Elmo Lincoln, who plays "White-Arm Joe" in the film, also played eight additional bit parts.
Lillian Gish went to her grave denying that this film was racist, despite ongoing protests that it glorified the Ku Klux Klan and portrayed black people as unintelligent, ignorant brutes.
D.W. Griffith directed 13 Civil War-based one-reelers before undertaking this film.
D.W. Griffith's father served as an officer in the Confederate army during the Civil War.
Milton Berle has claimed that as an infant he was in this film, though there are no official records to prove it.
Joseph Henabery, who was one of D.W. Griffith's chief assistant directors as well as contributing research, played 13 roles in the film in addition to his main role as Abraham Lincoln.
Jennie Lee's character is referred to as "Mammy" in the film's titles, but original press material called the character "Cyndy", while other sources over the years have listed the character's name as "Dixie".
A huge demand for film prints quickly wore out the one and only negative. All later copies of the film had to be made from prints, causing reduced quality.
After D.W. Griffith's death, Donald Crisp claimed to have personally directed the battlefield sequences. Historians dismiss this claim as total nonsense, as Griffith did not delegate second units but directed every scene himself. Crisp may or may not have been one of the dozen or so assistant directors who were sent into the action to help maneuver the extras.
After this film was released and criticized as being racist, D.W. Griffith was very hurt. He decided to make Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages as a follow-up, to show how damaging and dangerous people's intolerance can be.
At the time of this film's original premiere, it bore a title card that read something like, "This is a depiction of the events of the civil war and of the formation of the Ku Klux Klan from the point of view of the American South." This title card has since been lost.
Because of the huge importance of this film, it is suspected that some actors may have exaggerated claims to have worked on the film in order to bolster their resume. Among the unconfirmed cast members are John Ford, who claimed to have played a Klansman riding with one hand holding up his hood over one eye so he could see better. Such a Klansman is visible in the film and may indeed have been Ford. Despite frequently being credited as a "Piedmont Girl", actress Bessie Love denied claims that she ever appeared in this film. Erich von Stroheim for years claimed to be the stunt man who falls from a roof (breaking two ribs in the process), but assistant director Joseph Henabery strongly denied that von Stroheim was ever on a D.W. Griffith set until after Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages. Some have claimed to spot what appears to be a blackfaced von Stroheim as a voter in the election poll scene. error, who was on the set of the film in 1915, claimed that the actor who did the roof-fall stunt was in fact Indian actor Charles Eagle Eye.
Because of the lax accounting methods of its distributors, it was difficult to determine how much the film actually made at the box office. As a result, those connected with its making ludicrously exaggerated its box office take (Lillian Gish wrote in her autobiography that it made over $100 million). Its actual take is now estimated to be about $10 million, still a fantastic sum for its time.
Because of the racist overtones of the movie, it was banned in several major cities, such as Los Angeles and Chicago.
Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, February 28, 1940: "Judge Donald McKinley yesterday ordered the Chicago Police Department to cease interference with The Birth of a Nation, which the police department stopped recently at the Admiral Theater on Lawrence Avenue. The court ruled that an injunction issued March 5, 1917 against police interference was still effective. The film will be shown at the Sonotone Theater, starting Friday."
Director D.W. Griffith visualized the whole film in his mind and did not write out a script or keep written notes.
Due to the chaotic nature of film distribution of the time, numerous fortunes were made on this film by men who had nothing to do with the actual production. Louis B. Mayer was one such beneficiary, who obtained state's right distribution rights for the film on the east coast and the profits allowed him to launch Louis B. Mayer Productions, which soon relocated to Los Angeles.
During filming, camera operator Karl Brown was sure that the movie was just another typical melodrama. At the film's premiere, D.W. Griffith had hired the entire Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra to play the score for the film. Brown was amazed; nothing like this has been done before. When the conductor raised his baton, and the orchestra started playing, he said it was so amazing and loud he was shaking his head, "It was like nothing I ever heard." Brown additionally remembers that Griffith hummed certain themes to the composer of the original score that he wanted.
Each major character in the film had a particular musical theme, to be played by either an orchestra or a theater organ during theatrical engagements. While D.W. Griffith was choosing musical themes for the characters, he allowed Lillian Gish to choose her own, or Elsie Stoneman's, theme. Later, that same melody was re-titled "The Perfect Song", and was used as a theme song for the radio and television versions of The Amos 'n Andy Show.