Kentucky Went to Hollywood

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Hollywood usually isn't associated with rural Kentucky, and vice versa. However, rural Oldham County, Kentucky, gave the movie industry one of the first and greatest legends of motion pictures. David Wark (D.W.) Griffith was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, which is one county northeast of Louisville. Griffith, as his obituary in 1948 said, was credited with moving motion pictures out of one-reel, almost amateurish things into art. 1915's The Birth of a Nation, about the aftermath of the Civil War (which, sadly, included southern Democrats creating the KKK), was, is, and probably ever shall be considered a masterpiece of moviemaking. After that classic film Griffith directed Intolerance the next year. His films introduced the world to legends like Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. The techniques he employed included the close-up and the fade. Griffith died in Hollywood of a brain hemorrhage on July 23, 1948. His body was brought back to Crestwood, Kentucky for burial. He is buried not too far from his parents (you can see his parents' graves from his) in the Mount Tabor Methodist Church cemetery near Centerfield and Crestwood, Kentucky. The Kentucky Historical Society erected a historical marker near the entrance of the cemetery to commemorate this legendary Kentuckian and his contributions to motion pictures.