“An Immodest Proposal”
Now that Bowling Green State University’s Board of Trustees are of one mind about the importance of presentism in viewing the past, we would suggest that they pursue the path towards a more complete obliteration of troublesome matters from our cinemetic past. In their collective wisdom, though, the Board of Trustees in removing the names of Dorthy and Lillian Gish from the movie theatre in the BGSU student union, refrained from eliminating the Lillian Gish scholarship, revoking her honorary doctorate, or dispersing the Gish archives. Quite Solomon like, indeed. (But was an educational opportunity lost?)
However, they have more work to do. Surely their research before their unanimous vote revealed, as did ours, that the following actors also had roles in Birth of a Nation:
Mae Marsh
Henry B. Walthal
Miriam Cooper
George Siegmann
Walter Long
Wallace Reid
Donald Crisp
Spottiswoode Aitkin
Elmo Lincoln
Eugene Pallette
Raoul Walsh
Jules White
Monte Blue
John Ford
Gibson Gowland
Charles King
(A conservative tally of the movies these actors appeared in, outside of Birth of a Nation, is 2,565 films.)
John Ford (KKK Rider) and Raoul Walsh (John Wilkes Booth) are especially notable in they they are considered two of the greatest directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Ford is often described as America’s greatest director.
To be consistent, therefore, others who have appeared in Birth of a Nation should have their films stricken from any list of films to be screened in the now unnamed theatre in the BGSU student union. That their 2,500 plus films represent a significant proportion of films in the history of American movies should not keep the Board of Trustees from establishing this list of forbidden films so that those who say history is not important will be able to fully wrap themselves in presentism.
John G. Nachbar
Co-founder of the Journal of Popular Film and Television
Former Director of the Film Studies Program at BGSU
Michael T. Marsden
Co-editor of the Journal of Popular Film and Television
Professors Emeritus of Popular Culture at BGSU
(The opinions stated here are, of course, those of individuals who should not be construed to be spokespersons in any way for BGSU or any other organization or institution.)
