D. W. GRIFFITH This life insurance document signing over all of his monetary possessions and benefits to Lillian Gish is signed twice by the revolutionary film director with his full name Document double signed: "David Wark Griffith" twice on front. 8x12. November 8, 1944. Assignment of Annuity Contract signing all proceeds and sums of money, interest, benefits, rights, powers, privelages, and advantages whatsoever unto Lillian D. Gish. Co-signed by witnesses: "Joseph A. Keeley", "S.A. Sathawny, "Edna MacReid" and notary "V. Sheldon". Co-signers merit further research. David Llewelyn Wark Griffith (1875-1948) was an American film director. 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 criticized by the NAACP and caused riots in northern cities. The criticism Griffith received for the film was re... More information available. Please contact us if you have questions. DOCUMENT 345096

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