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Cecil B. DeMille

February 19, 2023

Cecil Blount DeMille (/ˈsɛsəl dəˈmɪl/; August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. His silent films included social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, and historical pageants. He was an active Freemason and member of Prince of Orange Lodge #16 in New York City.[1]

Cecil B. DeMille
Publicity portrait, c. 1920
Born
Cecil Blount DeMille

(1881-08-12)August 12, 1881
Ashfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJanuary 21, 1959(1959-01-21) (aged 77)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeHollywood Forever Cemetery
Alma materPennsylvania Military College
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Occupations
  • Director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
  • editor
  • actor
Years active1899–1958
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1902)​
Children4, including Katherine DeMille (adopted) and Richard de Mille (adopted)
Parent(s)Henry Churchill de Mille
Matilda Beatrice deMille
RelativesWilliam C. deMille (brother)
Agnes de Mille (niece)
Peggy George (niece)
WebsiteOfficial website

DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, and grew up in New York City. He began his career as a stage actor in 1900. He later moved to writing and directing stage productions, some with Jesse Lasky, who was then a vaudeville producer. DeMille's first film, The Squaw Man (1914), was also the first full-length feature film shot in Hollywood. Its interracial love story made it commercially successful and it first publicized Hollywood as the home of the U.S. film industry. The continued success of his productions led to the founding of Paramount Pictures with Lasky and Adolph Zukor. His first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), was both a critical and commercial success; it held the Paramount revenue record for twenty-five years.

DeMille directed The King of Kings (1927), a biography of Jesus, which gained approval for its sensitivity and reached more than 800 million viewers. The Sign of the Cross (1932) is said to be the first sound film to integrate all aspects of cinematic technique. Cleopatra (1934) was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. After more than thirty years in film production, DeMille reached a pinnacle in his career with Samson and Delilah (1949), a biblical epic which became the highest-grossing film of 1950. Along with biblical and historical narratives, he also directed films oriented toward "neo-naturalism", which tried to portray the laws of man fighting the forces of nature.

He received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for his circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. His last and best known film, The Ten Commandments (1956), also a Best Picture Academy Award nominee, is currently the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. In addition to his Best Picture Awards, he received an Academy Honorary Award for his film contributions, the Palme d'Or (posthumously) for Union Pacific (1939), a DGA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, which was named in his honor. DeMille's reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s and his work has influenced numerous other films and directors.

Biography

1881–1899: Early years

 
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York

Cecil Blount DeMille[note 1] was born on August 12, 1881, in a boarding house on Main Street in Ashfield, Massachusetts, where his parents had been vacationing for the summer.[5] On September 1, 1881, the family returned with the newborn DeMille to their flat in New York.[5] DeMille was named after his grandmothers Cecelia Wolff and Margarete Blount.[6] He was the second of three children of Henry Churchill de Mille (September 4, 1853 – February 10, 1893) and his wife Matilda Beatrice deMille (née Samuel; January 30, 1853 – October 8, 1923), known as Beatrice.[7] His brother, William C. DeMille, was born on July 25, 1878.[8] Henry de Mille, whose ancestors were of English and Dutch-Belgian descent, was a North Carolina-born dramatist, actor, and lay reader in the Episcopal Church.[9] DeMille's father was also an English teacher at Columbia College (now Columbia University).[10] He worked as a playwright, administrator, and faculty member during the early years of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, established in New York City in 1884.[11] Henry deMille frequently collaborated with David Belasco in playwriting;[12] their best-known collaborations included "The Wife", "Lord Chumley", "The Charity Ball", and "Men and Women".[10]

Cecil B. DeMille's mother, Beatrice, a literary agent and scriptwriter, was the daughter of German Jews.[13] She had emigrated from England with her parents in 1871 when she was 18; the newly arrived family settled in Brooklyn, New York, where they maintained a middle-class, English-speaking household.[14]

DeMille's parents met as members of a music and literary society in New York. Henry was a tall, red-headed student. Beatrice was intelligent, educated, forthright, and strong-willed.[15] The two were married on July 1, 1876, despite Beatrice's parents' objections because of the young couple's differing religions; Beatrice converted to Episcopalianism.[15]

DeMille was a brave and confident child.[16] He gained his love of theater while watching his father and Belasco rehearse their plays. A lasting memory for DeMille was a lunch with his father and actor Edwin Booth.[17] As a child, DeMille created an alter-ego, Champion Driver, a Robin Hood-like character, evidence of his creativity and imagination.[18] The family lived in Washington, North Carolina,[19] until Henry built a three-story Victorian-style house for his family in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey; they named this estate "Pamlico".[20] John Philip Sousa was a friend of the family, and DeMille recalled throwing mud balls in the air so neighbor Annie Oakley could practice her shooting.[21] DeMille's sister Agnes was born on April 23, 1891; his mother nearly did not survive the birth.[22] Agnes would die on February 11, 1894, at the age of three from spinal meningitis.[23][note 2] DeMille's parents operated a private school in town and attended Christ Episcopal Church. DeMille recalled that this church was the place where he visualized the story of his 1923 version of The Ten Commandments.[25]

 
DeMille as a young man, c. 1904

On January 8, 1893, at age 40, Henry de Mille died suddenly from typhoid fever, leaving Beatrice with three children. To provide for her family, she opened the Henry C. DeMille School for Girls in her home in February 1893.[26] The aim of the school was to teach young women to properly understand and fulfill the women's duty to herself, her home, and her country.[27] Before Henry deMille's death, Beatrice had "enthusiastically supported" her husband's theatrical aspirations. She later became the second female play broker on Broadway.[28] On Henry DeMille's deathbed, he told his wife that he did not want his sons to become playwrights. DeMille's mother sent him to Pennsylvania Military College (now Widener University) in Chester, Pennsylvania, at age 15.[29] He fled the school to join the Spanish–American War, but failed to meet the age requirement.[10] At the military college, even though his grades were average, he reportedly excelled in personal conduct.[30] DeMille attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (tuition-free due to his father's service to the Academy). He graduated in 1900, and for graduation, his performance was the play The Arcady Trail. In the audience was Charles Frohman who would cast DeMille in his play Hearts are Trumps, DeMille's Broadway debut.

1900–1912: Theater

Charles Frohman, Constance Adams, and David Belasco

Cecil B. DeMille began his career as an actor on the stage in the theatrical company of Charles Frohman in 1900. He debuted as an actor on February 21, 1900, in the play Hearts Are Trumps at New York's Garden Theater.[31] In 1901, DeMille starred in productions of A Repentance, To Have and to Hold, and Are You a Mason?[32] At the age of twenty-one, Cecil B. DeMille married Constance Adams on August 16, 1902, at Adams's father's home in East Orange, New Jersey. The wedding party was small. Beatrice DeMille's family was not in attendance, and Simon Louvish suggests that this was to conceal DeMille's partial Jewish heritage. Adams was 29 years old at the time of their marriage, eight years older than DeMille.[33] They had met in a theater in Washington D.C. while they were both acting in Hearts Are Trumps.[34]

They were sexually incompatible; according to DeMille, Adams was too "pure" to "feel such violent and evil passions."[35] DeMille had more violent sexual preferences and fetishes than his wife. Adams allowed DeMille to have several long term mistresses during their marriage as an outlet, while maintaining an outward appearance of a faithful marriage.[36] One of DeMille's affairs was with his screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson.[37] Despite his reputation for extramarital affairs, DeMille did not like to have affairs with his stars, as he believed it would cause him to lose control as a director. He related a story that he maintained his self-control when Gloria Swanson sat on his lap, refusing to touch her.[38]

In 1902, he played a small part in Hamlet.[32] Publicists wrote that he became an actor in order to learn how direct and produce, but DeMille admitted that he became an actor in order to pay the bills.[32] From 1904 to 1905, DeMille attempted to make a living as a stock theatre actor with his wife Constance. DeMille made a 1905 reprise in Hamlet as Osric.[39] In the summer of 1905 DeMille joined the stock cast at the Elitch Theatre in Denver, Colorado. He appeared in eleven of the fifteen plays presented that season, although all were minor roles. Maude Fealy would appear as the featured actress in several productions that summer and would develop a lasting friendship with DeMille. (He would later cast her in The Ten Commandments.) [40]

His brother William was establishing himself as a playwright and sometimes invited him to collaborate.[18] DeMille and William collaborated on The Genius, The Royal Mounted, and After Five.[41] However, none of these were very successful; William deMille was most successful when he worked alone.[41] DeMille and his brother at times worked with the legendary impresario David Belasco, who had been a friend and collaborator of their father.[42] DeMille would later adapt Belasco's The Girl of the Golden West, Rose of the Rancho, and The Warrens of Virginia into films.[43] DeMille was credited with creating the premise of Belasco's The Return of Peter Grimm.[41] The Return of Peter Grimm sparked controversy; however, because Belasco had taken DeMille's unnamed screenplay, changed the characters and named it The Return of Peter Grimm, producing and presenting it as his own work. DeMille was credited in small print as "based on an idea by Cecil DeMille". The play was successful, and DeMille was distraught that his childhood idol had plagiarized his work.[44]

Losing interest in theatre

DeMille performed on stage with actors whom he would later direct in films: Charlotte Walker, Mary Pickford, and Pedro de Cordoba. DeMille also produced and directed plays.[45] His 1905 performance in The Prince Chap as the Earl of Huntington was well received by audiences.[39] DeMille wrote a few of his own plays in-between stage performances, but his playwriting was not as successful.[41] His first play was The Pretender-A Play in a Prologue and 4 Acts set in seventeenth century Russia.[39] Another unperformed play he wrote was Son of the Winds, a mythological Native American story.[46] Life was difficult for DeMille and his wife as traveling actors; however, traveling allowed him to experience part of the United States he had not yet seen.[47] DeMille sometimes worked with the director E.H. Sothern, who influenced DeMille's later perfectionism in his work.[47] In 1907, due to a scandal with one of Beatrice's students, Evelyn Nesbit, the Henry deMille School lost students. The school closed, and Beatrice filed for bankruptcy.[48] DeMille wrote another play originally called Sergeant Devil May Care which was renamed The Royal Mounted. He also toured with the Standard Opera Company, but there are few records to indicate DeMille's singing ability.[49] DeMille had a daughter, Cecilia, on November 5, 1908, who would be his only biological child.[49] In the 1910s, DeMille began directing and producing other writer's plays.[50]

DeMille was poor and struggled to find work. Consequently, his mother hired him for her agency The DeMille Play Company and taught him how to be an agent and a playwright. Eventually, he became manager of the agency and later, a junior partner with his mother.[51] In 1911, DeMille became acquainted with vaudeville producer Jesse Lasky when Lasky was searching for a writer for his new musical. He initially sought out William deMille. William had been a successful playwright, but DeMille was suffering from the failure of his plays The Royal Mounted and The Genius. However, Beatrice introduced Lasky to DeMille instead.[52] The collaboration of DeMille and Lasky produced a successful musical called California which opened in New York in January 1912.[53] Another DeMille-Lasky production that opened in January 1912 was The Antique Girl.[54] DeMille found success in the spring of 1913 producing Reckless Age by Lee Wilson, a play about a high society girl wrongly accused of manslaughter starring Frederick Burton and Sydney Shields.[55][56] However, changes in the theater rendered DeMille's melodramas obsolete before they were produced, and true theatrical success eluded him. He produced many flops.[57] Having become disinterested in working in theatre, DeMille's passion for film was ignited when he watched the 1912 French film Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth.[58]

1913–1914: Entering films

The Squaw Man (1914) full film

Desiring a change of scene, Cecil B. DeMille, Jesse Lasky, Sam Goldfish (later Samuel Goldwyn), and a group of East Coast businessmen created the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company in 1913 over which DeMille became director-general.[59] Lasky and DeMille were said to have sketched out the organization of the company on the back of a restaurant menu.[60] As director-general, DeMille's job was to make the films.[60] In addition to directing, DeMille was the supervisor and consultant for the first year of films made by the Lasky Feature Play Company.[61] Sometimes, he directed scenes for other directors at the Feature Play Company in order to release films on time.[61] Moreover, when he was busy directing other films, he would co-author other Lasky Company scripts as well as create screen adaptations that others directed.[61]

The Lasky Play Company sought out William DeMille to join the company, but he rejected the offer because he did not believe there was any promise in a film career.[62] When William found out that DeMille had begun working in the motion picture industry, he wrote DeMille a letter, disappointed that he was willing "to throw away [his] future" when he was "born and raised in the finest traditions of the theater".[63] The Lasky Company wanted to attract high-class audiences to their films so they began producing films from literary works.[64] The Lasky Company bought the rights to the play The Squaw Man by Edwin Milton Royle and cast Dustin Farnum in the lead role.[62] They offered Farnum a choice to have a quarter stock in the company (similar to William deMille) or $250 per week as salary. Farnum chose $250 per week.[65] Already $15,000 in debt to Royle for the screenplay of The Squaw Man, Lasky's relatives bought the $5,000 stock to save the Lasky Company from bankruptcy.[66] With no knowledge of filmmaking, DeMille was introduced to observe the process at film studios. He was eventually introduced to Oscar Apfel, a stage director who had been a director with the Edison Company.[67]

On December 12, 1913, DeMille, his cast, and crew boarded a Southern Pacific train bound for Flagstaff via New Orleans. His tentative plan was to shoot a film in Arizona, but he felt that Arizona did not typify the Western look they were searching for. They also learned that other filmmakers were successfully shooting in Los Angeles, even in winter.[68] He continued to Los Angeles. Once there, he chose not to shoot in Edendale, where many studios were, but in Hollywood.[69] DeMille rented a barn to function as their film studio.[70] Filming began on December 29, 1913, and lasted three weeks.[71] Apfel filmed most of The Squaw Man due to DeMille's inexperience; however, DeMille learned quickly and was particularly adept at impromptu screenwriting as necessary.[72] He made his first film run sixty minutes, as long as a short play. The Squaw Man (1914), co-directed by Oscar Apfel, was a sensation and it established the Lasky Company. This was the first feature-length film made in Hollywood.[73] There were problems; however, with the perforation of the film stock and it was discovered the DeMille had brought a cheap British film perforator which had punched in sixty-five holes per foot instead of the industry-standard of sixty-four. Lasky and DeMille convinced film pioneer Siegmund Lubin of the Lubin Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia to have his experienced technicians reperforate the film [74] This was also the first American feature film; however, only by release date, as D. W. Griffith's Judith of Bethulia was filmed earlier than The Squaw Man, but released later.[75] Additionally, this was the only film in which DeMille shared director's credit with Oscar C. Apfel.[61]

