Trivia for
Way Down East (1920) More at IMDbPro »

• Norma Shearer has a bit part in one scene. Shearer's mother and sister are extras as well, as is another future luminary of the talkies, Una Merkel.
  
  
• The waterfall seen in long shot at the climax is Niagara Falls, a site unrelated to, and far from, where the ice floe rescue scenes were shot.
  
  
• The ice floes seen at the climax drifting above and going over the waterfall were actually wood constructions, as the scene was shot out of season. The waterfall itself was only a few feet high, going no further down than what is seen at the bottom of the film frame.
  
  
• The scenes on the ice flows were not only very dangerous to film, but for at least for Lillian Gish, they had lasting ill effects. Until the day she died, her right hand was somewhat impaired, due to the extended filming where her hand was in the icy water.
  
  
• While there is a lot of inter-cutting in the editing, the basic ice floe scenes were filmed in White River Junction (Hartford Village), Vermont during the late winter.
  
  
• During the filming of the ice floe scenes, a fire had to be built underneath G.W. Bitzer's camera in order to keep it warm enough to run.
  
  
• The scene with Anna lying unconscious on the ice flow, floating toward the waterfall, was developed solely for the film version of 'Way Down East.' The scene appears in neither the venerable stage play version of 'Way Down East' credited to author Lottie Blair Parker, nor the novel 'elaboration' of 'Way Down East' by author Joseph Grismer, published in 1900. The scene in the film was apparently inspired by the success of the 'Perils of Pauline' series of 'cliffhanger' film shorts starring actress Pearl White, and was written and filmed to augment the film's box office appeal.
  
  
• Actress Clarine Seymour, a regular player in Griffith's films at that time, was originally cast in the role of Kate, Squire Bartlett's niece and David Bartlett's fiancée. Seymour had actually completed most of her 'Way Down East' scenes when she fell ill from a strangulated intestine. She died on April 25, 1920, following emergency surgery. Griffith replaced Seymour in the role with dancer Mary Hay, who resembled Seymour in long shots. And although David Bartlett does not marry Kate in 'Way Down East,' actor Richard Barthelmess, who played David, later married dancer/actress Mary Hay, who played Kate.
  
  
• Actor Robert Harron, a Griffith regular, shot himself under mysterious circumstances after the world premiere of 'Way Down East' in New York City. Harron - whom Griffith was grooming as a film director - was reportedly despondent over losing the leading man roles in both 'Broken Blossoms' and 'Way Down East' to Richard Barthelmess, formerly an ingénue in Dorothy Gish comedies. Although according to actress Lillian Gish, Harron on his deathbed denied that he was the victim of suicide, his motives - accident or suicide - have been suspect to this day.
  
  

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