Memories of Lillian Gish by Allene Talmey and Phyllis Moir

"Tranquility, Lillian Gish sits, dressed in white organdie, her ash blond hair down her back, relaxed on the window seat, looking out for hours into the depths of the California night.

"'What are you looking at, Lillian?, Mrs. Gish has asked for years.

"'Noting, Mother, just looking.'"

Allene Talmey



"She is an extraordinarily difficult person to know, and if I hadn't gone to live with her ... and been with her through some of the most trying times of her life, I doubt whether our casual contacts at the studio would have brought me any intimate knowledge of her. There seems to be a wall of reserve between her and the outside world, and very few people ever get through that wall.

"The little things of life simply don't worry her at all. Gales of temperament can rage around her-she remains undisturbed. ... I have seen her at a time when anyone else would have been distraught with anxiety, come quietly in from the set, eat her luncheon calmly and collectedly (for first of all, Lillian believes in keeping fir for her work), then pick up some little book of philosophy and read it steadily until they sent for her.

"She refuses to believe that there are people in the world who are jealous of her and want to harm her. I remember someone once remarking that a certain person was jealous of her and hated her, and I can still see the look of utter  surprise on Lillian's face. But it never made any difference in her treatment of that person. In fact, I doubt whether she remembered it when she met her again.

"She is intensely loyal to those who have helped her along the path of success. She likes to be alone. She has an inexhaustible fund of patience, and a quiet sense of humor."

Phyllis Moir (secretary to Lillian, 1925-27)

Note: Both remembrances appear in Albert Bigelow Paine's 1932 "Life and Lillian Gish" Macmillan

Note: In Paine's book there is a chapter, "A Convent School, Typhoid,"describing Lillian's time at The Ursuline Academy. In response to blog posts, appearances, and traditionally published articles, I have correspondence from relatives of students who also attended the school and knew Lillian. I have photos, copies of letters, poems, and other items, published and unpublished, from relatives of Lillian's classmates.  

James Patterson, Editor
LDGish.blogspot.com
New York, NY August 2015

Lillian Gish on Her Birth Month and Love of Opals

Lillian's quote:

"I'm October. October's child is born for woe and life's vicissitudes must know, but place an opal on her breast, and trouble and cares will be at rest. So, I always have an opal."

Goodwin File, LA Herald Examiner, November 2, 1980.

I can attest to that in her later life.


Jim Patterson, Editor
www.LDGish.blogspot.com

Jim Patterson, editor LDGish.blogspot.com, at Lillian's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 1700 block on Vine Street. She is located just over 100 feet from the Hollywood and Vine corner. The two star's before her are Steven Allen and Garry Moore.

Within 100 feet are stars for actress and Academy Award winner Shelly Winters, Miss Gish's co-star in 1955's under- achiever "The Night of the Hunter," and actor/director Charles Laughton, director of highly acclaimed "The Night of the Hunter." "The Night of the Hunter," Lillian's first Hollywood film in 8 years, at the time, is on the National Film Registry and screened worldwide. It was a substantive role for her, Laughton saw to that, and many critics feel it was her best sound role.

Unfortunately she said little about it in her autobiography, Winters was more forthcoming in her interviews and writings.

NOTE:

An amazing thing happened a few minutes after this photo was taken. I was talking with a friend when legendary Dick Gregory, in a suit and tie, walked past. He stopped and chatted about our recent meeting on the University of the District of Columbia campus in Washington. Gregory, who marched at Selma, was on his way to a movie with friends, he said. Gregory also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.

I did not point out to Gregory, 83 and author of "Nigger," the irony of talking with him at the star of Lillian Gish, heroine of "The Birth of a Nation." It was an amazing moment for me and the legends in my life.


July 12, 2015
Hollywood, California

Jim Patterson, Editor, LDGish.blogspot.com, Receives Email from Tony Slide

April 17, 2015


Dear Mr. Patterson:

I have, quite by accident, just come across your blog on Lillian Gish, and found it most impressive and detailed.

As you are perhaps aware, I had known Lillian since about 1970 or 1971; she wrote the foreword to my and Edward Wagenknecht’s The Films of D.W. Griffith, and, very kindly, described me as “our pre-eminent historian of the silent film.”