The Squaw Man was a success, which led to the eventual founding of Paramount Pictures and Hollywood becoming the "film capital of the world".[76][77] The film grossed over ten times its budget after its New York premiere in February 1914.[72] DeMille's next project was to aid Oscar Apfel and directing Brewster's Millions, which was wildly successful.[78] In December 1914, Constance Adams brought home John DeMille, a fifteen-month-old, whom the couple legally adopted three years later. Biographer Scott Eyman suggested that this may have been a result of Adams's recent miscarriage.[79][note 3]

1915–1928: Silent era

Westerns, Paradise, and World War I

 
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, DeMille is seated, second from the right

Cecil B. DeMille's second film credited exclusively to him was The Virginian. This is the earliest of DeMille's films available in a quality, color-tinted video format. However, this version is actually a 1918 re-release.[80] The first few years of the Lasky Company were spent in making films nonstop, literally writing the language of film. DeMille himself directed twenty films by 1915.[81] The most successful films during the beginning of the Lasky Company were Brewster's Millions (co-directed by DeMille), Rose of the Rancho, and The Ghost Breaker.[72] DeMille adapted Belasco's dramatic lighting techniques to film technology, mimicking moonlight with U.S. cinema's first attempts at "motivated lighting" in The Warrens of Virginia.[28] This was the first of few film collaborations with his brother William. They struggled to adapt the play from the stage to the set. After the film was shown, viewers complained that the shadows and lighting prevented the audience from seeing the actors' full faces, complaining that they would only pay half price. However, Sam Goldwyn realized that if they called it "Rembrandt" lighting, the audience would pay double the price.[82] Additionally, because of DeMille's cordiality after the Peter Grimm incident, DeMille was able to rekindle his partnership with Belasco. He adapted several of Belasco's screenplays into film.[83]

DeMille's most successful film was The Cheat; DeMille's direction in the film was acclaimed.[84] In 1916, exhausted from three years of nonstop filmmaking, DeMille purchased land in the Angeles National Forest for a ranch which would become his getaway. He called this place, "Paradise", declaring it a wildlife sanctuary; no shooting of animals was allowed besides snakes. His wife did not like Paradise, so DeMille often brought his mistresses there with him including actress Julia Faye.[85][86] In addition to his Paradise, DeMille purchased a yacht in 1921 which he called The Seaward.[note 4]

While filming The Captive in 1915, an extra, Bob Fleming, died on set when another extra failed to heed to DeMille's orders to unload all guns for rehearsal. DeMille instructed the guilty man to leave town and would never reveal his name. Lasky and DeMille maintained the widow Fleming on the payroll; however, according to leading actor House Peters Sr. DeMille refused to stop production for the funeral of Fleming. Peters claimed that he encouraged the cast to attend the funeral with him anyway since DeMille would not be able to shoot the film without him.[88] On July 19, 1916, the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company, becoming Famous Players-Lasky. Zukor became president with Lasky as the vice president.[89] DeMille was maintained as director-general and Goldwyn became chairman of the board.[84] Goldwyn was later fired from Famous Players-Lasky due to frequent clashes with Lasky, DeMille, and finally Zukor.[84] While on a European vacation in 1921, DeMille contracted rheumatic fever in Paris. He was confined to bed and unable to eat. His poor physical condition upon his return home affected the production of his 1922 film Manslaughter. According to Richard Birchard, DeMille's weakened state during production may have led to the film being received as uncharacteristically substandard.[90]

During World War I, the Famous Players-Lasky organized a military company underneath the National Guard called the Home Guard made up of film studio employees with DeMille as captain. Eventually, the Guard was enlarged to a battalion and recruited soldiers from other film studios. They took time off weekly from film production to practice military drills. Additionally, during the war, DeMille volunteered for the Justice Department's Intelligence Office, investigating friends, neighbors, and others he came in contact with in connection with the Famous Players-Lasky. He volunteered for the Intelligence Office during World War II as well.[91] Although DeMille considered enlisting in World War I, he stayed in the United States and made films. However, he did take a few months to set up a movie theater for the French front. Famous Players-Lasky donated the films.[92] DeMille and Adams adopted Katherine Lester in 1920 whom Adams had found in the orphanage over which she was the director.[93] [note 5] In 1922, the couple adopted Richard deMille.[36][note 6]

Scandalous dramas, Biblical epics, and departure from Paramount

Film started becoming more sophisticated and the subsequent films of the Lasky company were criticized for primitive and unrealistic set design.[100] Consequently, Beatrice deMille introduced the Famous Players-Lasky to Wilfred Buckland, who DeMille had known from his time at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and he became DeMille's art director. William deMille reluctantly became a story editor. William deMille would later convert from theater to Hollywood and would spend the rest of his career as a film director.[84] Throughout his career, DeMille would frequently remake his own films. In his first instance, in 1917, he remade The Squaw Man (1918), only waiting four years from the 1914 original. Despite its quick turnaround, the film was fairly successful. However, DeMille's second remake at MGM in 1931 would be a failure.[101]

After five years and thirty hit films, DeMille became the American film industry's most successful director. In the silent era, he was renowned for Male and Female (1919), Manslaughter (1922), The Volga Boatman (1926), and The Godless Girl (1928). DeMille's trademark scenes included bathtubs, lion attacks, and Roman orgies.[102] Many of his films featured scenes in two-color Technicolor. In 1923, DeMille released a modern melodrama The Ten Commandments which was a significant change from his previous stint of irreligious films. The film was produced on a large budget of $600,000, the most expensive production at Paramount. This concerned the executives at Paramount; however, the film turned out to be the studio's highest-grossing film.[103] It held the Paramount record for twenty-five years until DeMille broke the record again himself.[104]

 
Advertisement (1919)

In the early 1920s, scandal surrounded Paramount; religious groups and the media opposed portrayals of immorality in films. A censorship board called the Hays Code was established. DeMille's film The Affairs of Anatol came under fire. Furthermore, DeMille argued with Zukor over his extravagant and over-budget production costs.[105] Consequently, DeMille left Paramount in 1924 despite having helped establish it. He joined the Producers Distributing Corporation.[106] His first film in the new production company, DeMille Pictures Corporation, was The Road to Yesterday in 1925. He directed and produced four films on his own, working with Producers Distributing Corporation because he found front office supervision too restricting.[107] Aside from The King of Kings, none of DeMille's films away from Paramount were successful.[108] The King of Kings established DeMille as "master of the grandiose and of biblical sagas".[109] Considered at the time to be the most successful Christian film of the silent era, DeMille calculated that it had been viewed over 800 million times around the world.[110] After the release of DeMille's The Godless Girl, silent films in America became obsolete and DeMille was forced to shoot a shoddy final reel with the new sound production technique. Although this final reel looked so different from the previous eleven reels that it appeared to be from another movie, according to Simon Louvish, the film is one of DeMille's strangest and most "DeMillean" film.[111]

The immense popularity of DeMille's silent films enabled him to branch out into other areas. The Roaring Twenties were the boom years and DeMille took full advantage, opening the Mercury Aviation Company, one of America's first commercial airlines.[112] He was also a real estate speculator,[113] an underwriter of political campaigns, and vice president of Bank of America.[114] He was additionally vice president of the Commercial National Trust and Savings Bank in Los Angeles where he approved loans for other filmmakers.[115] In 1916, DeMille purchased a mansion in Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin lived next door for a time, and after he moved, DeMille purchased the other house and combined the estates.[116]

1929–1956: Sound era

MGM and return to Paramount

When "talking pictures" were invented in 1928, Cecil B. DeMille made a successful transition, offering his own innovations to the painful process; he devised a microphone boom and a soundproof camera blimp.[117] He also popularized the camera crane.[118] His first three sound films were produced at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[119] These three films, Dynamite, Madame Satan, and his 1931 remake of The Squaw Man were both critically and financially unsuccessful. He had completely adapted to the production of sound film despite the film's poor dialogue.[120] After his contract ended at MGM, he left, but no production studios would hire him. He attempted to create a guild of a half a dozen directors with the same creative desires called the Director's Guild. However, the idea failed due to lack of funding and commitment. Moreover, DeMille was audited by the Internal Revenue Service due to issues with his production company. This was, according to DeMille, the lowest point of his career. DeMille traveled abroad to find employment until he was offered a deal at Paramount.[121]

In 1932, DeMille returned to Paramount at the request of Lasky, bringing with him his own production unit.[122] His first film back at Paramount, The Sign of the Cross, was also his first success since leaving Paramount besides The King of Kings. DeMille's return was approved by Zukor under the condition that DeMille not exceed his production budget of $650,000 for The Sign of the Cross. Produced in eight weeks without exceeding budget, the film was financially successful.[123] The Sign of the Cross was the first film to integrate all cinematic techniques. The film was considered a "masterpiece" and surpassed the quality of other sound films of the time.[124] DeMille followed this epic uncharacteristically with two dramas released in 1933 and 1934. This Day and Age and Four Frightened People were box office disappointments, though Four Frightened People received good reviews. DeMille would stick to his large-budget spectaculars for the rest of his career.[125]

Politics and Lux Radio Theatre

 
DeMille as producer of the Lux Radio Theatre, broadcast on CBS, 1937

Cecil B. DeMille was outspoken about his strong Episcopalian integrity but his private life included mistresses and adultery.[126] DeMille was a conservative Republican activist, becoming more conservative as he aged.[citation needed] He was known as anti-union and worked to prevent unionizing of film production studios.[127] However, according to DeMille himself, he was not anti-union and belonged to a few unions himself. He said he was rather against union leaders such as Walter Reuther and Harry Bridges whom he compared to dictators.[128] He supported Herbert Hoover and in 1928 made his largest campaign donation to Hoover.[129] DeMille also liked Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, finding him charismatic, tenacious, and intelligent and agreeing with Roosevelt's abhorrence of Prohibition. DeMille lent Roosevelt a car for his campaign for the 1932 United States presidential election and voted for him. However, he would never again vote for a Democratic candidate in a presidential election.[129]

From June 1, 1936, until January 22, 1945, Cecil B. DeMille hosted and directed Lux Radio Theater, a weekly digest of current feature films.[130] Broadcast on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from 1935 to 1954,[131] the Lux Radio show was one of the most popular weekly shows in the history of radio.[130] While DeMille was host, the show had forty million weekly listeners, gaining DeMille an annual salary of $100,000.[130] From 1936 to 1945, he produced, hosted, and directed all shows with the occasional exception of a guest director.[130] He resigned from the Lux Radio Show because he refused to pay a dollar to the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) because he did not believe that any organization had the right to "levy a compulsory assessment upon any member."[132] Consequently, he had to resign from the radio show.[132]

DeMille sued the union for reinstatement but lost. He then appealed to the California Supreme Court and lost again. When the AFRA expanded to television, DeMille was banned from television appearances. Consequently, he formed the DeMille Foundation for Political Freedom in order to campaign for the right to work.[133] He began presenting speeches across the United States for the next few years. DeMille's primary criticism was of closed shops, but later included criticism of communism and unions in general. The United States Supreme Court declined to review his case. Despite his loss, DeMille continued to lobby for the Taft–Hartley Act, which passed. This prohibited denying anyone the right to work if they refuse to pay a political assessment, however, the law did not apply retroactively. Consequently, DeMille's television and radio appearance ban lasted for the remainder of his life, though he was permitted to appear on radio or television to publicize a movie.[134] William Keighley was his replacement.[132] DeMille would never again work on radio.[132] [note 7]

Adventure films and dramatic spectacles

In 1939, DeMille's Union Pacific was successful through DeMille's collaboration with the Union Pacific Railroad. The Union Pacific gave DeMille access to historical data, early period trains, and expert crews, adding to the authenticity of the film.[136] During pre-production of Union Pacific, DeMille was dealing with his first serious health issue. In March 1938, he underwent a major emergency prostatectomy. He suffered from a post-surgery infection from which he nearly did not recover, citing streptomycin as his saving grace. The surgery caused him to suffer from sexual dysfunction for the rest of his life, according to some family members.[137] Following his surgery and the success of Union Pacific, in 1940, DeMille first used three-strip Technicolor in North West Mounted Police. DeMille wanted to film in Canada; however, due to budget constraints, the film was instead shot in Oregon and Hollywood.[138] Critics were impressed with the visuals but found the scripts dull, calling it DeMille's "poorest Western".[138] Despite the criticism, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of the year.[138] Audiences liked its highly saturated color, so DeMille made no further black-and-white features.[139] DeMille was anti-communist and abandoned a project in 1940 to film Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls due to its communist themes despite the fact he had already paid $100,000 for the rights to the novel. He was so eager to produce the film, that he hadn't yet read the novel. He claimed he abandoned the project in order to complete a different project, but in reality, it was to preserve his reputation and avoid appearing reactionary.[140][note 8] While concurrently filmmaking, he served in World War II at the age of sixty as his neighborhood air-raid warden.[141]

In 1942, DeMille worked with Jeanie MacPherson and brother William deMille in order to produce a film called Queen of Queens which was intended to be about Mary, mother of Jesus. After reading the screenplay, Daniel A. Lord warned DeMille that Catholics would find the film too irreverent, while non-Catholics would have considered the film Catholic propaganda. Consequently, the film was never made.[142] Jeanie MacPherson would work as a scriptwriter for many of DeMille's films.[143] [note 9] In 1938, DeMille supervised the compilation of film Land of Liberty to represent the contribution of the American film industry to the 1939 New York World's Fair. DeMille used clips from his own films in Land of Liberty. Though the film was not high-grossing, it was well-received and DeMille was asked to shorten its running time to allow for more showings per day. MGM distributed the film in 1941 and donated profits to World War II relief charities.[144]

