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American Film Abroad: Lillian Gish on Russia
From: Columbia University
| By:
Columbia University Oral History Research Office |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
One of Hollywood's brightest stars, Lillian Gish (1893-1993), was best known for her work in a host of silent film classics. Over the course of a long career, Gish received many of the motion picture industry's top achievement awards. In this excerpt from an interview with Columbia University's Oral History Research Office, she talks about being honored in Russia in 1969, and her impressions of the country and its people. |
Question: That brings me to your visit to Russia, where you were honored in 1969. What do the Russians value of American film that we Americans don't? It's what we were just talking about: we don't realize what we have. |
Lillian Gish: They think it's just entertainment. It's the most powerful influence in many lives. When D.W. Griffith heard us saying they were "flickers," he said, "Don't let me ever hear you use that word. Don't you know you're taking the first baby steps in something that was predicted in the Bible? This is the universal language. This can end wars and bring about the millennium. Now, you think of that the next time you face a camera." |
We stopped making fun of it. |
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| Gish's thoughts on Russia. | |
Q: Of course, this is biblical. What you're saying, it's written in the Bible: the prophet is not heard in his land. It's the same thing. |
Q: What did the Russians think--can you give me something of that? |
Gish: You want to know what I think about the Russians? That's what you mean? I think next to their government--and I am not for Communism; let me make that clear!--film is the most important thing in their country, because with that they control their people. I think the Chinese know that. I have never been to China. The Russians are smart and so are the Chinese. They have almost a billion people, and they have to have Communism now. They can't afford anything else. They must educate 80 percent of those billion peasants. But you'll see--no, you won't. Maybe you won't live that long. Certainly I won't. They're coming up. The world is getting better all the time, I think. We seem to think it's getting worse, but I don't believe it. I think, with this power and the ability it has to teach children--that's where our education should be coming from. When the genius comes along to show us how to teach with film. |
Q: What did you come away with? Can you give me one impression from leaving Russia? |
Gish: I fell in love with the Russian people; they're so like we Americans--outgoing. |
They teach acting and ballet with film. |
Ulanova came here from Russia when we had the old Metropolitan Opera on Broadway at 40th Street. She danced there in "Giselle." Some of our press compared her to me. |
So I went to see her. She was the most exquisite dancer. She would, very gently, come onto the stage and, as gently, leave it. While the other dancer, I've forgotten her name, she came on with a bang, and she left it with a bang, and everybody applauded. |
But it was Ulanova that stayed in your mind and heart. She had a scene where she lost her mind, without too much dancing, so I could see what they meant--as she did it with silent film technique. |
So that's why they used our silent films. They've given me two films that are nonexistent here. One was True Heart Susie and the other was The Lady and the Mouse. They still have the Russian titles. I was their guest for 15 days, and always with the artists. The artists are the most respected people of the country, I think, outside of the government, naturally. But I'm told there are only 10,000 in the government, and there are, what, over 800 million people there. But being with the artists was a great joy. We were asked in 1928 to go there, for the first time--Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and me. Well, Charlie never went. I couldn't go. My mother was ill and I couldn't leave her. Mary and Douglas went. When Mary got back she said, "Oh, Lillian, you must never go there. You couldn't take all that love." |
And I didn't know what she meant, till I went there. But they eat you. You know, they don't see people from the outside. And they get one cheek and another gets a cheek and just--Mmmm--just eat you. They were darling. And I couldn't speak one word of Russian, nor could they understand English. |
Q: But your films, it's true; it's the pantomime-- |
Gish: Yes. We got along. We understood one another. They took me to where their government meets. I sat where Mr. Khrushchev sat. I talked over his megaphone to the group there. |
All I could think of saying was, "I don't believe this. I just don't believe it." |
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