Key Films of 1915

A Fool There Was catapulted Bara to stardom in a way no film actor had previously experienced - so it was perhaps inevitable that her star would shine far more briefly than most others

Leading man George Beban requested that Ince change the film’s title from The Dago to The Italian...

Part 1: Griffith believed that The Birth of a Nation's grand scenario would facilitate his desire to progress film towards epic, grandiose feature-length storytelling.

Part 2: "“Look, Mr Griffith. You’re staging a battle, right? You want realism, don’t you? Suppose someone does get hurt a little. Not much. A foot blown off or something..."

Part 3: It is perhaps easier to consider The Birth of a Nation as a reflection of the times that spawned it: an era when racism was commonplace and often unpunished.

The official ban imposed by the UK on James Young's Hearts in Exile has never been lifted...

Herschel Mayall's performance in On the Night Stage inspired silent screen heartthrob John Gilbert to become an actor.

“Cecil was known for what he thought was realism. Well, he got it in The Captive when a man was actually killed."

Fanchon the Cricket marked the only time Mary Pickford shared the screen in a feature-length movie with her siblings.

Former cowboys who worked as riders and stuntmen at Inceville found Hart's perception of the Old West amusing, and... many found him to be pompous.

"Adolph Zukor knew Pickford was a big enough attraction to make even the most perfunctory material profitable..."

"The police arrested Raoul Walsh, director of The Regeneration, and booked him for arson, indecent exposure and malicious mischief."

"James Young didn't like another director filming his wife, Clara Kimball Young, in a nude scene..."

The Script for Tillie's Tomato Surprise called for Marie Dressler to be mown down by an automobile, be shoved through a wall, bitten by her co-star James the Monkey and more...

When Geraldine Farrar, the star of Carmen, arrived in Los Angeles, school children scattered flowers from the private carriage of her train to the studio’s awaiting automobile...

Douglas Fairbanks resisted Harry Aitken’s first offer of a movie contract, worried that appearing in pictures would damage his reputation on the stage.

Assistant director von Stroheim would have actors stand on parade each morning, and Dorothy Gish refused to kiss her leading man...

Frank Keenan, the star of The Coward, was what those in the profession called a furniture actor...

Pickford remembered a “furious quarrel which ended in Olcott stalking off the set. I was shaking with anger…”

Douglas Fairbanks was filming Double Trouble when he first met Mary Pickford.

In Japan, Sessue Hayakawa, who plays the villain in Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat, was condemned for promoting anti-Japanese sentiment.