 
DeMille in the trailer for The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), the film for which he won the Academy Award for Best Picture

In 1942, DeMille released Paramount's most successful film, Reap the Wild Wind. It was produced with a large budget and contained many special effects including an electronically operated giant squid.[145] After working on Reap the Wild Wind, in 1944, he was the master of ceremonies at the massive rally organized by David O. Selznick in the Los Angeles Coliseum in support of the Dewey–Bricker ticket as well as Governor Earl Warren of California.[146][note 10] DeMille's subsequent film Unconquered (1947) had the longest running time (146 minutes), longest filming schedule (102 days) and largest budget of $5 million. The sets and effects were so realistic that 30 extras needed to be hospitalized due to a scene with fireballs and flaming arrows. It was commercially very successful.[147]

DeMille's next film, Samson and Delilah in 1949, became Paramount's highest-grossing film up to that time. A Biblical epic with sex, it was a characteristically DeMille film.[148] Again, 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth became Paramount's highest-grossing film to that point. Furthermore, DeMille's film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Story. The film began production in 1949, Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey were paid $250,000 for use of the title and facilities. DeMille toured with the circus while helping write the script. Noisy and bright, it was not well-liked by critics, but was a favorite among audiences.[149][150] DeMille signed a contract with Prentice Hall publishers in August 1953 to publish an autobiography.[151] DeMille would reminisce into a voice recorder, the recording would be transcribed, and the information would be organized in the biography based on the topic.[152] Art Arthur also interviewed people for the autobiography. DeMille did not like the first draft of the biography, saying that he thought the person portrayed in the biography was an "SOB"; he said it made him sound too egotistical.[153] Besides filmmaking and finishing his autobiography, DeMille was involved in other projects. In the early 1950s, DeMille was recruited by Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner to serve on the board of the anti-communist National Committee for a Free Europe, the public face of the organization that oversaw the Radio Free Europe service.[154] In 1954, Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott asked DeMille for help in designing the cadet uniforms at the newly established United States Air Force Academy. DeMille's designs, most notably his design of the distinctive cadet parade uniform, won praise from Air Force and Academy leadership, were ultimately adopted, and are still worn by cadets.[155]

Final works and unrealized projects

We have just lived through a war where our people were systematically executed. Here we have a man who made a film praising the Jewish people, that tells of Samson, one of the legends of our Scripture. Now he wants to make the life of Moses. We should get down on our knees to Cecil and say "Thank you!"[156]

– Alfred Zukor responding to DeMille's proposal of The Ten Commandments remake

In 1952, DeMille sought approval for a lavish remake of his 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments. He went before the Paramount board of directors, which was mostly Jewish-American. The members rejected his proposal, even though his last two films, Samson and Delilah and The Greatest Show on Earth, had been record-breaking hits.[157] Adolph Zukor convinced the board to change their minds on the grounds of morality.[156] DeMille did not have an exact budget proposal for the project,[158] and it promised to be the most costly in U.S. film history. Still, the members unanimously approved it.[159] The Ten Commandments, released in 1956, was DeMille's final film. It was the longest (3 hours, 39 minutes) and most expensive ($13 million) film in Paramount history.[160] Production of The Ten Commandments began in October 1954.[160] The Exodus scene was filmed on-site in Egypt with the use of four Technicolor-VistaVision camera filming 12,000 people. They continued filming in 1955 in Paris and Hollywood on 30 different sound stages. They were even required to expand to RKO sound studios for filming.[161] Post-production lasted a year and the film premiered in Salt Lake City.[162] Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, it grossed over $80 million, which surpassed the gross of The Greatest Show on Earth and every other film in history, except for Gone with the Wind.[160] A unique practice at the time, DeMille offered ten percent of his profit to the crew.[163]

On November 7, 1954, while in Egypt filming the Exodus sequence for The Ten Commandments, DeMille (who was seventy-three) climbed a 107-foot (33 m) ladder to the top of the massive Per Rameses set and suffered a serious heart attack. Despite the urging of his associate producer, DeMille wanted to return to the set right away. DeMille developed a plan with his doctor to allow him to continue directing while reducing his physical stress.[164] Although DeMille completed the film, his health was diminished by several more heart attacks. His daughter Cecilia took over as director as DeMille sat behind the camera with Loyal Griggs as the cinematographer.[165] This film would be his last.[166] [note 11]

Due to his frequent heart attacks, DeMille asked his son-in-law, actor Anthony Quinn, to direct a remake of his 1938 film The Buccaneer. DeMille served as executive producer, overseeing producer Henry Wilcoxon.[168] Despite a cast led by Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, the 1958 film The Buccaneer was a disappointment.[169] DeMille attended the Santa Barbara premiere of The Buccaneer in December 1958.[168] DeMille was unable to attend the Los Angeles premiere of The Buccaneer.[168] In the months before his death, DeMille was researching a film biography of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout Movement. DeMille asked David Niven to star in the film, but it was never made. DeMille also was planning a film about the space race as well as another biblical epic about the Book of Revelation.[170] DeMille's autobiography was mostly completed by the time DeMille died and was published in November 1959.[171]

Death

 
DeMille's tomb at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Cecil B. DeMille suffered a series of heart attacks from June 1958 to January 1959,[168] and died on January 21, 1959, following an attack.[172] DeMille's funeral was held on January 23 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. He was entombed at the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now known as Hollywood Forever).[173] After his death, notable news outlets such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian honored DeMille as "pioneer of movies", "the greatest creator and showman of our industry", and "the founder of Hollywood".[174] DeMille left his multi-million dollar estate in Los Feliz, Los Angeles in Laughlin Park to his daughter Cecilia because his wife had dementia and was unable to care for an estate. She would die one year later.[175][176] His personal will drew a line between Cecilia and his three adopted children, with Cecilia receiving a majority of DeMille's inheritance and estate. The other three children were surprised by this, as DeMille did not treat the children differently in life.[177] Cecilia lived in the house for many years until her death in 1984,[178] but the house was auctioned by his granddaughter Cecilia DeMille Presley who also lived there in the late 1980s.[179][note 12]

Filmmaking

Influences

DeMille believed his first influences to be his parents, Henry and Beatrice DeMille.[180] His playwright father introduced him to the theater at a young age.[181] Henry was heavily influenced by the work of Charles Kingsley whose ideas trickled down to DeMille.[182] DeMille noted that his mother had a "high sense of the dramatic" and was determined to continue the artistic legacy of her husband after he died. Beatrice became a play broker and author's agent, influencing DeMille's early life and career.[183] DeMille's father worked with David Belasco theatrical producer, impresario, and playwright. Belasco was known for adding realistic elements in his plays such as real flowers, food, and aromas that could transport his audiences into the scenes.[184] While working in theatre, DeMille used real fruit trees in his play California as influenced by Belasco.[185] Similar to Belasco, DeMille's theatre was revolved around entertainment, rather than artistry.[186] Generally, Belasco's influence of DeMille's career can be seen in DeMille's showmanship and narration.[187] E.H. Sothern's early influence on DeMille's work can be seen in DeMille's perfectionism.[188][189] DeMille recalled that one of the most influential plays he saw was Hamlet, directed by Sothern.[190]

Method

 
Cecil B. DeMille bookplate from his library

DeMille's filmmaking process always began with extensive research. Next, he would work with writers to develop the story that he was envisioning. Then, he would help writers construct a script. Finally, he would leave the script with artists and allow them to create artistic depictions and renderings of each scene.[191] Plot and dialogue were not a strong point of DeMille's films. Consequently, he focused his efforts on his films' visuals. He worked with visual technicians, editors, art directors, costume designers, cinematographers, and set carpenters in order to perfect the visual aspects of his films. With his editor, Anne Bauchens, DeMille used editing techniques to allow the visual images to bring the plot to climax rather than dialogue.[192] DeMille had large and frequent office conferences to discuss and examine all aspects of the working film including story-boards, props, and special effects.[193]

DeMille rarely gave direction to actors; he preferred to "office-direct" where he would work with actors in his office, going over characters and reading through scripts. Any problems on the set were often fixed by writers in the office rather than on the set. DeMille did not believe a large movie set was the place to discuss minor character or line issues.[194] DeMille was particularly adept at directing and managing large crowds in his films. Martin Scorsese recalled that DeMille had the skill to maintain control of not only the lead actors in a frame but the many extras in the frame as well.[195] DeMille was adept at directing "thousands of extras",[113] and many of his pictures include spectacular set pieces: the toppling of the pagan temple in Samson and Delilah;[196] train wrecks in The Road to Yesterday,[197] Union Pacific[198] and The Greatest Show on Earth;[199] the destruction of an airship in Madam Satan;[200] and the parting of the Red Sea in both versions of The Ten Commandments.[201]

 
DeMille's set pieces include this pagan temple in Samson and Delilah (1949)

DeMille experimented in his early films with photographic light and shade which created dramatic shadows instead of glare.[84] His specific use of lighting, influenced by his mentor David Belasco, was for the purpose of creating "striking images" and heightening "dramatic situations".[202] DeMille was unique in using this technique. In addition to his use of volatile and abrupt film editing, his lighting and composition were innovative for the time period as filmmakers were primarily concerned with a clear, realistic image.[202] Another important aspect of DeMille's editing technique was to put the film away for a week or two after an initial edit in order to re-edit the picture with a fresh mind. This allowed for the rapid production of his films in the early years of the Lasky Company. The cuts were sometimes rough, but the movies were always interesting.[203]

DeMille often edited in a manner that favored psychological space rather than physical space through his cuts. In this way, the characters' thoughts and desires are the visual focus rather than the circumstances regarding the physical scene.[204] As DeMille's career progressed, he increasingly relied on artist Dan Sayre Groesbeck's concept, costume, and storyboard art. Groesbeck's art was circulated on set to give actors and crew members a better understanding of DeMille's vision. His art was even shown at Paramount meetings when pitching new films. DeMille adored the art of Groesbeck, even hanging it above his fireplace, but film staff found it difficult to convert his art into three-dimensional sets. As DeMille continued to rely on Groesbeck, the nervous energy of his early films transformed into more steady compositions of his later films. While visually appealing, this made the films appear more old-fashioned.[205]

Composer Elmer Bernstein described DeMille as "sparing no effort" when filmmaking.[206] Bernstein recalled that DeMille would scream, yell, or flatter, whatever it took to achieve the perfection he required in his films. DeMille was painstakingly attentive to details on set and was as critical of himself as he was of his crew.[207] Costume designer Dorothy Jeakins, who worked with DeMille on The Ten Commandments (1956), said that he was skilled in humiliating people. Jeakins admitted that she received quality training from him, but that it was necessary to become a perfectionist on a DeMille set to avoid being fired.[208] DeMille had an authoritarian persona on set; he required absolute attention from the cast and crew. He had a band of assistants who catered to his needs. He would speak to the entire set, sometimes enormous with countless numbers of crew members and extras, via a microphone to maintain control of the set. He was disliked by many inside and outside of the film industry for his cold and controlling reputation.[209][note 13]

DeMille was known for autocratic behavior on the set, singling out and berating extras who were not paying attention. Many of these displays were thought to be staged, however, as an exercise in discipline.[211] He despised actors who were unwilling to take physical risks, especially when he had first demonstrated that the required stunt would not harm them. This occurred with Victor Mature in Samson and Delilah. Mature refused to wrestle Jackie the Lion, even though DeMille had just tussled with the lion, proving that he was tame. DeMille told the actor that he was "one hundred percent yellow".[212] Paulette Goddard's refusal to risk personal injury in a scene involving fire in Unconquered cost her DeMille's favor and a role in The Greatest Show on Earth.[213] DeMille did receive help in his films, notably from Alvin Wyckoff who shot forty-three of DeMille's films;[80] brother William deMille who would occasionally serve as his screenwriter;[82] and Jeanie Macpherson, who served as DeMille's exclusive screenwriter for fifteen years;[214] and Eddie Salven, DeMille's favorite assistant director.[207]

DeMille made stars of unknown actors: Gloria Swanson, Bebe Daniels, Rod La Rocque, William Boyd, Claudette Colbert, and Charlton Heston.[215][216][217] He also cast established stars such as Gary Cooper, Robert Preston, Paulette Goddard and Fredric March in multiple pictures.[218][219] DeMille cast some of his performers repeatedly, including: Henry Wilcoxon,[220] Julia Faye, Joseph Schildkraut,[221] Ian Keith,[222] Charles Bickford,[223] Theodore Roberts, Akim Tamiroff[224] and William Boyd.[225][226] DeMille was credited by actor Edward G. Robinson with saving his career following his eclipse in the Hollywood blacklist.[227]

Style and themes

Cecil B. DeMille's film production career evolved from critically significant silent films to financially significant sound films. He began his career with reserved yet brilliant melodramas; from there, his style developed into marital comedies with outrageously melodramatic plots.[228] In order to attract a high-class audience, DeMille based many of his early films on stage melodramas, novels, and short stories.[229] He began the production of epics earlier in his career until they began to solidify his career in the 1920s. By 1930, DeMille had perfected his film style of mass-interest spectacle films with Western, Roman, or Biblical themes.[228] DeMille was often criticized for making his spectacles too colorful and for being too occupied with entertaining the audience rather than accessing the artistic and auteur possibilities that film could provide. However, others interpreted DeMille's work as visually impressive, thrilling, and nostalgic. Along the same lines, critics of DeMille often qualify him by his later spectacles and fail to consider several decades of ingenuity and energy that defined him during his generation.[228] Throughout his career, he did not alter his films to better adhere to contemporary or popular styles.[230] Actor Charlton Heston admitted DeMille was, "terribly unfashionable" and Sidney Lumet called Demille, "the cheap version of D.W. Griffith," adding that DeMille, "[didn't have]...an original thought in his head," though Heston added that DeMille was much more than that.[231]

