Robert Goldstein and "The Spirit of '76"
Edited by Anthony Slide
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Book Presentation:
Impressed by the success of The Birth of a Nation, Robert Goldstein, owner of a well-known Los Angeles costume supply house, produced his own epic film drama, The Spirit of '76 and screened it in Los Angeles shortly after America's entry into World War I. The film was denounced as anti-British and treasonous. Arrested under the Espionage Act, Goldstein became the first and only American jailed for the crime of producing a patriotic film. Film historian Tony Slide includes an introductory essay, reprints contemporary documentation, and publishes a 1927 manuscript by Goldstein, in which he fully documents the background to the film, its making, his arrest and trial, and his later suffering.
About the Author:
Anthony Slide has published over forty pioneering works on film history, among them the first volumes dealing exclusively with early American cinema, the Vitagraph Company, the Fine Arts Company, filmmaking in Ireland, film preservation, and the non-theatrical film. He edits the Scarecrow Filmmakers Series and has produced a series of documentary films on silent screen personalities. In 1990 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by Bowling Green University; Lilian Gish called him "our preeminent historian of the silent film."
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