Lawyer
Legislator
Preacher
Lecturer
Playwright
Novelist
Actor
Producer
Lnlrcpcncur
Millionaire
Tar Heel Put Movies
on Road to Greatness
The* litll<*-knou n slory of Thomas
Dixon, one* of IN'ortli Carolina's most
brilliant m«*u.
tty ItAVMOMI A. COOK
"It is like writing history with light¬
ning." These words by President
Woodrow Wilson refer to one of the
most remarkable creations in the his¬
tory of Western culture. It is generally
conceded that The Birth of a Nation
will always be considered the film
which gave the motion picture its stat¬
ure as an art form, the film which
brought to the world the realization
that this medium, for good or evil,
was perhaps the most powerful agency
which had ever been devised for mov¬
ing the minds of men. The external
history of this great film and the fame
it gave its director are well known.
But the man who was in great part
responsible for changing much of so¬
ciety by the tremendous impact of
flashing stories on a screen is practi¬
cally unknown. He is not discussed in
studies of American culture; his name
is not to be found in such standard
reference works as the current Ency¬
clopaedia Britannica, The Dictionary
of American Biography, The Literary
History of the United States, or the
studies of Van Wyck Brooks. He is un¬
heard of today among 99 per cent of
our present population. Yet the man
who made possible this revolution in
motion picture art was one of the most
colorful and amazing figures of his
time. Lawyer, legislator, preacher, lec¬
turer, playwright, actor, novelist, mo¬
tion picture producer, real estate en¬
trepreneur, and millionaire, he made
the impact of his personality and work
felt in many facets of American life.
This man. Thomas Dixon, the son of
a poor farmer, was born on January
II, 1864, near Shelby, North Caro¬
lina. Within a few months the Civil
War was over and hundreds of ragged,
hungry soldiers, streaming by the
Dixon farmhouse on their way home to
South Carolina and Georgia, ate most
of the few provisions of the Dixon
family. By hard work and an almost
fanatical budgeting of resources, the
family somehow managed to hold to¬
gether during the poverty-stricken
years of Reconstruction. Young Dixon
became a full-fledged plowhand at ten
years of age, and received hardly any
schooling until he was thirteen. I ven
this early in life, however, he began
to reveal the abilities and personality
which were to make him remarkable
as an adult. So closely did he apply
himself to his studies in a local school
that within a year and a half he had
finished courses in mathematics and
geometry; he had read in Latin
Caesar's Gallic Wars, much of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, and Cicero’s Ora¬
tions; and in Greek Xenophon's Ana¬
basis.
At fifteen years of age, with the aid
of borrowed money, Dixon entered
Wake Forest College where he won
many prizes and the highest scholastic
honors ever bestowed by that institu¬
tion. The determination throughout his
The author. Kavmoml A. Cool, i* Pro¬
fessor of English, Georgia Stole College. At¬
lanta. This story is copyrighted by the
.V. C. Historical Review and is republished
by special permission of th.it publication and
the author.
Thomot DUon in tern tuecessfully »as oil these
tkin«s.
life to succeed was exemplified in the
incredible regimen of study he set for
himself. Allowing little time for sleep,
and budgeting hi' schedule so as to
have a full thirteen hours outside of
class for application to his books, he
won prize after prize, and in four years
earned both the B.A. and M.A. de¬
grees and a scholarship to the Johns
Hopkins University. While at Johns
Hopkins, he became a close friend of
his cla'smate. Woodrow Wilson; in
later years each of these men helped
the career of the other in ways that
they could not have foreseen at the
time.
As a student at Johns Hopkins.
Dixon applied himself to the study of
history and political theory, but, by
the end of the first year, he found his
interests turning to the stage. Despite
the protestations of Wilson. Dixon gave
up his studies and went to New York
to pursue his career as an actor. Ar¬
riving in the city on January 11. 1884.
THE STATE. MA> 25, 1963
7
