Robert Goldstein and ‘The Spirit of '76

Impressed by the success of The Birth of a Nation, Robert Goldstein, owner of a well-known Los Angeles costume supply house, produced his own epic film drama, The Spirit of ‘76 and screened it in Los Angeles shortly after America’s entry into World War I. The film was denounced as anti-British and treasonous. Arrested under the Espionage Act, Goldstein became the first and only American jailed for the crime of producing a patriotic film. Film historian Tony Slide includes an introductory essay, reprints contemporary documentation, and publishes a 1927 manuscript by Goldstein, in which he fully documents the background to the film, its making, his arrest and trial, and his later suffering.