DAVID W. GRIFFITH CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 400, 7 July 1928, Page 23

DAVID W. GRIFFITH CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY

HOLLYWOOD’S TRIBUTE Celebration of David Wal k Griffith’s 20th anniversary as a director was held jointly with the local opening of his last picture, “The Drums of Love,” at the United Artists’ Theatre in Hollywood. Griffith, who is perhaps the most sentimental person in the film industry, was greatly delighted with the large and brilliant audience that turned out to see his latest picture and congratulate him on his anniversary. The majority of the Hollywood celebrities were present. Many of those present were people Griffith had brought forward from insignificance to prominence in his past productions. Cecil B. de Mille, Griffith’s old rival master of the megaphone, acted as master of ceremonies and presented a combination watch and cigarette lighter to 'him on behalf of the industry. De Mille spoke about what Griffith has done for picture making as an art. Griffith, with a quaver in his voice, accepted his gift, and then remarked sadly that he knew it was given with all the love in the world, but that probably would not suffice “to make the dam thing light.”