D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett: The Arcadian Maid
![250px-D_W_Griffith[1]](http://travsd.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/250px-d_w_griffith1.jpg)
Today is the birthday of the great American director D.W. Griffith (for my full article on him go here). In honor of the day we share his 1910 film An Arcadian Maid starring Mary Pickford and Mack Sennett. I use the film in my upcoming book Chain of Fools as an example of how Sennett couldn’t NOT do comedy. As the villainous Peddlar his characterization seems just a notch or two away from “Organ Grinder”:
To find out more about the variety arts past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. And don’t miss Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, to be released by Bear Manor Media in 2013.