 
Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount Pictures

According to Scott Eyman, DeMille's films were at the same time masculine and feminine due to his thematic adventurousness and his eye for the extravagant.[231] DeMille's distinctive style can be seen through camera and lighting effects as early as The Squaw Man with the use of daydream images; moonlight and sunset on a mountain; and side-lighting through a tent flap.[232] In the early age of cinema, DeMille differentiated the Lasky Company from other production companies due to the use of dramatic, low-key lighting they called "Lasky lighting" and marketed as "Rembrandt lighting" to appeal to the public. DeMille achieved international recognition for his unique use of lighting and color tint in his film The Cheat.[233] DeMille's 1956 version of The Ten Commandments, according to director Martin Scorsese, is renowned for its level of production and the care and detail that went into creating the film. He stated that The Ten Commandments was the final culmination of DeMille's style.[234]

DeMille was interested in art and his favorite artist was Gustave Doré; DeMille based some of his most well-known scenes on the work of Doré.[191] DeMille was the first director to connect art to filmmaking; he created the title of "art director" on the film set.[235] DeMille was also known for his use of special effects without the use of digital technology. Notably, DeMille had cinematographer John P. Fulton create the parting of the Red Sea scene in his 1956 film The Ten Commandments, which was one of the most expensive special effects in film history, and has been called by Steven Spielberg "the greatest special effect in film history". The actual parting of the sea was created by releasing 360,000 gallons of water into a huge water tank split by a U-shaped trough, overlaying it with film of a giant waterfall that was built on the Paramount backlot, and playing the clip backwards.[236][189][237]

Aside from his Biblical and historical epics which are concerned with how man relates to God, some of DeMille's films contained themes of "neo-naturalism" which portray the conflict between the laws of man and the laws of nature.[238] Although he is known for his later "spectacular" films, his early films are held in high regard by critics and film historians. DeMille discovered the possibilities of the "bathroom" or "boudoir" in film without being "vulgar" or "cheap".[187] DeMille's films Male and Female, Why Change Your Wife?, and The Affairs of Anatol can be retrospectively described as high camp and are categorized as "early DeMille films" due to their particular style of production and costume and set design. However, his earlier films The Captive, Kindling, Carmen, and The Whispering Chorus are more serious films.[187] It is difficult to typify DeMille's films into one specific genre. His first three films were Westerns, and he filmed many Westerns throughout his career. However, throughout his career, he filmed comedies, periodic and contemporary romances, dramas, fantasies, propaganda, Biblical spectacles, musical comedies, suspense, and war films. At least one DeMille film can represent each film genre.[187] DeMille produced the majority of his films before the 1930s, and by the time sound films were invented, film critics saw DeMille as antiquated, with his best filmmaking years behind him.[239]

DeMille's films contained many similar themes throughout his career. However, the films of his silent era were often thematically different from the films of his sound era. His silent era films often included the "battle of the sexes" theme due to the era of women's suffrage and the enlarging role of women in society.[240] Moreover, before his religious-themed films, many of his silent era films revolved around "husband-and-wife-divorce-and-remarry satires", considerably more adult-themed. According to Simon Louvish, these films reflected DeMille's inner thoughts and opinions about marriage and human sexuality.[241] Religion was a theme that DeMille returned to throughout his career. Of his seventy films, five revolved around stories of the Bible and the New Testament; however many others, while not direct retellings of Biblical stories, had themes of faith and religious fanaticism in films such as The Crusades and The Road to Yesterday.[109] Western and frontier American were also themes that DeMille returned to throughout his career. His first several films were westerns and he produced a chain of westerns during the sound era. Instead of portraying the danger and anarchy of the West, he portrayed the opportunity and redemption found in Western America.[242] Another common theme in DeMille's films is the reversal of fortune and the portrayal of the rich and the poor, including the war of the classes and man versus society conflicts such as in The Golden Chance and The Cheat.[243] In relation to his own interests and sexual preferences, sadomasochism was a minor theme present in some of his films.[244] Another minor characteristic of DeMille's films include train crashes which can be found in several of his films.[245]

Legacy

 
Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments which is the eighth highest-grossing film in the world, adjusted for inflation

Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Cecil B. DeMille made 70 films including several box-office hits. DeMille is one of the more commercially successful film directors in history[246] with his films before the release of The Ten Commandments estimated to have grossed $650 million worldwide.[247] Adjusted for inflation, DeMille's remake of The Ten Commandments is the eighth highest-grossing film in the world.[248]

According to Sam Goldwyn, critics did not like DeMille's films, but the audiences did and "they have the final word".[249] Similarly, scholar David Blanke, argued that DeMille had lost the respect of his colleagues and film critics by his late film career. However, his final films maintained that DeMille was still respected by his audiences.[250] Five of DeMille's film were the highest-grossing films at the year of their release, with only Spielberg topping him with six of his films as the highest-grossing films of the year. DeMille's highest-grossing films include: The Sign of the Cross (1932), Unconquered (1947), Samson and Delilah (1949), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and The Ten Commandments (1956).[251] Director Ridley Scott has been called "the Cecil B. DeMille of the digital era" due to his classical and medieval epics.[252]

Despite his box-office success, awards, and artistic achievements, DeMille has been dismissed and ignored by critics both during his life and posthumously. He consistently was criticized for producing shallow films without talent or artistic care. Compared to other directors, few film scholars have taken the time to academically analyze his films and style. During the French New Wave, critics began to categorize certain filmmakers as auteurs such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Raoul Walsh. DeMille was omitted from the list, thought to be too unsophisticated and antiquated to be considered an auteur.[253] However, Simon Louvish wrote "he was the complete master and auteur of his films"[254] and Anton Kozlovic called him the "unsung American auteur".[255] Andrew Sarris, a leading proponent of the auteur theory, ranked DeMille highly as an auteur in the "Far Side of Paradise", just below the "Pantheon". Sarris added that despite the influence of styles of contemporary directors throughout his career, DeMille's style remained unchanged. Robert Birchard wrote that one could argue auteurship of DeMille on the basis that DeMille's thematic and visual style remained consistent throughout his career. However, Birchard acknowledged that Sarris's point was more likely that DeMille's style was behind the development of film as an art form.[256] Meanwhile, Sumiko Higashi sees DeMille as "not only a figure who was shaped and influenced by the forces of his era but as a filmmaker who left his own signature on the culture industry."[257] The critic Camille Paglia has called The Ten Commandments one of the ten greatest films of all time.[258]

 
DeMille directing, 1920

DeMille was one of the first directors to become a celebrity in his own right.[259] He cultivated the image of the omnipotent director,[260] complete with megaphone, riding crop, and jodhpurs.[261][262] He was known for his unique, working wardrobe which included riding boots, riding pants, and soft, open necked shirts.[263] Joseph Henabery recalled that DeMille looked like "a king on a throne surrounded by his court" while directing films on a camera platform.[264]

DeMille was liked by some of his fellow directors and disliked by others, though his actual films were usually dismissed by his peers as vapid spectacle. Director John Huston intensely disliked both DeMille and his films. "He was a thoroughly bad director," Huston said. "A dreadful showoff. Terrible. To diseased proportions."[265] Said fellow director William Wellman: "Directorially, I think his pictures were the most horrible things I've ever seen in my life. But he put on pictures that made a fortune. In that respect, he was better than any of us."[266] Producer David O. Selznick wrote: "There has appeared only one Cecil B. DeMille. He is one of the most extraordinarily able showmen of modern times. However much I may dislike some of his pictures, it would be very silly of me, as a producer of commercial motion pictures, to demean for an instant his unparalleled skill as a maker of mass entertainment."[267] Salvador Dalí wrote that DeMille, Walt Disney and the Marx Brothers were "the three great American Surrealists".[268] DeMille appeared as himself in numerous films, including the MGM comedy Free and Easy.[269] He often appeared in his coming-attraction trailers and narrated many of his later films,[270] even stepping on screen to introduce The Ten Commandments.[271] DeMille was immortalized in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard when Gloria Swanson spoke the line: "All right, Mr. DeMille. I'm ready for my close-up." DeMille plays himself in the film.[272] DeMille's reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s.[273]

As a filmmaker, DeMille was the aesthetic inspiration of many directors and films due to his early influence during the crucial development of the film industry. DeMille's early silent comedies influenced the comedies of Ernst Lubitsch and Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris. Additionally, DeMille's epics such as The Crusades influenced Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky. Moreover, DeMille's epics inspired directors such as Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and George Stevens to try producing epics.[231] Cecil B. DeMille has influenced the work of several well-known directors. Alfred Hitchcock cited DeMille's 1921 film Forbidden Fruit as an influence of his work and one of his top ten favorite films.[274] DeMille has influenced the careers of many modern directors. Martin Scorsese cited Unconquered, Samson and Delilah, and The Greatest Show on Earth as DeMille films that have imparted lasting memories on him.[275] Scorsese said he had viewed The Ten Commandments forty or fifty times.[276] Famed director Steven Spielberg stated that DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth was one of the films that influenced him to become a filmmaker.[73] Furthermore, DeMille influenced about half of Spielberg's films, including War of the Worlds.[231][note 14] The Ten Commandments inspired DreamWorks Animation's later film about Moses, The Prince of Egypt.[278] As one of the establishing members of Paramount Pictures and co-founder of Hollywood, DeMille had a role in the development of the film industry.[255] Consequently, the name "DeMille" has become synonymous with filmmaking.[255]

Publicly Episcopalian, DeMille drew on his Christian and Jewish ancestors to convey a message of tolerance.[279][280] DeMille received more than a dozen awards from Christian and Jewish religious and cultural groups, including B'nai B'rith.[281] However, not everyone received DeMille's religious films favorably. DeMille was accused of antisemitism after the release of The King of Kings,[282] and director John Ford despised DeMille for what he saw as "hollow" biblical epics meant to promote DeMille's reputation during the politically turbulent 1950s.[283] In response to the claims, DeMille donated some of the profits from The King of Kings to charity.[189] In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll, both DeMille's Samson and Delilah and 1923 version of The Ten Commandments received votes, but did not make the top 100 films.[284] Although many of DeMille's films are available on DVD and Blu-ray release, only 20 of his silent films are commercially available on DVD [285][note 15]

Commemoration and tributes

 
The Lasky-DeMille Barn was the place of origin of Paramount Pictures and the location in which The Squaw Man (1913) was filmed. It became the Hollywood Heritage Museum in 1985.

The original Lasky-DeMille Barn in which The Squaw Man was filmed was converted into a museum named the "Hollywood Heritage Museum". It opened on December 13, 1985, and features some of DeMille's personal artifacts.[287][288] The Lasky-DeMille Barn was dedicated as a California historical landmark in a ceremony on December 27, 1956; DeMille was the keynote speaker.[180] and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.[289] The Dunes Center in Guadalupe, California contains an exhibition of artifacts uncovered in the desert near Guadalupe from DeMille's set of his 1923 version of The Ten Commandments, known as the "Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille".[290][note 16] Donated by the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation in 2004, the moving image collection of Cecil B. DeMille is held at the Academy Film Archive and includes home movies, outtakes, and never-before-seen test footage.[292]

In summer 2019, The Friends of the Pompton Lakes Library hosted a Cecil B DeMille film festival to celebrate DeMille's achievements and connection to Pompton Lakes. They screened four of his films at Christ Church, where DeMille and his family attended church when they lived there.[293] Two schools have been named after him: Cecil B. DeMille Middle School, in Long Beach, California, which was closed and demolished in 2010 to make way for a new high school;[294] and Cecil B. DeMille Elementary School in Midway City, California.[113][295] The former film building at Chapman University in Orange, California, is named in honor of DeMille.[296] During the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin refers to himself in one instance as "Cecil B. DeAldrin", as a humorous nod to DeMille.[297] The title of the 2000 John Waters film Cecil B. Demented alludes to DeMille.[298][299]

DeMille's legacy is maintained by his granddaughter Cecilia DeMille Presley who serves as the president of the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation, which strives to support higher education, child welfare, and film in Southern California.[300] In 1963, the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation donated the "Paradise" ranch to the Hathaway Foundation, which cares for emotionally disturbed and abused children.[86] A large collection of DeMille's materials including scripts, storyboards, and films resides at Brigham Young University in L. Tom Perry Special Collections.[301][302]

Awards and recognition

 
DeMille (middle, standing) receives an Honorary Doctorate degree at Brigham Young University commencement, 1957

Cecil B. DeMille received many awards and honors, especially later in his career. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts honored DeMille with an Alumni Achievement Award in 1958.[303] In 1957, DeMille gave the commencement address for the graduation ceremony of Brigham Young University wherein he received an honorary Doctorate of Letter degree.[304] Additionally, in 1958, he received an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from Temple University.[305] From the film industry, DeMille received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards in 1953,[306] and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America Award the same year.[307] In the same ceremony, DeMille received a nomination from Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for The Greatest Show on Earth.[308] In 1952, DeMille was awarded the first Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. An annual award, the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award recognizes lifetime achievement in the film industry.[309][310][note 17] For his contribution to the motion picture and radio industry, DeMille has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The first, for radio contributions, is located at 6240 Hollywood Blvd. The second star is located at 1725 Vine Street.[172]

DeMille received two Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "37 years of brilliant showmanship" in 1950[313] and a Best Picture award in 1953 for The Greatest Show on Earth.[306] DeMille received a Golden Globe Award for Best Director[314] and was additionally nominated for the Best Director category at the 1953 Academy Awards for the same film.[315] He was further nominated in the Best Picture category for The Ten Commandments at the 1957 Academy Awards.[316] DeMille's Union Pacific received a Palme d'Or in retrospect at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.[317]

Two of DeMille's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Cheat (1915) and The Ten Commandments (1956).[318]

Filmography

Cecil B. DeMille made 70 features.[156] Fifty-two of his features are silent films. The first 24 of his silent films were made in the first three years of his career (1913-1916).[109] Eight of his films were "epics" with five of those classified as "Biblical".[109] Six of DeMille's films—The Arab, The Wild Goose Chase, The Dream Girl, The Devil-Stone, We Can't Have Everything, and The Squaw Man (1918)—were destroyed due to nitrate decomposition, and are considered lost.[319] The Ten Commandments is broadcast every Saturday at Passover in the United States on the ABC Television Network.[320]

Directed features

Filmography obtained from Fifty Hollywood Directors.[321]: 21–23 

Silent films

Sound films

Directing or producing credit

These films represent those which DeMille produced or assisted in directing, credited or uncredited.

