Biography
Robert Goldstein was an American costume designer and film producer. Born in San Francisco in 1883, he was the son of Simon Goldstein, who ran a theatrical costume business serving stage and early film productions. Goldstein trained briefly in Europe as a theatre apprentice, painting scenery and making costumes, before joining the family firm.
He supplied costumes for D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) through the Goldstein Company and held stock in the production. In 1917 he produced and wrote The Spirit of ’76, a lavish film about the American Revolution. The picture led to his prosecution under the Espionage Act for content deemed hostile to Britain, then an American ally in the First World War.
