Beschreibung:

Large collection of material related to an American re-release of the controversial 1914 D.W. Griffith epic. Group of approximately 100 pieces primarily concerning a late 1940s re-release of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1914) including promotional materials; programs for various theatres; scripts for radio spots advertising the film; cardboard printing mats for newspaper advertisements; several large posters; programs; documents including movie theatre time sheets, box office statements, business correspondence (some original, some copies) between the film's promoters, theatre managers, The Motion Picture Association, and others; newspapers and newspaper clippings and other related ephemera. Of particular interest are numerous letters and pamphlets protest and defense of the film. In one letter, dated Aug. 8, 1949 to the manager of the Horsehead's Theater of Horsehead, N.Y. praises the showing as it ...is a masterpiece for early film works. I recommend that every one from History students on up see it. It is invaluable to help understand the chaos in the country after the civil war. That picture was never meant to hurt anyone... but to help them to understand conditions. The colored people should stop & think, if it had not been for Lincoln the Civil War, they might still be slaves. And two, they should appreciate all that has been done for them in education, housing... it is up to them to do their part. My ancestors helped to settle this country & 35 from one side of my family fought & some died, in the revolution to make this country free. I am not going to sit calmly by & see Communists and other pressure groups, poisoning the minds of people who do not under stand that they are being used as tools for their cause... Ironically, one of those "pressure groups" that defended the showing of the film was Elmer Rice, Chairman of the National Council on Freedom from Censorship together with the A.C.L.U. A copy of July 15, 1949 a letter from Rice to the manager of Syracuse N.Y. theatre reads in part: We understand that at the request of Mayor Costello you have cancelled the scheduled engagement of 'The Birth of a Nation'. We were glad to learn that you believed the Mayor's request was not reasonable, and that your compliance [was reluctant]... In these days of attempted thought suppression, it is persons like yourself who can strike telling blows in defense of our Constitutional liberties... The letter presses the manager to show it anyway, and if he feared reprisals through ...finding technical violations of laws and attempting to revoke the license of your theatre...we offer you full legal aid, free of charge... we know that if a picture such as the 'Birth of a Nation' is suppressed in the North because it might be considered anti-Negro, when he next step may be to prohibit the showing of such pictures as 'Home of the Brave' in the south because they are considered pro-Negro... Other "pressure groups" protested the showing as they felt it defamed black Americans. The New York Branch and Youth Council for the N.A.A.C.P. issued a flyer entitled WE PROTEST THE SHOWING OF 'BIRTH OF A NATION' BECUASE 1. This picture is a historical lie in that it distorts the real facts of Negro and White participation in the reconstruction governments following the Civil War. 2. It glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and gives implied approval to lynchings. 3. It slanders Negro troops whose services in the Union Army played a major role in preserving the United States... 5. It endorses sentiment not only against Negroes, but also against Catholics and Jews... Indeed, those who handled the promotion of this release appeared to sway toward the right. A letter from T.K. Peters a "Motion Picture and Audio-Visual Consultant" of Dunwoody, Ga., writes in 1950 to one of the film's promoters in New York, Frank Markey that: We have received the print of the Birth back again and have also shown it to a group of people who interested in Nationalist activity. I bel