The Movies In The Age Of Innocence

In this very personal view of silent movies, an old-time movie fan, who is also an eminent literary critic, writer, and scholar, speaks his piece about the things he cared for. In the doing he has recorded what the first motion pictures looked like to the generation for which they were created - the young people who grew up with them and made them a vital part of their lives. First, there was fascination with movement itself - nobody had ever seen a picture move before. Players were not really important until studios began promoting certain actors and actresses. The directors, actors, theaters, movie makers, and the films themselves are all here, from the first flickering beginnings of the "nickel show" to the magnificence of "The Birth of a Nation." Scores of those with names familiar or well-nigh forgotten step across the pages. A chapter is devoted to Mary Pickford, who as an actress dominated the scene for so long, as is one to D. W. Griffith, "greatest of all directors." Discussing first the impingement of movies on the mind, the author goes on to general but selective surveys of the pre-feature and the feature eras of silent films, and ends with a discussion of the motion-picture actress. Author Wagenknecht was professor of English at Boston University.