WI No "Birth of a Nation"

So, Birth of a Nation was a groundbreaking film but one that even at the time was considered racist. Lets say the novel the film was based on, "The Clansman" is never published and thus DW Griffith never makes the film.


A few thoughts:

Would Griffith be able to develop the techniques he used in "Birth" in another film? If so, any guess to what sort of movie it might be? Would he still make "Intolerance"?

"Birth" was a significant factor in the rise of the second Ku Klux Klan. No "Birth" might mean a smaller Klan.

and of course...

Would everyone's opinion of Woodrow Wilson be slightly improved, seeing as he doesn't get the chance to watch "Birth" at the White House?
 
Without The Birth of a Nation, the second Ku Klux Klan would most likely be much less influential, if it would exist at all. Also, the movie was influential in creating modern film techniques, so this could have significant effects on film history.
 
I think that whatever far-right organization encompassed the nativist feelings sweeping the nation in the 1920s would not use the Klan name or imagery, calling itself something different.
 
I think that whatever far-right organization encompassed the nativist feelings sweeping the nation in the 1920s would not use the Klan name or imagery, calling itself something different.

And whatever that organization might have been, it would not have been nearly as prevalent nor as (locally) powerful. The Klan model with its institutionalized anonymity (hoods, masks) allowed otherwise-respectable types to engage in far-right racist/xenophobic acts with impunity. With that, one could argue that a snowball effect results with impunity yielding greater acts yielding more power yielding impunity...once the organization is somehow ensconced in power as it was in Indiana IOTL, it would take something seismic (like D. C. Stephenson getting hauled up on a rape/murder charge) to unseat it.

You're probably looking at an organization a good order of magnitude or so smaller than the 1920s KKK, exercising-at most-influence but not power over perhaps rural southern or midwestern counties; e.g., isolated counties here and there in, say, Indiana, Georgia, etc.

SIDEBAR: I'm going to have to check a couple of relatively recent Wilson biographies for any mention of his reaction to Birth of a Nation: it's taken as almost an article of faith that Wilson praised it, which one could rationalize given that he grew up in the Confederacy / post-war south. I don't recall whether Heckscher or Berg mention the film or not. One way or another, I'll mention something later on.
 
I guess I'm enough of an historical determinist to believe that, if there was a powerful anti-immigration group in our TL, there would have been one(under a different name) in another time-line where the only thing different is the absence of a particular movie.

On the other hand, the 1920s Klan did enjoy a foray into Canada, copying the anti-Catholicism of the American KKK, but with a more specific focus on anti-French endeavors. This, despite the pre-existence of Orange Halls in Canada, including the west, preaching roughly the same thing. So, perhaps there was something about the Klan in particular that garnered public affection over and above its nativist ideology.

(I've often thought that a bunch of Canadians aping a bunch of Amercians who in turn were aping a Hollywood movie, makes a fitting metaphor for cultural transmission in North America.)
 
SIDEBAR: I'm going to have to check a couple of relatively recent Wilson biographies for any mention of his reaction to Birth of a Nation: it's taken as almost an article of faith that Wilson praised it, which one could rationalize given that he grew up in the Confederacy / post-war south. I don't recall whether Heckscher or Berg mention the film or not. One way or another, I'll mention something later on.

Whether or not he did he was definitely a Lost Causer, as this quote from the film illustrates:

Wilson-quote-in-birth-of-a-nation.jpg
 
My favorite title from that film is the one introducing the scenes supposedly illustrating life under the black legislatures during Reconstruction. It's something like "Not meant to portray groups or people today."

"Hey, don't take this the wrong way, we're not racist, but..."
 
SIDEBAR: I'm going to have to check a couple of relatively recent Wilson biographies for any mention of his reaction to Birth of a Nation: it's taken as almost an article of faith that Wilson praised it, which one could rationalize given that he grew up in the Confederacy / post-war south. I don't recall whether Heckscher or Berg mention the film or not. One way or another, I'll mention something later on.


According to Melvyn Stokes "Brith of a Nation: A history of the most controversial motion picture of all time" (the book that inspired me to make the thread https://global.oup.com/academic/pro...irth-of-a-nation-9780195336795?cc=us&lang=en& )

Wilson knew nothing of the movie's content and allowed it to be shown at the White House as a favor to Dixon. According to the only person at the screening who was ever asked directly what happened, the president seemed lost in thought during the film and left without saying anything.

Stokes also claims that Dixon fabricated the infamous "Like writing history with lightning..." quote in order to gain publicity.
 
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