D. W. GRIFFITH The famed film director signs a membership application for the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) in 1940. Application signed: "D W Griffith", in pencil, 2 pages (front and verso), 6½x8½. Los Angeles, California, April 23, 1940. Application for Membership in the American Federation of Radio Artists. Griffith applies to give AFRA permission to be his exclusive agent for collective bargaining purposes in any matters dealing with the radio industry or in any other matters with in the jurisdiction of the said Federation. He fills in his address and telephone number and on verso, he completes a brief questionnaire in green pencil. American film director David Llewelyn Wark Griffith (1875-1948) was born in Crestwood, Kentucky. Beginning his career as a playwright, Griffith went to New York in 1907 in hopes of selling a script. Instead he found himself working in several small acting parts. In 1908, while working with the American Mutoscope and Biograph company, Griffith was hired to direct The Adventures of Dollie. Griffith and Biograph were the first to shoot a film in Hollywood, California, the 1910 film In Old California. In 1914, he directed the film Judith of Bethulia (1914) one of the first feature films to be produced in the U.S. After leaving Biograph, who believed that full feature films were not commercially viable, Griffith went on to make his most influential and controversial film The Birth of a Nation (1915). The film is thought of historically as the first Blockbuster. Running at 190 minutes, its popularity broke the idea that longer films would not be received well by audiences. The Birth of a Nation would turn out to be the Birth of the Hollywood film industry as we know it today. However, the film, which depicted African Americans in a poor light, and its protagonists, the Ku-Klux-Klan, as the nation's saviors, was cri... More information available. Please contact us if you have questions. DOCUMENT 322753

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