Vintage original 9 x 12 in. US souvenir book from the teens WWI-themed silent film war drama/romance, HEARTS OF THE WORLD, released in 1918 and directed by D.W. Griffith.
Designed, engraved, and printed by The Sackett & Wilhelms Corporation (NY), It consists of 32 pages featuring sepia-tinted photographs throughout with a color-tinted 2-page center spread. It is complete in overall fine+ condition with a light vertical crease down the center of the book.
When examples of this souvenir book appear for sale, they most often are missing the outer color front cover and back photographic cover (with Lillian Gish and Robert Harron), as the preceding page gives the impression that it could be the front cover.
*"Hearts of the World is a 1918 American silent World War I propaganda film written, produced and directed by D. W. Griffith. In an effort to change the American public's neutral stance regarding the war, the British government contacted Griffith due to his stature and reputation for dramatic filmmaking. Hearts of the World stars Lillian and Dorothy Gish and Robert Harron and was produced by D.W. Griffith Productions, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, and the War Office Committee. The nationwide general release was distributed by Paramount Pictures under the Artcraft Pictures Corporation banner.
The British Government gave Griffith unprecedented access to film in locations that were otherwise forbidden to journalists. After being presented to George V and Queen Mary, Griffith was introduced to members of London's aristocracy, who agreed to appear in the film, including Lady Lavery, Elizabeth Asquith, Diana Manners. Playwright Noël Coward also appeared as an extra. Exterior shots were largely filmed throughout England from May to October 1917. Griffith made two trips to France, where he filmed footage of the trenches. In one instance, Griffith and his film crew were forced to take cover when their location came under German artillery fire; he escaped unscathed.
The film company returned to Los Angeles, where British and Canadian troops recreated battle scenes and other interior scenes on a stage at the Fine Arts Studio in Los Angeles from November to December 1917. The scenes shot in Europe and Los Angeles were edited together with footage from stock newsreels. In a scene cut from the movie, actress Colleen Moore appeared as a little girl in her bed who, hearing the war raging beyond her window, was so frightened that she turned the hands of her alarm clock forward, hoping that time would rush forward to the end of the fighting."
*(source: Wikipedia)
SCIB3