Special effects pioneer Linwood G. Dunn was drawn to the moving image from an early age, as is evident from the meticulous list he compiled at age 14 while growing up in New York City (below). Frequenting a variety of theaters, he took in everything from offbeat Westerns such as Branding Broadway (1918) to comedies such as String Beans (1918) and classics such as Little Women (1919). Rating them from fair to great, only The Greatest Thing in Life (1918) starring Lillian Gish received a rating of “great” with an exclamation point.