and others In 1908, Griffith accepted a role as a stage extra in
Professional Jealousy for the American Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, where he met cameraman
Billy Bitzer. In 1908, Biograph's main director
Wallace McCutcheon Sr. fell ill, and his son Wallace McCutcheon Jr. took his place. McCutcheon Jr. did not bring the studio success; His short
In Old California (1910) was the first film shot in Hollywood, California. Four years later, he produced and directed his first
feature film Judith of Bethulia (1914). Biograph believed that longer features were not viable at this point. According to
Lillian Gish, the company thought that "a movie that long would hurt [the audience's] eyes". camera),
Dorothy Gish (watching from behind Bitzer),
Karl Brown (keeping script) and
Miriam Cooper (in profile) in a production still for
Intolerance (1916) Griffith left Biograph because of company resistance to his goals and his cost overruns on the film. He took his company of actors with him and joined the
Mutual Film Corporation. There he co-produced
The Life of General Villa, a silent biographical-action movie starring
Pancho Villa as himself, shot on location in Mexico during a civil war. He formed a studio with
Majestic Studios manager
Harry Aitken, which became known as
Reliance-Majestic Studios and later was renamed Fine Arts Studios. His new production company became an autonomous production unit partner in the
Triangle Film Corporation along with
Thomas H. Ince and
Keystone Studios'
Mack Sennett. The Triangle Film Corporation was headed by Aitken, who was released from the Mutual Film Corporation, The NAACP attempted to stop showings of the film. This ban was successful in some cities, but nonetheless it was shown widely and became the most successful box-office attraction of its time. It is considered among the first "blockbuster" motion pictures, and it broke all box-office records that had been established until then. "They lost track of the money it made", Lillian Gish remarked in a
Kevin Brownlow interview. '' (1916), by Griffith Audiences in some major northern cities rioted over the film's racial content and the violence. Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him the following year to produce
Intolerance, in which he portrayed the effects of intolerance in four different historical periods: the
Fall of Babylon; the
Crucifixion of Jesus; the events surrounding the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (during religious persecution of French
Huguenots); and a modern story.
Intolerance was not a financial success; it did not bring in enough profits to cover the lavish road show that accompanied it. Griffith put a huge budget into the film's production that could not be recovered in its box office. He mostly financed
Intolerance himself, which contributed to his financial ruin for the rest of his life. '' (1916) Griffith's production partnership was dissolved in 1917, and he went to Artcraft, part of
Paramount Pictures, and then to
First National Pictures (1919–1920). At the same time, he founded
United Artists together with
Charlie Chaplin,
Mary Pickford, and
Douglas Fairbanks; the studio was based on allowing actors to control their own interests rather than being dependent upon commercial studios. He continued to make films, but he never again achieved box-office grosses as high as either
The Birth of a Nation or
Intolerance. == Later film career ==