200 11 Framing the Atmospheric Film Prologue in Britain, 1919–1926 Julie Brown when d. w. griffith’s broken blossoms opened at the Alhambra heatre in London for its “presentation run” on 15 March 1920, its elaborate, multi-sensory, Chinese-themed presentation sparked considerable trade interest. 1 According to its creator Robb Lawson, the live stage prologue employed nine actors who mimed a scene laid in a Buddhist Temple which was disclosed as the curtain rose to three notes of a gong. Perfume loated out to the auditorium from censers swung by Chinese incense bearers. Ater the preliminary action, a Chinese singer chanted a litany, standing in an amber spot light, and, with another note of the gong, the curtain fell to be followed immediately by the screening. 2 Others noted that “priests were oiciating in front of a dimly-lighted altar”, and that within the cinema “female attendants were all dressed in Chinese garments, [while] red lamps gave a mysterious glow to the auditorium.” 3 Mabel Poulton recalls miming the dying Lillian Gish in the temple. 4 Lawson described the ele- ments of the presentation in an article in he Bioscope as having been similar to those used in New York, and an example of how an integrated approach to “special presentation” was a way of “preparing the minds of the audience to receive in the appropriate mood the story that is to be unfolded” in the ensuing feature ilm. 5 About a year earlier, in April 1919, an article by American Ernest A. Dench had