2013 Essays

Corinne Griffith

Slater, Tom

Corinne Griffith, who, according to the United Artists biography, was born Griffin, found success as an actress, producer, author, real estate magnate, anti-income-tax crusader, painter, and composer. We do not know enough, however, about how Griffith selected and shaped her productions. But contracts and letters on file in the Warner Brothers Archives at the University of Southern California show that arrangements between Corinne Griffith Productions and her distributors, First National Pictures (1923-26, 1928) and United Artists (1927), awarded her a relatively high amount of oversight.