Acting and cameos

DeMille frequently made cameos as himself in other Paramount films. Additionally, he often starred in prologues and special trailers that he created for his films, having an opportunity to personally address the audience.[337]

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ There are several variants of DeMille's surname. His family's Dutch surname, originally spelled de Mil, became de Mille when William deMille (Cecil's grandfather) added an "e" for "visual symmetry".[2] As an adult, he adopted the spelling DeMille because he believed it would look better on a marquee, but continued to use de Mille in private life.[3] The family name de Mille was used by his children Cecilia, John, Richard, and Katherine. DeMille's brother, William, and his daughters, Margaret and Agnes, as well as DeMille's granddaughter, Cecilia de Mille Presley, also used the de Mille spelling.[4]
  2. ^ DeMille's niece and William deMille's daughter Agnes de Mille was a famed dancer-choreographer.[24]
  3. ^ Unlike the other children the DeMille's adopted, John was never told about his birth parents.[79]
  4. ^ DeMille liked to sail and dive; he had several boats throughout his lifetime. He donated The Seaward, his most cherished boat, to the merchant marine for service during World War II. The boat was returned to him destroyed. DeMille gave up the boat and never bought another one.[87]
  5. ^ Katherine's father had been killed in World War I and her mother had died of tuberculosis.[94] To DeMille's dismay, Katherine became an actress; however, she ultimately gained his approval. In 1936 she married actor Anthony Quinn.[95]
  6. ^ After the death of William deMille, DeMille revealed to Richard DeMille that William was his father and he had been born to William and a mistress. DeMille had adopted him to avoid revealing the affairs to William's wife. The mistress could not keep the boy due to her tuberculosis.[96] DeMille became a notable psychiatrist, filmmaker and writer.[97][98][99]
  7. ^ Frequent actors and actresses on the show included Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young, Don Ameche, and Fred MacMurray.[135]
  8. ^ The project was later completed by DeMille's former assistant director Sam Wood who was notoriously anti-communist.[140]
  9. ^ DeMille claimed that MacPherson was not a good writer, but she received credit in his films because she gave him many ideas for the screenplays.[143]
  10. ^ The gathering drew 93,000, with short speeches by Hedda Hopper and Walt Disney. Among those in attendance were Ann Sothern, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Adolphe Menjou, Gary Cooper, and Walter Pidgeon. Though the rally drew a good response, most Hollywood celebrities who took a public position sided with the Roosevelt-Truman ticket.[146]
  11. ^ While the film was a huge success, DeMille regretted that he could not share the success with his wife who had developed Alzheimer's disease.[167]
  12. ^ The estate cycled through several different homeowners for the next 30 years until it was bought by American actress Angelina Jolie in 2017 for nearly $25 million.[176]
  13. ^ Further illustrated by his home life, DeMille required formality and politeness at home. Sons-and daughters-in-law were required to call him "Mr. DeMille", and Richard deMille never recalled hugging his father, claiming he received handshakes instead.[210]
  14. ^ DeMille had considered making the film himself. He bought the rights to the novel in 1925, but abandoned the project in pre-production.[277]
  15. ^ In the 1950s, Paramount sold its entire pre-1948 film library, including those of DeMille, to EMKA. Consequently, most of DeMille's pre-1948 films no longer belong to Paramount.[286]
  16. ^ The set was discovered by Peter Brosnan after hearing a rumor in 1982 that DeMille had ordered the enormous set to be buried after filming rather than taken away. A documentary titled The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille follows the story of Brosnon's 30-year journey to find and uncover the set.[291]
  17. ^ Later recipients of the award include Kirk Douglas, Robert Redford, Lauren Bacall.[311] Jeff Bridges was the 2019 Cecil B. DeMille Award winner.[312]

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General sources

  • Abel, Richard, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415234405. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  • American Film Institute (1997). Gevinson, Alan (ed.). Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Film, 1911–1960. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520209640. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  • Birchard, Robert S. (2004). Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813123240.
  • Blanke, David (2018). Cecil B. DeMille, Classical Hollywood, and Modern American Mass Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-76986-8. ISBN 978-3319769868.
  • Dick, Bernard F. (2001). Engulfed: The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813122021.
  • Doherty, Thomas (1999). Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930–1934. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 26. ISBN 0231110952. Retrieved June 20, 2019. demille madam satan destruction of an airship.
  • Eames, John Douglas (1985). The Paramount Story. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0517553481.
  • Edmonds, I.G.; Mimura, Reiko (1980). Paramount Pictures and the People Who Made Them. San Diego: A.S. Barnes & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0498023224.
  • Eyman, Scott (2010). Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0743289559.
  • Higashi, Sumiko (1994). Cecil B. DeMille and American Culture: The Silent Era. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520085574.
  • Highman, Charles (1973). Cecil B. DeMille. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306801310.
  • King, Elliot H. (2007). Dalí, Surrealism and Cinema. Harpenden, UK: Kamera Books. ISBN 978-1904048909.  
  • Louvish, Simon (2007). Cecil B. DeMille: A Life in Art. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0312377335.
  • Lyon, Christopher, ed. (1984). The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Directors/Filmmakers (Volume II). Chicago: St. James Press. ISBN 978-0912289052.
  • Orrison, Katherine. Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille's Epic, The Ten Commandments. New York: Vestal Press, 1990. ISBN 187951124X.
  • Maltin, Leonard, ed. (2009). Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide. New York: Plume. p. 492. ISBN 978-0452289789. Retrieved May 22, 2019. free and easy film.
  • Presley, Cecilia DeMille; Vieira, Mark A. (2014). Cecil B. DeMille: The Art of Hollywood Epic. Philadelphia: Running Press. ISBN 978-0762454907.
  • Ringgold, Gene; Bodeen, DeWitt (1969). The Films of Cecil B. DeMille. New York: Citadel Press.
  • Soister, John T.; Nicolella, Henry (2012). American Silent Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913–1929. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786435814. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  • Williams, Tony (2014). Larry Cohen: The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1476618197. Retrieved July 19, 2019.

