, even though Chaplin at first was against the idea changing his mind only after US government revoked his re-entry visa in 1952.

Krim and Benjamin’s management and then ownership changed the direction of the corporation. United Artists became one of biggest movie corporations of the 1950s into the 1960s. In 1967 they sold their interests to Transamerica Corporation.

Mabel Normand, a popular silent film comedy actress, was at the Taylor home on February 1, leaving the house at 7:45. It is thought that she was the last person, other than the murderer who saw him alive. She left the house in a happy mood.

Taylor was born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner on April 26, 1872 in Ireland. He came to America in 1890. He married in 1901 to Ethel May Harrison whose father was a wall street broker. He vanished in 1908 deserting his wife and daughter.

While there were many suspects including Mabel Normand, Edward Sands – a former Taylor’s Valet, and Henry Peavy – Taylor’s Valet, no one was ever charged with the murder. Even to this day the identity of the actual murderer is unknown.

It has been discovered that Taylor had a relationship with teen screen actress Mary Miles Minter. At his death Taylor was 49 and she was 19. There is cause to believe that they may have had an intimate relationship prior to her turning 18. Minter’s mother Charlotte Shelby has also been linked as a possible suspect in the murder. Shelby, too, may have had an intimate relationship with Taylor.

From 1993 to 2000, Bruce Long collected and compiled information about Taylor and the murder. He called his effort Taylorology. It can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/az/Taylorology/

One could say she was destined to become an entertainer. While working at the diner her parents owned and operated, she sang songs for those she waited on earning applause and tips.

After separating from her first husband, Louis Tuck, she found herself on the vaudeville stage. She performed songs wearing blackface and with a southern accent until one day when he suitcase arrived late she went on stage declaring to the audience, “You all can see I’m a white girl. Well, I’ll tell you something more: I’m not Southern. I’m a Jewish girl and I just learned this Southern accent doing a blackface act for two years. And now, Mr. Leader, please play my song.”

Still she enjoyed singing songs that had African-American roots. Many of these songs, including her signature song Some of These Days written by Shelton Brooks, she purchased exclusive rights to sing.

Tucker was proud of her Jewish heritage and one of Tucker’s best know songs is My Yiddish Momme written for her in 1925 by Jack Yellen. The song has both Yiddish and English verses. At first she sang this in concert only when she felt the audience understood Yiddish, but later she would include it in her act. When Adolf Hitler came into power in Germany he ordered all copies of the song destroyed.

Tucker never retired from entertainer. She performed in the movies, on the radio and on Television as well as on the stage during her long career. She died at the age of 82 on February 9, 1966, in New York City, just a few weeks after her last performance.

His birth name was Thomas Hezekiah Mix, but when he enlisted in the army during the Spanish-American War he entered as Thomas E. Mix. The E is Edwin, his father’s name. Was his name ever legally changed. It was in his mind since he appeared to have never liked the name Hezekiah and always used Thomas Edwin Mix.

Mix was a real Cowboy. After army he worked his way west until finally working at Will A. Dickey’s Circle D Ranch. The ranch was hired by Selig Pictures to supply cowboys and Indians along with horses for the movies. Mix was originally hired by Selig to provide and handle horses.

The real Tom Mix and the Legend of Tom Mix are at times different. As a showman he tended to claim to have done things before his stardom that are either totally false or can’t be confirmed. While he was in the army during the Spanish-American War, he was not one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.

Of the reported 336 films he appeared in between 1910 and 1935, all but nine were silent. As the first Western star he defined the cowboy genre. All that followed has Tom Mix to thank. In the 1920′s he was among the highest paid film stars and one of the decade’s top box stars.

During a trip through the Arizona deserts on October 12, 1940, when he took a turn a bit too fast a suitcase stuck him in the head. He lost control of his 1937 Cord Sportsman car and plunged into a ravine. The ravine where Mix died has been named “The Tom Mix Wash” in his honor.

But Topsy had killed three men in just the previous years, including a drunken trainer who had tried to feed her a lit cigarette.

It was decided that Topsy was a danger and should be put to death. The original thought was to hang the elephant, but that was determined to be cruel. Since 1890 New York had been using the Electric Chair and it had all but replaced the gallows.

It was decided to put her to death by electrocution. On January 4, 1903 after being fed carrots laced with cyanide she was electrocuted.

Thomas Edison used this as part of his “War of Currents” to show that AC was more dangerous than his DC in electric distribution. He also filmed the event.

1500 people as well as the film crew witnessed the event live. Thousands saw the film that was distributed by Edision’s Film Company.

Warning: This is the film of the actual event.