Sam Shapiro, manager of the Public Library at the downtown Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, presented one of West Virginia’s first films, “Tol’able David”(1921, remade in 1930) directed by Hollywood’s longest working director, Henry King.  65 people came to the presentation at the ImagOn Center. It was shown as part of their “Southern Flavor - Five Films about the South.”

Sam is an old friend. He e-mailed me right before the screening, asking about any tibits he could tell the audience. He knew that I have been connected to the film for a long time, ever since his former boss and my good friend William Sloan, founding director of the film library for the New York Public Library and director of the circulating film collection at The Museum of Modern Art, sent me a 16 mm copy of the film in the early 1980s.

 I once made the front page of the Charleston Daily Mail because of the film. Jim Comstock of “The Hillbilly” magazine claimed it was the “first Hollywood film made in WV.” I contacted David Shepard, a person friend of the director and head of special projects for the Screen Directors Guild (the people who put on the Oscars), about the facts concerning the film. Mr. King said that the film was NOT filmed anywhere inside of WV.  ( I once screened the film at the Vandalia Festival here at the WV Cultural Center when I believed it was indeed the first film made in WV.)

The film was made in S, Virginia, across the border in Virginia near the hometown of Henry King. The Maple Festival still shows the film during its annual festival in Monterrey, Virginia which is near by. The film was world famous, serving as a model especially in Russia. It was also famous for helping create the negative stereotype of the bloodthirsty hillbilly. ( See above - The History Channel is finally airing its two hour documentary on this subject - “Hillbilly - the Real Story” this coming Sunday.)

Kino International released a restored VHS of the film and then it came out on DVD.

The film was originally going to be directed by D.W. Griffith based on a short story by Joseph Hergesheimer. King ended up directing it with a relative unknown at the time, Richard Barthelmess, who became a model for young men proving their worth in countless films to come. It was part of a genre of filmmaking that pre-dated the Western - “The Eastern” whose most famous example probably was Griffith’s “Way Down East.” 

When John Sayles came to WV in 1984 to make “Matewan,” I often told reporters about “Easterns,” and how Sayles was continuing an old tradition with his own film about the first “wild West - West Virginia.”

There is a very interesting book about Mr. King, a Virginia gentleman who became a very successful Hollywood director, working longer than anyone - “Henry King’s America” by Walter Coppedage.

Congrats to Sam and the people of Charlotte for supporting interest in the long and interesting history of Southern/Appalachian cinema!

Here is a report from Sam about the showing………..

TOL’ABLE DAVID was a big success — more than just tol’able. People actually made a special trip from non-Charlotte locations to experience the film. One couple drove down from Raleigh — the lady introduced herself (after the film) as the film programmer for the North Carolina Museum of Art   She came for TOL’ABLE DAVID, but primarily to hear Eytan Uslan, who provides piano accompaniment for the silent films I show. So far he has played along with SAFETY LAST (95 people in attendance), OUR HOSPITALITY (150 in attendance), and TOL’ABLE DAVID (64 in attendance). On October 29th, he will accompany THE GENERAL, following Bob Mondello’s lecture EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT THE SOUTH I LEARNED IN THE MOVIES (see website). Steve — this guy Eytan (who actually grew up in
West Virginia!!), is simply an amazing pianist. He placed

last year in the ”Old-Time Piano Playing World Championships”, and playing along with silent films has become his great love. You should bring him up to Charleston, to play in your movie theatre….He prepares for months before each film, plays the entire film by memory, using a combination of original compositions, classical, improvisational, and music from the era in which the film was made.

 Anyway, it has been great showing West Virginia films — MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL and TOL’ABLE DAVID were big hits…I guess I need to bring the Dancing Outlaw to the Queen City next….. 

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