External links

 
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Archival materials

February 19, 2023
cecil, demille, cecil, blount, demille, august, 1881, january, 1959, american, film, director, producer, actor, between, 1914, 1958, made, features, both, silent, sound, films, acknowledged, founding, father, american, cinema, most, commercially, successful, p. Cecil Blount DeMille ˈ s ɛ s el d e ˈ m ɪ l August 12 1881 January 21 1959 was an American film director producer and actor Between 1914 and 1958 he made 70 features both silent and sound films He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinema and the most commercially successful producer director in film history His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship His silent films included social dramas comedies Westerns farces morality plays and historical pageants He was an active Freemason and member of Prince of Orange Lodge 16 in New York City 1 Cecil B DeMillePublicity portrait c 1920BornCecil Blount DeMille 1881 08 12 August 12 1881Ashfield Massachusetts U S DiedJanuary 21 1959 1959 01 21 aged 77 Los Angeles California U S Resting placeHollywood Forever CemeteryAlma materPennsylvania Military CollegeAmerican Academy of Dramatic ArtsOccupationsDirectorproducerscreenwritereditoractorYears active1899 1958Political partyRepublicanSpouseConstance Adams DeMille m 1902 wbr Children4 including Katherine DeMille adopted and Richard de Mille adopted Parent s Henry Churchill de MilleMatilda Beatrice deMilleRelativesWilliam C deMille brother Agnes de Mille niece Peggy George niece WebsiteOfficial websiteDeMille was born in Ashfield Massachusetts and grew up in New York City He began his career as a stage actor in 1900 He later moved to writing and directing stage productions some with Jesse Lasky who was then a vaudeville producer DeMille s first film The Squaw Man 1914 was also the first full length feature film shot in Hollywood Its interracial love story made it commercially successful and it first publicized Hollywood as the home of the U S film industry The continued success of his productions led to the founding of Paramount Pictures with Lasky and Adolph Zukor His first biblical epic The Ten Commandments 1923 was both a critical and commercial success it held the Paramount revenue record for twenty five years DeMille directed The King of Kings 1927 a biography of Jesus which gained approval for its sensitivity and reached more than 800 million viewers The Sign of the Cross 1932 is said to be the first sound film to integrate all aspects of cinematic technique Cleopatra 1934 was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture After more than thirty years in film production DeMille reached a pinnacle in his career with Samson and Delilah 1949 a biblical epic which became the highest grossing film of 1950 Along with biblical and historical narratives he also directed films oriented toward neo naturalism which tried to portray the laws of man fighting the forces of nature He received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for his circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth 1952 which won both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Drama His last and best known film The Ten Commandments 1956 also a Best Picture Academy Award nominee is currently the eighth highest grossing film of all time adjusted for inflation In addition to his Best Picture Awards he received an Academy Honorary Award for his film contributions the Palme d Or posthumously for Union Pacific 1939 a DGA Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award He was the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award which was named in his honor DeMille s reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s and his work has influenced numerous other films and directors Contents 1 Biography 1 1 1881 1899 Early years 1 2 1900 1912 Theater 1 2 1 Charles Frohman Constance Adams and David Belasco 1 2 2 Losing interest in theatre 1 3 1913 1914 Entering films 1 4 1915 1928 Silent era 1 4 1 Westerns Paradise and World War I 1 4 2 Scandalous dramas Biblical epics and departure from Paramount 1 5 1929 1956 Sound era 1 5 1 MGM and return to Paramount 1 5 2 Politics and Lux Radio Theatre 1 5 3 Adventure films and dramatic spectacles 1 5 4 Final works and unrealized projects 1 5 5 Death 2 Filmmaking 2 1 Influences 2 2 Method 2 3 Style and themes 3 Legacy 3 1 Commemoration and tributes 4 Awards and recognition 5 Filmography 5 1 Directed features 5 2 Directing or producing credit 5 3 Acting and cameos 6 Explanatory notes 7 Citations 8 General sources 9 External links 9 1 Archival materialsBiography Edit1881 1899 Early years Edit The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York Cecil Blount DeMille note 1 was born on August 12 1881 in a boarding house on Main Street in Ashfield Massachusetts where his parents had been vacationing for the summer 5 On September 1 1881 the family returned with the newborn DeMille to their flat in New York 5 DeMille was named after his grandmothers Cecelia Wolff and Margarete Blount 6 He was the second of three children of Henry Churchill de Mille September 4 1853 February 10 1893 and his wife Matilda Beatrice deMille nee Samuel January 30 1853 October 8 1923 known as Beatrice 7 His brother William C DeMille was born on July 25 1878 8 Henry de Mille whose ancestors were of English and Dutch Belgian descent was a North Carolina born dramatist actor and lay reader in the Episcopal Church 9 DeMille s father was also an English teacher at Columbia College now Columbia University 10 He worked as a playwright administrator and faculty member during the early years of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts established in New York City in 1884 11 Henry deMille frequently collaborated with David Belasco in playwriting 12 their best known collaborations included The Wife Lord Chumley The Charity Ball and Men and Women 10 Cecil B DeMille s mother Beatrice a literary agent and scriptwriter was the daughter of German Jews 13 She had emigrated from England with her parents in 1871 when she was 18 the newly arrived family settled in Brooklyn New York where they maintained a middle class English speaking household 14 DeMille s parents met as members of a music and literary society in New York Henry was a tall red headed student Beatrice was intelligent educated forthright and strong willed 15 The two were married on July 1 1876 despite Beatrice s parents objections because of the young couple s differing religions Beatrice converted to Episcopalianism 15 DeMille was a brave and confident child 16 He gained his love of theater while watching his father and Belasco rehearse their plays A lasting memory for DeMille was a lunch with his father and actor Edwin Booth 17 As a child DeMille created an alter ego Champion Driver a Robin Hood like character evidence of his creativity and imagination 18 The family lived in Washington North Carolina 19 until Henry built a three story Victorian style house for his family in Pompton Lakes New Jersey they named this estate Pamlico 20 John Philip Sousa was a friend of the family and DeMille recalled throwing mud balls in the air so neighbor Annie Oakley could practice her shooting 21 DeMille s sister Agnes was born on April 23 1891 his mother nearly did not survive the birth 22 Agnes would die on February 11 1894 at the age of three from spinal meningitis 23 note 2 DeMille s parents operated a private school in town and attended Christ Episcopal Church DeMille recalled that this church was the place where he visualized the story of his 1923 version of The Ten Commandments 25 DeMille as a young man c 1904 On January 8 1893 at age 40 Henry de Mille died suddenly from typhoid fever leaving Beatrice with three children To provide for her family she opened the Henry C DeMille School for Girls in her home in February 1893 26 The aim of the school was to teach young women to properly understand and fulfill the women s duty to herself her home and her country 27 Before Henry deMille s death Beatrice had enthusiastically supported her husband s theatrical aspirations She later became the second female play broker on Broadway 28 On Henry DeMille s deathbed he told his wife that he did not want his sons to become playwrights DeMille s mother sent him to Pennsylvania Military College now Widener University in Chester Pennsylvania at age 15 29 He fled the school to join the Spanish American War but failed to meet the age requirement 10 At the military college even though his grades were average he reportedly excelled in personal conduct 30 DeMille attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts tuition free due to his father s service to the Academy He graduated in 1900 and for graduation his performance was the play The Arcady Trail In the audience was Charles Frohman who would cast DeMille in his play Hearts are Trumps DeMille s Broadway debut 1900 1912 Theater Edit Charles Frohman Constance Adams and David Belasco Edit Cecil B DeMille began his career as an actor on the stage in the theatrical company of Charles Frohman in 1900 He debuted as an actor on February 21 1900 in the play Hearts Are Trumps at New York s Garden Theater 31 In 1901 DeMille starred in productions of A Repentance To Have and to Hold and Are You a Mason 32 At the age of twenty one Cecil B DeMille married Constance Adams on August 16 1902 at Adams s father s home in East Orange New Jersey The wedding party was small Beatrice DeMille s family was not in attendance and Simon Louvish suggests that this was to conceal DeMille s partial Jewish heritage Adams was 29 years old at the time of their marriage eight years older than DeMille 33 They had met in a theater in Washington D C while they were both acting in Hearts Are Trumps 34 They were sexually incompatible according to DeMille Adams was too pure to feel such violent and evil passions 35 DeMille had more violent sexual preferences and fetishes than his wife Adams allowed DeMille to have several long term mistresses during their marriage as an outlet while maintaining an outward appearance of a faithful marriage 36 One of DeMille s affairs was with his screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson 37 Despite his reputation for extramarital affairs DeMille did not like to have affairs with his stars as he believed it would cause him to lose control as a director He related a story that he maintained his self control when Gloria Swanson sat on his lap refusing to touch her 38 In 1902 he played a small part in Hamlet 32 Publicists wrote that he became an actor in order to learn how direct and produce but DeMille admitted that he became an actor in order to pay the bills 32 From 1904 to 1905 DeMille attempted to make a living as a stock theatre actor with his wife Constance DeMille made a 1905 reprise in Hamlet as Osric 39 In the summer of 1905 DeMille joined the stock cast at the Elitch Theatre in Denver Colorado He appeared in eleven of the fifteen plays presented that season although all were minor roles Maude Fealy would appear as the featured actress in several productions that summer and would develop a lasting friendship with DeMille He would later cast her in The Ten Commandments 40 His brother William was establishing himself as a playwright and sometimes invited him to collaborate 18 DeMille and William collaborated on The Genius The Royal Mounted and After Five 41 However none of these were very successful William deMille was most successful when he worked alone 41 DeMille and his brother at times worked with the legendary impresario David Belasco who had been a friend and collaborator of their father 42 DeMille would later adapt Belasco s The Girl of the Golden West Rose of the Rancho and The Warrens of Virginia into films 43 DeMille was credited with creating the premise of Belasco s The Return of Peter Grimm 41 The Return of Peter Grimm sparked controversy however because Belasco had taken DeMille s unnamed screenplay changed the characters and named it The Return of Peter Grimm producing and presenting it as his own work DeMille was credited in small print as based on an idea by Cecil DeMille The play was successful and DeMille was distraught that his childhood idol had plagiarized his work 44 Losing interest in theatre Edit DeMille performed on stage with actors whom he would later direct in films Charlotte Walker Mary Pickford and Pedro de Cordoba DeMille also produced and directed plays 45 His 1905 performance in The Prince Chap as the Earl of Huntington was well received by audiences 39 DeMille wrote a few of his own plays in between stage performances but his playwriting was not as successful 41 His first play was The Pretender A Play in a Prologue and 4 Acts set in seventeenth century Russia 39 Another unperformed play he wrote was Son of the Winds a mythological Native American story 46 Life was difficult for DeMille and his wife as traveling actors however traveling allowed him to experience part of the United States he had not yet seen 47 DeMille sometimes worked with the director E H Sothern who influenced DeMille s later perfectionism in his work 47 In 1907 due to a scandal with one of Beatrice s students Evelyn Nesbit the Henry deMille School lost students The school closed and Beatrice filed for bankruptcy 48 DeMille wrote another play originally called Sergeant Devil May Care which was renamed The Royal Mounted He also toured with the Standard Opera Company but there are few records to indicate DeMille s singing ability 49 DeMille had a daughter Cecilia on November 5 1908 who would be his only biological child 49 In the 1910s DeMille began directing and producing other writer s plays 50 DeMille was poor and struggled to find work Consequently his mother hired him for her agency The DeMille Play Company and taught him how to be an agent and a playwright Eventually he became manager of the agency and later a junior partner with his mother 51 In 1911 DeMille became acquainted with vaudeville producer Jesse Lasky when Lasky was searching for a writer for his new musical He initially sought out William deMille William had been a successful playwright but DeMille was suffering from the failure of his plays The Royal Mounted and The Genius However Beatrice introduced Lasky to DeMille instead 52 The collaboration of DeMille and Lasky produced a successful musical called California which opened in New York in January 1912 53 Another DeMille Lasky production that opened in January 1912 was The Antique Girl 54 DeMille found success in the spring of 1913 producing Reckless Age by Lee Wilson a play about a high society girl wrongly accused of manslaughter starring Frederick Burton and Sydney Shields 55 56 However changes in the theater rendered DeMille s melodramas obsolete before they were produced and true theatrical success eluded him He produced many flops 57 Having become disinterested in working in theatre DeMille s passion for film was ignited when he watched the 1912 French film Les Amours de la reine Elisabeth 58 1913 1914 Entering films Edit source source source source source source The Squaw Man 1914 full film Desiring a change of scene Cecil B DeMille Jesse Lasky Sam Goldfish later Samuel Goldwyn and a group of East Coast businessmen created the Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company in 1913 over which DeMille became director general 59 Lasky and DeMille were said to have sketched out the organization of the company on the back of a restaurant menu 60 As director general DeMille s job was to make the films 60 In addition to directing DeMille was the supervisor and consultant for the first year of films made by the Lasky Feature Play Company 61 Sometimes he directed scenes for other directors at the Feature Play Company in order to release films on time 61 Moreover when he was busy directing other films he would co author other Lasky Company scripts as well as create screen adaptations that others directed 61 The Lasky Play Company sought out William DeMille to join the company but he rejected the offer because he did not believe there was any promise in a film career 62 When William found out that DeMille had begun working in the motion picture industry he wrote DeMille a letter disappointed that he was willing to throw away his future when he was born and raised in the finest traditions of the theater 63 The Lasky Company wanted to attract high class audiences to their films so they began producing films from literary works 64 The Lasky Company bought the rights to the play The Squaw Man by Edwin Milton Royle and cast Dustin Farnum in the lead role 62 They offered Farnum a choice to have a quarter stock in the company similar to William deMille or 250 per week as salary Farnum chose 250 per week 65 Already 15 000 in debt to Royle for the screenplay of The Squaw Man Lasky s relatives bought the 5 000 stock to save the Lasky Company from bankruptcy 66 With no knowledge of filmmaking DeMille was introduced to observe the process at film studios He was eventually introduced to Oscar Apfel a stage director who had been a director with the Edison Company 67 On December 12 1913 DeMille his cast and crew boarded a Southern Pacific train bound for Flagstaff via New Orleans His tentative plan was to shoot a film in Arizona but he felt that Arizona did not typify the Western look they were searching for They also learned that other filmmakers were successfully shooting in Los Angeles even in winter 68 He continued to Los Angeles Once there he chose not to shoot in Edendale where many studios were but in Hollywood 69 DeMille rented a barn to function as their film studio 70 Filming began on December 29 1913 and lasted three weeks 71 Apfel filmed most of The Squaw Man due to DeMille s inexperience however DeMille learned quickly and was particularly adept at impromptu screenwriting as necessary 72 He made his first film run sixty minutes as long as a short play The Squaw Man 1914 co directed by Oscar Apfel was a sensation and it established the Lasky Company This was the first feature length film made in Hollywood 73 There were problems however with the perforation of the film stock and it was discovered the DeMille had brought a cheap British film perforator which had punched in sixty five holes per foot instead of the industry standard of sixty four Lasky and DeMille convinced film pioneer Siegmund Lubin of the Lubin Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia to have his experienced technicians reperforate the film 74 This was also the first American feature film however only by release date as D W Griffith s Judith of Bethulia was filmed earlier than The Squaw Man but released later 75 Additionally this was the only film in which DeMille shared director s credit with Oscar C Apfel 61 The Squaw Man was a success which led to the eventual founding of Paramount Pictures and Hollywood becoming the film capital of the world 76 77 The film grossed over ten times its budget after its New York premiere in February 1914 72 DeMille s next project was to aid Oscar Apfel and directing Brewster s Millions which was wildly successful 78 In December 1914 Constance Adams brought home John DeMille a fifteen month old whom the couple legally adopted three years later Biographer Scott Eyman suggested that this may have been a result of Adams s recent miscarriage 79 note 3 1915 1928 Silent era Edit Westerns Paradise and World War I Edit Famous Players Lasky Corporation DeMille is seated second from the right Cecil B DeMille s second film credited exclusively to him was The Virginian This is the earliest of DeMille s films available in a quality color tinted video format However this version is actually a 1918 re release 80 The first few years of the Lasky Company were spent in making films nonstop literally writing the language of film DeMille himself directed twenty films by 1915 81 The most successful films during the beginning of the Lasky Company were Brewster s Millions co directed by DeMille Rose of the Rancho and The Ghost Breaker 72 DeMille adapted Belasco s dramatic lighting techniques to film technology mimicking moonlight with U S cinema s first attempts at motivated lighting in The Warrens of Virginia 28 This was the first of few film collaborations with his brother William They struggled to adapt the play from the stage to the set After the film was shown viewers complained that the shadows and lighting prevented the audience from seeing the actors full faces complaining that they would only pay half price However Sam Goldwyn realized that if they called it Rembrandt lighting the audience would pay double the price 82 Additionally because of DeMille s cordiality after the Peter Grimm incident DeMille was able to rekindle his partnership with Belasco He adapted several