Episode 2: The Birth of Hollywood (1907-1920)
Monday Nov. 8 at 8 pm & 11 pm ET
Wednesday Nov. 10 at 10 pm ET
Saturday Nov. 13 at Noon ET
Monday Nov. 15 at 7 pm ET

California was quickly recognized as the ideal setting for the American film industry, with its relative freedom from patent problems, constant sunshine and varied geography. As early as 1909, moviemakers were hard at work in Hollywood, including William Selig, who had founded one of the country's first movie studios in Chicago. In California, he would develop such performing talent as Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Tom Mix. In 1913 Jesse Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn and Cecil B. DeMille formed a filmmaking company and established themselves among the first generation of Hollywood moguls, producing one of the first feature-length films in the U.S., The Squaw Man (1914). Mack Sennett had his Keystone Kops careening all over the cityscape of Los Angeles and discovered one of the cinema world's towering talents, Charlie Chaplin, who became the best- loved clown of the American silent screen. Other players who quickly became world famous included comedienne Mabel Normand, cowboy star William S. Hart, Mary Pickford (whose girlish innocence captivated audiences) and Lillian Gish (whose combination of vulnerability and strength would make her a star for more than seven decades). Director D.W. Griffith expanded the vision of the movie screen to epic proportions with his innovative techniques and sprawling subject matter--including the Civil War in The Birth of a Nation (1915), a film that has stirred controversy since its release because of charges of racism.