The film historian Kevin Brownlow (whose initials, K B, echo the name of Ince’s studio Kay Bee) was kind enough to react to a conference given in Stirling on the mode of production at Triangle (see below “The Ince ‘method’…”) and to send the author the following letter we publish here with his consent. I thank him for all this, and also for pointing to two mistakes I made in my Stirling presentation.
Oct 20 09
Dear Marc Vernet;
I was fascinated by your paper on Triangle, and wish I could sit down and talk with you – and better still, show you some examples. The very first film I acquired (as an 11-year old collector) was a Triangle-Fine Arts film, and I have been intrigued by Triangle ever since. I met people who worked for each apex of Triangle and if you decide to extend your subject, I would be happy to send you transcripts of what they said.
DWG; He was generally thought to have supervised the Fine Arts films, yet as you say he was far too busy on what became INTOLERANCE. And some of the films were made at Triangle’s East Coast headquarters on the Clara Morris Estate under the supervision of Allan Dwan. What he did do was to set the cast and crew on the right path by supervising rehearsals. Sidney Franklin told me that when he and his brother Chester made LET KATIE DO IT (1915), at Fine Arts, an excellent kid picture set during the Mexican revolution, Griffith came over and watched rehearsals, adding ideas and generally encouraging the two young men (I think Sidney was 22). Franklin was so impressed he kept DWG’s cigar butt as a souvenir in his safe! He was dismayed when DWG removed one of his best shots because he wanted to reshoot it for THE MOTHER AND THE LAW.
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