I don’t have anything special to tell you, but just felt in the mood to write. I do think, by the way, it is too late now for Lillian to get a stamp. Most recently, Charlton Heston was honored, and if the postal service is honoring such “modern” players, there is little room for individuals from the silent era. It is the sad reality.

Good luck with the blog….

Anthony “Tony” Slide

Recognition of a New Art circa 1915

Amidst the police terrorism sweeping the country, I have seen and read signs that read, “This country was built on racism.”

Certainly the film industry was. One hundred years ago, director D.W. Griffith adapted Rev. Thomas Dixon’s (Baptist) bestselling novel The Clansmen into the three-hour 1915 Cavil War epic “The Birth of a Nation.” In sum, the film and novel glorified the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the South after the Civil War. Depictions of blacks are among the most brutally offensive ever filmed.

Recognition of a New Art is from the magazine sold to audiences of “The Birth of a Nation” in 1915 in New York.

Recognition of a New Art

“The Birth of a Nation” as presented by Mr. D. W. Griffith in New York was a revelation that raised the standard of motion pictures one thousand per cent, in a night. It was a radical departure to present this photographic spectacle in one of the first-class metropolitan theaters which had never been used for a motion picture production before. A further daring achievement was to present the work at the same scale of prices charged for the finest dramatic offerings on the New York stage. The reception of the production was quite as unusual. All the recognized New York critics attended opening performance, many for the first time writing a serious review of a picture drama. The chorus of praise was unanimous as well as astonishing. This united verdict was but a repetition of the wonderful things said of the work by men in every walk of life. U.S. Senators, Congressmen, artists, writers, illustrators, diplomats, historians, clergymen, in fact men of every profession expressed their appreciation in no uncertain terms. A few extracts from this worldwide chorus will serve to illustrate the case:

“It shows war as it really is.” –Richard Harding Davis

“In the short space of three hours the audience sees, hears, and feels a period of fifteen years.” Rev. Father John Talbot Smith

“It will take the whole country by storm.” Booth Tarkington

“I know it is true because I lived through the actual realities it depicts.” Rev. Thomas B. Gregory

“It is worth $5 a seat.” New York Evening Journal

“You see, as the angels looking down from Heaven must have seen,e exactly what took place fifty years ago.” Dorothy Dix

“The biggest attraction of this season. It brings the audiences to their feet as no theatrical play has in many, many years.” James S. Metcalfe, Life

“The most glorious accomplishment in any art I have ever seen.” – Governor Hiram Johnson of California (In the California Hall of Fame)

“Only a genius could have conceived and produced such an inspiring spectacle.” Amy Leslie, Chicago Daily News

“The true greatness of the picture lies in its emotional appeal.” New York News

“A new epoch in the art is reached.” New York Herald

“It is big and fine.” Evening World

“Wins popularity because of its thrilling war scenes.” New York Tribune

“A masterpiece of a new form of art.” Chicago Tribune

“Never before has such a combination of spectacle and tense drama been seen.” N. Y. Sun

“Achieved a striking degree of success.” New York Times

“Made a profound impression.” N.Y. Press

“Swept a sophisticated audience like a prairie fire before a windshield.” New York Mail

“Beyond doubts the most extraordinary picture that has been seen.” New York Globe.

Jim Patterson, Editor

www.LDGish.blogspot.com

Pauline Kael on Way Down East.

Pauline Kael's Review of Way Down East

Way Down East (1920) - The plot is Victorian, but the treatment is inspired. D. W. Griffith took a creaking, dated stage melodrama and turned it into a melodramatic epic.

Lillian Gish is the girl betrayed by Lowell Sherman and eventually rescued from an icy river by Richard Barthlemess. Audiences giggle at bits here and there, but not at the sequence in which she refuses to part from her dead baby.

Griffith stole from Thomas Hardy, but he stole beautifully. One of Griffith's greatest box-office successes, and a film that influenced several Russian epics. (The play by Lottie Blair Parker and Joseph R. Grismer was so popular that Griffith paid $175,000 for the right to adapt it.) Silent, b & w.

Date originally published unknown

Lillian Gish in Anya

Anya Playbill signed by cast member Constance Towers. Towers later married actor John Gavin ("Psycho." "Spartacus," and Ambassador to Mexico in the Reagan administration.) Lillian made her singing debut in this short run production. "Little Hands" was included on the album and can be found on YouTube. This is one of the few Playbills on which Lillian appeared in costume.


Jim Patterson
2015