of Belasco s screenplays into film 83 DeMille s most successful film was The Cheat DeMille s direction in the film was acclaimed 84 In 1916 exhausted from three years of nonstop filmmaking DeMille purchased land in the Angeles National Forest for a ranch which would become his getaway He called this place Paradise declaring it a wildlife sanctuary no shooting of animals was allowed besides snakes His wife did not like Paradise so DeMille often brought his mistresses there with him including actress Julia Faye 85 86 In addition to his Paradise DeMille purchased a yacht in 1921 which he called The Seaward note 4 While filming The Captive in 1915 an extra Bob Fleming died on set when another extra failed to heed to DeMille s orders to unload all guns for rehearsal DeMille instructed the guilty man to leave town and would never reveal his name Lasky and DeMille maintained the widow Fleming on the payroll however according to leading actor House Peters Sr DeMille refused to stop production for the funeral of Fleming Peters claimed that he encouraged the cast to attend the funeral with him anyway since DeMille would not be able to shoot the film without him 88 On July 19 1916 the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company merged with Adolph Zukor s Famous Players Film Company becoming Famous Players Lasky Zukor became president with Lasky as the vice president 89 DeMille was maintained as director general and Goldwyn became chairman of the board 84 Goldwyn was later fired from Famous Players Lasky due to frequent clashes with Lasky DeMille and finally Zukor 84 While on a European vacation in 1921 DeMille contracted rheumatic fever in Paris He was confined to bed and unable to eat His poor physical condition upon his return home affected the production of his 1922 film Manslaughter According to Richard Birchard DeMille s weakened state during production may have led to the film being received as uncharacteristically substandard 90 During World War I the Famous Players Lasky organized a military company underneath the National Guard called the Home Guard made up of film studio employees with DeMille as captain Eventually the Guard was enlarged to a battalion and recruited soldiers from other film studios They took time off weekly from film production to practice military drills Additionally during the war DeMille volunteered for the Justice Department s Intelligence Office investigating friends neighbors and others he came in contact with in connection with the Famous Players Lasky He volunteered for the Intelligence Office during World War II as well 91 Although DeMille considered enlisting in World War I he stayed in the United States and made films However he did take a few months to set up a movie theater for the French front Famous Players Lasky donated the films 92 DeMille and Adams adopted Katherine Lester in 1920 whom Adams had found in the orphanage over which she was the director 93 note 5 In 1922 the couple adopted Richard deMille 36 note 6 Scandalous dramas Biblical epics and departure from Paramount Edit Film started becoming more sophisticated and the subsequent films of the Lasky company were criticized for primitive and unrealistic set design 100 Consequently Beatrice deMille introduced the Famous Players Lasky to Wilfred Buckland who DeMille had known from his time at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and he became DeMille s art director William deMille reluctantly became a story editor William deMille would later convert from theater to Hollywood and would spend the rest of his career as a film director 84 Throughout his career DeMille would frequently remake his own films In his first instance in 1917 he remade The Squaw Man 1918 only waiting four years from the 1914 original Despite its quick turnaround the film was fairly successful However DeMille s second remake at MGM in 1931 would be a failure 101 After five years and thirty hit films DeMille became the American film industry s most successful director In the silent era he was renowned for Male and Female 1919 Manslaughter 1922 The Volga Boatman 1926 and The Godless Girl 1928 DeMille s trademark scenes included bathtubs lion attacks and Roman orgies 102 Many of his films featured scenes in two color Technicolor In 1923 DeMille released a modern melodrama The Ten Commandments which was a significant change from his previous stint of irreligious films The film was produced on a large budget of 600 000 the most expensive production at Paramount This concerned the executives at Paramount however the film turned out to be the studio s highest grossing film 103 It held the Paramount record for twenty five years until DeMille broke the record again himself 104 Advertisement 1919 In the early 1920s scandal surrounded Paramount religious groups and the media opposed portrayals of immorality in films A censorship board called the Hays Code was established DeMille s film The Affairs of Anatol came under fire Furthermore DeMille argued with Zukor over his extravagant and over budget production costs 105 Consequently DeMille left Paramount in 1924 despite having helped establish it He joined the Producers Distributing Corporation 106 His first film in the new production company DeMille Pictures Corporation was The Road to Yesterday in 1925 He directed and produced four films on his own working with Producers Distributing Corporation because he found front office supervision too restricting 107 Aside from The King of Kings none of DeMille s films away from Paramount were successful 108 The King of Kings established DeMille as master of the grandiose and of biblical sagas 109 Considered at the time to be the most successful Christian film of the silent era DeMille calculated that it had been viewed over 800 million times around the world 110 After the release of DeMille s The Godless Girl silent films in America became obsolete and DeMille was forced to shoot a shoddy final reel with the new sound production technique Although this final reel looked so different from the previous eleven reels that it appeared to be from another movie according to Simon Louvish the film is one of DeMille s strangest and most DeMillean film 111 The immense popularity of DeMille s silent films enabled him to branch out into other areas The Roaring Twenties were the boom years and DeMille took full advantage opening the Mercury Aviation Company one of America s first commercial airlines 112 He was also a real estate speculator 113 an underwriter of political campaigns and vice president of Bank of America 114 He was additionally vice president of the Commercial National Trust and Savings Bank in Los Angeles where he approved loans for other filmmakers 115 In 1916 DeMille purchased a mansion in Hollywood Charlie Chaplin lived next door for a time and after he moved DeMille purchased the other house and combined the estates 116 1929 1956 Sound era Edit MGM and return to Paramount Edit When talking pictures were invented in 1928 Cecil B DeMille made a successful transition offering his own innovations to the painful process he devised a microphone boom and a soundproof camera blimp 117 He also popularized the camera crane 118 His first three sound films were produced at Metro Goldwyn Mayer 119 These three films Dynamite Madame Satan and his 1931 remake of The Squaw Man were both critically and financially unsuccessful He had completely adapted to the production of sound film despite the film s poor dialogue 120 After his contract ended at MGM he left but no production studios would hire him He attempted to create a guild of a half a dozen directors with the same creative desires called the Director s Guild However the idea failed due to lack of funding and commitment Moreover DeMille was audited by the Internal Revenue Service due to issues with his production company This was according to DeMille the lowest point of his career DeMille traveled abroad to find employment until he was offered a deal at Paramount 121 In 1932 DeMille returned to Paramount at the request of Lasky bringing with him his own production unit 122 His first film back at Paramount The Sign of the Cross was also his first success since leaving Paramount besides The King of Kings DeMille s return was approved by Zukor under the condition that DeMille not exceed his production budget of 650 000 for The Sign of the Cross Produced in eight weeks without exceeding budget the film was financially successful 123 The Sign of the Cross was the first film to integrate all cinematic techniques The film was considered a masterpiece and surpassed the quality of other sound films of the time 124 DeMille followed this epic uncharacteristically with two dramas released in 1933 and 1934 This Day and Age and Four Frightened People were box office disappointments though Four Frightened People received good reviews DeMille would stick to his large budget spectaculars for the rest of his career 125 Politics and Lux Radio Theatre Edit DeMille as producer of the Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on CBS 1937 Cecil B DeMille was outspoken about his strong Episcopalian integrity but his private life included mistresses and adultery 126 DeMille was a conservative Republican activist becoming more conservative as he aged citation needed He was known as anti union and worked to prevent unionizing of film production studios 127 However according to DeMille himself he was not anti union and belonged to a few unions himself He said he was rather against union leaders such as Walter Reuther and Harry Bridges whom he compared to dictators 128 He supported Herbert Hoover and in 1928 made his largest campaign donation to Hoover 129 DeMille also liked Franklin D Roosevelt however finding him charismatic tenacious and intelligent and agreeing with Roosevelt s abhorrence of Prohibition DeMille lent Roosevelt a car for his campaign for the 1932 United States presidential election and voted for him However he would never again vote for a Democratic candidate in a presidential election 129 From June 1 1936 until January 22 1945 Cecil B DeMille hosted and directed Lux Radio Theater a weekly digest of current feature films 130 Broadcast on the Columbia Broadcasting System CBS from 1935 to 1954 131 the Lux Radio show was one of the most popular weekly shows in the history of radio 130 While DeMille was host the show had forty million weekly listeners gaining DeMille an annual salary of 100 000 130 From 1936 to 1945 he produced hosted and directed all shows with the occasional exception of a guest director 130 He resigned from the Lux Radio Show because he refused to pay a dollar to the American Federation of Radio Artists AFRA because he did not believe that any organization had the right to levy a compulsory assessment upon any member 132 Consequently he had to resign from the radio show 132 DeMille sued the union for reinstatement but lost He then appealed to the California Supreme Court and lost again When the AFRA expanded to television DeMille was banned from television appearances Consequently he formed the DeMille Foundation for Political Freedom in order to campaign for the right to work 133 He began presenting speeches across the United States for the next few years DeMille s primary criticism was of closed shops but later included criticism of communism and unions in general The United States Supreme Court declined to review his case Despite his loss DeMille continued to lobby for the Taft Hartley Act which passed This prohibited denying anyone the right to work if they refuse to pay a political assessment however the law did not apply retroactively Consequently DeMille s television and radio appearance ban lasted for the remainder of his life though he was permitted to appear on radio or television to publicize a movie 134 William Keighley was his replacement 132 DeMille would never again work on radio 132 note 7 Adventure films and dramatic spectacles Edit In 1939 DeMille s Union Pacific was successful through DeMille s collaboration with the Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific gave DeMille access to historical data early period trains and expert crews adding to the authenticity of the film 136 During pre production of Union Pacific DeMille was dealing with his first serious health issue In March 1938 he underwent a major emergency prostatectomy He suffered from a post surgery infection from which he nearly did not recover citing streptomycin as his saving grace The surgery caused him to suffer from sexual dysfunction for the rest of his life according to some family members 137 Following his surgery and the success of Union Pacific in 1940 DeMille first used three strip Technicolor in North West Mounted Police DeMille wanted to film in Canada however due to budget constraints the film was instead shot in Oregon and Hollywood 138 Critics were impressed with the visuals but found the scripts dull calling it DeMille s poorest Western 138 Despite the criticism it was Paramount s highest grossing film of the year 138 Audiences liked its highly saturated color so DeMille made no further black and white features 139 DeMille was anti communist and abandoned a project in 1940 to film Ernest Hemingway s For Whom the Bell Tolls due to its communist themes despite the fact he had already paid 100 000 for the rights to the novel He was so eager to produce the film that he hadn t yet read the novel He claimed he abandoned the project in order to complete a different project but in reality it was to preserve his reputation and avoid appearing reactionary 140 note 8 While concurrently filmmaking he served in World War II at the age of sixty as his neighborhood air raid warden 141 In 1942 DeMille worked with Jeanie MacPherson and brother William deMille in order to produce a film called Queen of Queens which was intended to be about Mary mother of Jesus After reading the screenplay Daniel A Lord warned DeMille that Catholics would find the film too irreverent while non Catholics would have considered the film Catholic propaganda Consequently the film was never made 142 Jeanie MacPherson would work as a scriptwriter for many of DeMille s films 143 note 9 In 1938 DeMille supervised the compilation of film Land of Liberty to represent the contribution of the American film industry to the 1939 New York World s Fair DeMille used clips from his own films in Land of Liberty Though the film was not high grossing it was well received and DeMille was asked to shorten its running time to allow for more showings per day MGM distributed the film in 1941 and donated profits to World War II relief charities 144 DeMille in the trailer for The Greatest Show on Earth 1952 the film for which he won the Academy Award for Best Picture In 1942 DeMille released Paramount s most successful film Reap the Wild Wind It was produced with a large budget and contained many special effects including an electronically operated giant squid 145 After working on Reap the Wild Wind in 1944 he was the master of ceremonies at the massive rally organized by David O Selznick in the Los Angeles Coliseum in support of the Dewey Bricker ticket as well as Governor Earl Warren of California 146 note 10 DeMille s subsequent film Unconquered 1947 had the longest running time 146 minutes longest filming schedule 102 days and largest budget of 5 million The sets and effects were so realistic that 30 extras needed to be hospitalized due to a scene with fireballs and flaming arrows It was commercially very successful 147 DeMille s next film Samson and Delilah in 1949 became Paramount s highest grossing film up to that time A Biblical epic with sex it was a characteristically DeMille film 148 Again 1952 s The Greatest Show on Earth became Paramount s highest grossing film to that point Furthermore DeMille s film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Story The film began production in 1949 Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey were paid 250 000 for use of the title and facilities DeMille toured with the circus while helping write the script Noisy and bright it was not well liked by critics but was a favorite among audiences 149 150 DeMille signed a contract with Prentice Hall publishers in August 1953 to publish an autobiography 151 DeMille would reminisce into a voice recorder the recording would be transcribed and the information would be organized in the biography based on the topic 152 Art Arthur also interviewed people for the autobiography DeMille did not like the first draft of the biography saying that he thought the person portrayed in the biography was an SOB he said it made him sound too egotistical 153 Besides filmmaking and finishing his autobiography DeMille was involved in other projects In the early 1950s DeMille was recruited by Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner to serve on the board of the anti communist National Committee for a Free Europe the public face of the organization that oversaw the Radio Free Europe service 154 In 1954 Secretary of the Air Force Harold E Talbott asked DeMille for help in designing the cadet uniforms at the newly established United States Air Force Academy DeMille s designs most notably his design of the distinctive cadet parade uniform won praise from Air Force and Academy leadership were ultimately adopted and are still worn by cadets 155 Final works and unrealized projects Edit We have just lived through a war where our people were systematically executed Here we have a man who made a film praising the Jewish people that tells of Samson one of the legends of our Scripture Now he wants to make the life of Moses We should get down on our knees to Cecil and say Thank you 156 Alfred Zukor responding to DeMille s proposal of The Ten Commandments remake In 1952 DeMille sought approval for a lavish remake of his 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments He went before the Paramount board of directors which was mostly Jewish American The members rejected his proposal even though his last two films Samson and Delilah and The Greatest Show on Earth had been record breaking hits 157 Adolph Zukor convinced the board to change their minds on the grounds of morality 156 DeMille did not have an exact budget proposal for the project 158 and it promised to be the most costly in U S film history Still the members unanimously approved it 159 The Ten Commandments released in 1956 was DeMille s final film It was the longest 3 hours 39 minutes and most expensive 13 million film in Paramount history 160 Production of The Ten Commandments began in October 1954 160 The Exodus scene was filmed on site in Egypt with the use of four Technicolor VistaVision camera filming 12 000 people They continued filming in 1955 in Paris and Hollywood on 30 different sound stages They were even required to expand to RKO sound studios for filming 161 Post production lasted a year and the film premiered in Salt Lake City 162 Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture it grossed over 80 million which surpassed the gross of The Greatest Show on Earth and every other film in history except for Gone with the Wind 160 A unique practice at the time DeMille offered ten percent of his profit to the crew 163 On November 7 1954 while in Egypt filming the Exodus sequence for The Ten Commandments DeMille who was seventy three climbed a 107 foot 33 m ladder to the top of the massive Per Rameses set and suffered a serious heart attack Despite the urging of his associate producer DeMille wanted to return to the set right away DeMille developed a plan with his doctor to allow him to continue directing while reducing his physical stress 164 Although DeMille completed the film his health was diminished by several more heart attacks His daughter Cecilia took over as director as DeMille sat behind the camera with Loyal Griggs as the cinematographer 165 This film would be his last 166 note 11 Due to his frequent heart attacks DeMille asked his son in law actor Anthony Quinn to direct a remake of his 1938 film The Buccaneer DeMille served as executive producer overseeing producer Henry Wilcoxon 168 Despite a cast led by Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner the 1958 film The Buccaneer was a disappointment 169 DeMille attended the Santa Barbara premiere of The Buccaneer in December 1958 168 DeMille was unable to attend the Los Angeles premiere of The Buccaneer 168 In the months before his death DeMille was researching a film biography of Robert Baden Powell the founder of the Scout Movement DeMille asked David Niven to star in the film but it was never made DeMille also was planning a film about the space race as well as another biblical epic about the Book of Revelation 170 DeMille s autobiography was mostly completed by the time DeMille died and was published