1910's:

 

1914 – July 28^th – World War I begins

1915 – The Birth of a Nation debuted.  African Americans are prohibited from being in the film, and are portrayed as horny, ignorant monkeys by white actors in black face.  Actors’ faces, especially Walter Long who plays Gus, the renegade negro, are purposely exaggerated to have big eyes and big lips and their some of their butts look like they’re stuffed.  Gus’s face and actions are especially exaggerated to highlight the animalistic qualities that D.W.Griffiths saw the African Americans having at that time. The women in this movie are portrayed as virginal, innocent, and sweet – not a far cry from the Victorian “angel of the house.”  The three central female characters of this movie, Lillian Gish as Elsie Stoneman, Mae Marsh as Flora Cameron, and Miriam Cooper as Margaret Cameron all exemplify these qualities. 

Also in 1915, the first femme fatale (French for deadly woman), movie debuted.  Theda Bara starred as a vampire who uses her charms to seduce and corrupt a moral Wall Street lawyer in A Fool There Was.  This film was considered controversial for its risqué intertitle cards as “Kiss me, my fool!”

1918 – November 11^th – World War I ends

1910s – Homosexual behaviors such as same sex dancing partners (The Florida Enchantment) and effeminate men in macho cowboy films (Wanderer of the West and The Soilers) seen as humorous.

1916 – Charlie Chaplin’s Behind the Screen – Chaplin plays a stagehand who falls in love with a female assistant who poses as a male (other characters believe Chaplin’s character is homosexual).