D. W. Griffith success; Biograph co-founder Harry Marvin gave Griffith the position, and he made the short "The Adventures of Dollie". He directed a total of 48 shorts for the company that year. His short "In Old California" (1910) was the first film shot in Hollywood, California. Four years later, he produced and directed his first feature film "Judith of Bethulia" (1914), one of the earliest to be produced in the US. Biograph believed that longer features were not viable at that point. According to Lillian Gish, the company thought that "a movie that long would hurt [the audience's] eyes". Griffith left Biograph
What Price Hollywood? wanted to cast Clara Bow as the female lead, but executives at RKO's New York offices were hesitant to invest in a Hollywood story because similar projects had been unsuccessful in the past. By the time Selznick convinced them the picture had potential, Bow was committed to another film. Constance Bennett considered "What Price Hollywood?" her best film. Four years after the film was released, Selznick approached Cukor and asked him to direct the 1937 version of "A Star Is Born" starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. The plot was so similar to "What Price Hollywood?" that Cukor declined. RKO