Birth of a Nation Premiere Date?

November 14, 2008 11:33 AM

How can I find out when the movie Birth of a Nation premiered in Raleigh, NC? IMDB lists the movie's release date as 3/3/1915. I searched newspapers around that date and saw nothing. I believe the idea of movies opening nationwide on a single date is a relatively recent one, so it may be a different date than the one IMDB lists.

There might be an answer in D. W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation
by Melvyn Stokes, but I don't see where I can get my hands on a copy locally anytime soon.

posted by marxchivist to media & arts (5 comments total)

You can search that book via Google. There is a footnote that indicates an article titled "Birth of a Nation Draws Big House," was published in the Raleigh News and Observer on November 13, 1915.
posted by JoanArkham at 11:46 AM on November 14, 2008

do they have Lexis Nexis at your local library? it's worth a try. also, Griffith's papers should be at MOMA if I'm not mistaken, call them or send them an email.
posted by matteo at 11:47 AM on November 14, 2008

More pages may be available for viewing at the Amazon search. Just click the cover enter "Raleigh" as your search term.
posted by beagle at 12:08 PM on November 14, 2008

Thanks JoanArkham, that got me right to it. Actual premiere was November 11. It was in town for three days, they had to turn hundreds of people away.
posted by marxchivist at 12:23 PM on November 14, 2008

My grandfather told a story about going to see this movie in, I think, Bakersfield or Visalia. It was the big thing to do back in 1915. Similar kind of tent-show thing with the movie coming into town for a short time.
posted by OolooKitty at 1:27 PM on November 14, 2008