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D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (also released in some parts of the U.S. as "The Clansman", although not solely in the South as one might think), the classic historic 1915 D.W. Griffith silent Civil War birth-of-the-Ku-Klux-Klan historical action adventure melodrama ("Lincoln's assassinations. The fatal blow that robbed the South of its best friend"; "The supreme picture of all time."; "Mightiest spectacle ever produced"; "D.W. Griffith's stupendous motion picture production of Thomas Dixon's famous story 'The Clansman'"; "Employing the services of 18,000 people accompanied by the symphony orchestra of 40"; "Founded on Thomas Dixon's story 'The Clansman'"; made just 50 years after the end of the Civil War, it begins with Lincoln's assassination, and shows the devastation of the South afterwards, and portrays the forming of the Ku Klux Klan as the only way for Southerners to fight back against the carpetbaggers from the North!) starring Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall (distinguished silent actor best remembered as the star of this film), Elmo Lincoln, Miriam Cooper, Mary Alden, Joseph Henabery (as President Abraham Lincoln), Donald Crisp (as General Grant), Howard Gaye (as General Lee), and Raoul Walsh (as John Wilkes Booth). Note that this movie was very controversial for its sympathetic portrayal of white southerners and its stereotypical portrayal of black African Americans, but no one can deny it was the first great movie, and is a major landmark in American cinema. Prior to the release of this movie, almost all movie theaters showed a series of one-reel shorts, and charged 5 cents admission. D.W. Griffith charged $2 admission to see this single feature-length movie, and it was a huge success, which convinced all other filmmakers to begin making feature films as well.
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

If you know who did the art (if any), please let us know.

Important Added Info: Note that we have only auctioned this world premiere program twice before (and those two were actually the same example because it was re-consigned to us). It is historic, because it is from the world premiere engagement of this most famous movie when it played at the Clunes Auditorium Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, beginning February 8, 1915. This program is not dated, so we can't say exactly when during that world premiere engagement it is from, but it would seem likely that they printed enough programs to cover the entire engagement. It is from when the movie was initially called "The Clansman" (the title of the source novel). For many years, some people erroneously assumed that it was only released as "The Clansman" in the South, and as "The Birth of a Nation" in the rest of the country, but this is wrong (and this program proves that!). At some point after its initial opening, the title was changed to "The Birth of a Nation" (and that title reflects Griffith's believe that it was only after the Civil War that the U.S. truly became a unified nation). The program has wild different art of a hooded Klansman on a hooded horse with the title on the horse's robe (see our image) and the interior of the program is mostly devoted to full-page images of the cast, including biographies (and Lillian Gish only gets the eighth page!). There is also a 2-page description of the story and a 1-page article called "How 'The Clansman' Was Produced". Also note that we have pictured the front cover, the back cover, and several 2-page spreads from this program. You can use these images to determine the exact condition of it from our super-sized image, but realize that there are some other pages you are not seeing.

UPDATED 12/30/2022: Note that we originally neglected to mention that this is the world premiere program. We have updated the auction accordingly.

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