in November 1959 171 Death Edit DeMille s tomb at Hollywood Forever CemeteryCecil B DeMille suffered a series of heart attacks from June 1958 to January 1959 168 and died on January 21 1959 following an attack 172 DeMille s funeral was held on January 23 at St Stephen s Episcopal Church He was entombed at the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery now known as Hollywood Forever 173 After his death notable news outlets such as The New York Times the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian honored DeMille as pioneer of movies the greatest creator and showman of our industry and the founder of Hollywood 174 DeMille left his multi million dollar estate in Los Feliz Los Angeles in Laughlin Park to his daughter Cecilia because his wife had dementia and was unable to care for an estate She would die one year later 175 176 His personal will drew a line between Cecilia and his three adopted children with Cecilia receiving a majority of DeMille s inheritance and estate The other three children were surprised by this as DeMille did not treat the children differently in life 177 Cecilia lived in the house for many years until her death in 1984 178 but the house was auctioned by his granddaughter Cecilia DeMille Presley who also lived there in the late 1980s 179 note 12 Filmmaking EditInfluences Edit DeMille believed his first influences to be his parents Henry and Beatrice DeMille 180 His playwright father introduced him to the theater at a young age 181 Henry was heavily influenced by the work of Charles Kingsley whose ideas trickled down to DeMille 182 DeMille noted that his mother had a high sense of the dramatic and was determined to continue the artistic legacy of her husband after he died Beatrice became a play broker and author s agent influencing DeMille s early life and career 183 DeMille s father worked with David Belasco theatrical producer impresario and playwright Belasco was known for adding realistic elements in his plays such as real flowers food and aromas that could transport his audiences into the scenes 184 While working in theatre DeMille used real fruit trees in his play California as influenced by Belasco 185 Similar to Belasco DeMille s theatre was revolved around entertainment rather than artistry 186 Generally Belasco s influence of DeMille s career can be seen in DeMille s showmanship and narration 187 E H Sothern s early influence on DeMille s work can be seen in DeMille s perfectionism 188 189 DeMille recalled that one of the most influential plays he saw was Hamlet directed by Sothern 190 Method Edit Cecil B DeMille bookplate from his library DeMille s filmmaking process always began with extensive research Next he would work with writers to develop the story that he was envisioning Then he would help writers construct a script Finally he would leave the script with artists and allow them to create artistic depictions and renderings of each scene 191 Plot and dialogue were not a strong point of DeMille s films Consequently he focused his efforts on his films visuals He worked with visual technicians editors art directors costume designers cinematographers and set carpenters in order to perfect the visual aspects of his films With his editor Anne Bauchens DeMille used editing techniques to allow the visual images to bring the plot to climax rather than dialogue 192 DeMille had large and frequent office conferences to discuss and examine all aspects of the working film including story boards props and special effects 193 DeMille rarely gave direction to actors he preferred to office direct where he would work with actors in his office going over characters and reading through scripts Any problems on the set were often fixed by writers in the office rather than on the set DeMille did not believe a large movie set was the place to discuss minor character or line issues 194 DeMille was particularly adept at directing and managing large crowds in his films Martin Scorsese recalled that DeMille had the skill to maintain control of not only the lead actors in a frame but the many extras in the frame as well 195 DeMille was adept at directing thousands of extras 113 and many of his pictures include spectacular set pieces the toppling of the pagan temple in Samson and Delilah 196 train wrecks in The Road to Yesterday 197 Union Pacific 198 and The Greatest Show on Earth 199 the destruction of an airship in Madam Satan 200 and the parting of the Red Sea in both versions of The Ten Commandments 201 DeMille s set pieces include this pagan temple in Samson and Delilah 1949 DeMille experimented in his early films with photographic light and shade which created dramatic shadows instead of glare 84 His specific use of lighting influenced by his mentor David Belasco was for the purpose of creating striking images and heightening dramatic situations 202 DeMille was unique in using this technique In addition to his use of volatile and abrupt film editing his lighting and composition were innovative for the time period as filmmakers were primarily concerned with a clear realistic image 202 Another important aspect of DeMille s editing technique was to put the film away for a week or two after an initial edit in order to re edit the picture with a fresh mind This allowed for the rapid production of his films in the early years of the Lasky Company The cuts were sometimes rough but the movies were always interesting 203 DeMille often edited in a manner that favored psychological space rather than physical space through his cuts In this way the characters thoughts and desires are the visual focus rather than the circumstances regarding the physical scene 204 As DeMille s career progressed he increasingly relied on artist Dan Sayre Groesbeck s concept costume and storyboard art Groesbeck s art was circulated on set to give actors and crew members a better understanding of DeMille s vision His art was even shown at Paramount meetings when pitching new films DeMille adored the art of Groesbeck even hanging it above his fireplace but film staff found it difficult to convert his art into three dimensional sets As DeMille continued to rely on Groesbeck the nervous energy of his early films transformed into more steady compositions of his later films While visually appealing this made the films appear more old fashioned 205 Composer Elmer Bernstein described DeMille as sparing no effort when filmmaking 206 Bernstein recalled that DeMille would scream yell or flatter whatever it took to achieve the perfection he required in his films DeMille was painstakingly attentive to details on set and was as critical of himself as he was of his crew 207 Costume designer Dorothy Jeakins who worked with DeMille on The Ten Commandments 1956 said that he was skilled in humiliating people Jeakins admitted that she received quality training from him but that it was necessary to become a perfectionist on a DeMille set to avoid being fired 208 DeMille had an authoritarian persona on set he required absolute attention from the cast and crew He had a band of assistants who catered to his needs He would speak to the entire set sometimes enormous with countless numbers of crew members and extras via a microphone to maintain control of the set He was disliked by many inside and outside of the film industry for his cold and controlling reputation 209 note 13 DeMille was known for autocratic behavior on the set singling out and berating extras who were not paying attention Many of these displays were thought to be staged however as an exercise in discipline 211 He despised actors who were unwilling to take physical risks especially when he had first demonstrated that the required stunt would not harm them This occurred with Victor Mature in Samson and Delilah Mature refused to wrestle Jackie the Lion even though DeMille had just tussled with the lion proving that he was tame DeMille told the actor that he was one hundred percent yellow 212 Paulette Goddard s refusal to risk personal injury in a scene involving fire in Unconquered cost her DeMille s favor and a role in The Greatest Show on Earth 213 DeMille did receive help in his films notably from Alvin Wyckoff who shot forty three of DeMille s films 80 brother William deMille who would occasionally serve as his screenwriter 82 and Jeanie Macpherson who served as DeMille s exclusive screenwriter for fifteen years 214 and Eddie Salven DeMille s favorite assistant director 207 DeMille made stars of unknown actors Gloria Swanson Bebe Daniels Rod La Rocque William Boyd Claudette Colbert and Charlton Heston 215 216 217 He also cast established stars such as Gary Cooper Robert Preston Paulette Goddard and Fredric March in multiple pictures 218 219 DeMille cast some of his performers repeatedly including Henry Wilcoxon 220 Julia Faye Joseph Schildkraut 221 Ian Keith 222 Charles Bickford 223 Theodore Roberts Akim Tamiroff 224 and William Boyd 225 226 DeMille was credited by actor Edward G Robinson with saving his career following his eclipse in the Hollywood blacklist 227 Style and themes Edit Cecil B DeMille s film production career evolved from critically significant silent films to financially significant sound films He began his career with reserved yet brilliant melodramas from there his style developed into marital comedies with outrageously melodramatic plots 228 In order to attract a high class audience DeMille based many of his early films on stage melodramas novels and short stories 229 He began the production of epics earlier in his career until they began to solidify his career in the 1920s By 1930 DeMille had perfected his film style of mass interest spectacle films with Western Roman or Biblical themes 228 DeMille was often criticized for making his spectacles too colorful and for being too occupied with entertaining the audience rather than accessing the artistic and auteur possibilities that film could provide However others interpreted DeMille s work as visually impressive thrilling and nostalgic Along the same lines critics of DeMille often qualify him by his later spectacles and fail to consider several decades of ingenuity and energy that defined him during his generation 228 Throughout his career he did not alter his films to better adhere to contemporary or popular styles 230 Actor Charlton Heston admitted DeMille was terribly unfashionable and Sidney Lumet called Demille the cheap version of D W Griffith adding that DeMille didn t have an original thought in his head though Heston added that DeMille was much more than that 231 Cecil B DeMille at Paramount Pictures According to Scott Eyman DeMille s films were at the same time masculine and feminine due to his thematic adventurousness and his eye for the extravagant 231 DeMille s distinctive style can be seen through camera and lighting effects as early as The Squaw Man with the use of daydream images moonlight and sunset on a mountain and side lighting through a tent flap 232 In the early age of cinema DeMille differentiated the Lasky Company from other production companies due to the use of dramatic low key lighting they called Lasky lighting and marketed as Rembrandt lighting to appeal to the public DeMille achieved international recognition for his unique use of lighting and color tint in his film The Cheat 233 DeMille s 1956 version of The Ten Commandments according to director Martin Scorsese is renowned for its level of production and the care and detail that went into creating the film He stated that The Ten Commandments was the final culmination of DeMille s style 234 DeMille was interested in art and his favorite artist was Gustave Dore DeMille based some of his most well known scenes on the work of Dore 191 DeMille was the first director to connect art to filmmaking he created the title of art director on the film set 235 DeMille was also known for his use of special effects without the use of digital technology Notably DeMille had cinematographer John P Fulton create the parting of the Red Sea scene in his 1956 film The Ten Commandments which was one of the most expensive special effects in film history and has been called by Steven Spielberg the greatest special effect in film history The actual parting of the sea was created by releasing 360 000 gallons of water into a huge water tank split by a U shaped trough overlaying it with film of a giant waterfall that was built on the Paramount backlot and playing the clip backwards 236 189 237 Aside from his Biblical and historical epics which are concerned with how man relates to God some of DeMille s films contained themes of neo naturalism which portray the conflict between the laws of man and the laws of nature 238 Although he is known for his later spectacular films his early films are held in high regard by critics and film historians DeMille discovered the possibilities of the bathroom or boudoir in film without being vulgar or cheap 187 DeMille s films Male and Female Why Change Your Wife and The Affairs of Anatol can be retrospectively described as high camp and are categorized as early DeMille films due to their particular style of production and costume and set design However his earlier films The Captive Kindling Carmen and The Whispering Chorus are more serious films 187 It is difficult to typify DeMille s films into one specific genre His first three films were Westerns and he filmed many Westerns throughout his career However throughout his career he filmed comedies periodic and contemporary romances dramas fantasies propaganda Biblical spectacles musical comedies suspense and war films At least one DeMille film can represent each film genre 187 DeMille produced the majority of his films before the 1930s and by the time sound films were invented film critics saw DeMille as antiquated with his best filmmaking years behind him 239 DeMille s films contained many similar themes throughout his career However the films of his silent era were often thematically different from the films of his sound era His silent era films often included the battle of the sexes theme due to the era of women s suffrage and the enlarging role of women in society 240 Moreover before his religious themed films many of his silent era films revolved around husband and wife divorce and remarry satires considerably more adult themed According to Simon Louvish these films reflected DeMille s inner thoughts and opinions about marriage and human sexuality 241 Religion was a theme that DeMille returned to throughout his career Of his seventy films five revolved around stories of the Bible and the New Testament however many others while not direct retellings of Biblical stories had themes of faith and religious fanaticism in films such as The Crusades and The Road to Yesterday 109 Western and frontier American were also themes that DeMille returned to throughout his career His first several films were westerns and he produced a chain of westerns during the sound era Instead of portraying the danger and anarchy of the West he portrayed the opportunity and redemption found in Western America 242 Another common theme in DeMille s films is the reversal of fortune and the portrayal of the rich and the poor including the war of the classes and man versus society conflicts such as in The Golden Chance and The Cheat 243 In relation to his own interests and sexual preferences sadomasochism was a minor theme present in some of his films 244 Another minor characteristic of DeMille s films include train crashes which can be found in several of his films 245 Legacy Edit Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments which is the eighth highest grossing film in the world adjusted for inflation Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry Cecil B DeMille made 70 films including several box office hits DeMille is one of the more commercially successful film directors in history 246 with his films before the release of The Ten Commandments estimated to have grossed 650 million worldwide 247 Adjusted for inflation DeMille s remake of The Ten Commandments is the eighth highest grossing film in the world 248 According to Sam Goldwyn critics did not like DeMille s films but the audiences did and they have the final word 249 Similarly scholar David Blanke argued that DeMille had lost the respect of his colleagues and film critics by his late film career However his final films maintained that DeMille was still respected by his audiences 250 Five of DeMille s film were the highest grossing films at the year of their release with only Spielberg topping him with six of his films as the highest grossing films of the year DeMille s highest grossing films include The Sign of the Cross 1932 Unconquered 1947 Samson and Delilah 1949 The Greatest Show on Earth 1952 and The Ten Commandments 1956 251 Director Ridley Scott has been called the Cecil B DeMille of the digital era due to his classical and medieval epics 252 Despite his box office success awards and artistic achievements DeMille has been dismissed and ignored by critics both during his life and posthumously He consistently was criticized for producing shallow films without talent or artistic care Compared to other directors few film scholars have taken the time to academically analyze his films and style During the French New Wave critics began to categorize certain filmmakers as auteurs such as Howard Hawks John Ford and Raoul Walsh DeMille was omitted from the list thought to be too unsophisticated and antiquated to be considered an auteur 253 However Simon Louvish wrote he was the complete master and auteur of his films 254 and Anton Kozlovic called him the unsung American auteur 255 Andrew Sarris a leading proponent of the auteur theory ranked DeMille highly as an auteur in the Far Side of Paradise just below the Pantheon Sarris added that despite the influence of styles of contemporary directors throughout his career DeMille s style remained unchanged Robert Birchard wrote that one could argue auteurship of DeMille on the basis that DeMille s thematic and visual style remained consistent throughout his career However Birchard acknowledged that Sarris s point was more likely that DeMille s style was behind the development of film as an art form 256 Meanwhile Sumiko Higashi sees DeMille as not only a figure who was shaped and influenced by the forces of his era but as a filmmaker who left his own signature on the culture industry 257 The critic Camille Paglia has called The Ten Commandments one of the ten greatest films of all time 258 DeMille directing 1920 DeMille was one of the first directors to become a celebrity in his own right 259 He cultivated the image of the omnipotent director 260 complete with megaphone riding crop and jodhpurs 261 262 He was known for his unique working wardrobe which included riding boots riding pants and soft open necked shirts 263 Joseph Henabery recalled that DeMille looked like a king on a throne surrounded by his court while directing films on a camera platform 264 DeMille was liked by some of his fellow directors and disliked by others though his actual films were usually dismissed by his peers as vapid spectacle Director John Huston intensely disliked both DeMille and his films He was a thoroughly bad director Huston said A dreadful showoff Terrible To diseased proportions 265 Said fellow director William Wellman Directorially I think his pictures were the most horrible things I ve ever seen in my life But he put on pictures that made a fortune In that respect he was better than any of us 266 Producer David O Selznick wrote There has appeared only one Cecil B DeMille He is one of the most extraordinarily able showmen of modern times However much I may dislike some of his pictures it would be very silly of me as a producer of commercial motion pictures to demean for an instant his unparalleled skill as a maker of mass entertainment 267 Salvador Dali wrote that DeMille Walt Disney and the Marx Brothers were the three great American Surrealists 268 DeMille appeared as himself in numerous films including the MGM comedy Free and Easy 269 He often appeared in his coming attraction trailers and narrated many of his later films 270 even stepping on screen to introduce The Ten Commandments 271 DeMille was immortalized in Billy Wilder s Sunset Boulevard when Gloria Swanson spoke the line All right Mr DeMille I m ready for my close up DeMille plays himself in the film 272 DeMille s reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s 273 As a filmmaker DeMille was the aesthetic inspiration of many directors and films due to his early influence during the crucial development of the film industry DeMille s early silent comedies influenced the comedies of Ernst Lubitsch and Charlie Chaplin s A Woman of Paris Additionally DeMille s epics such as The Crusades influenced Sergei Eisenstein s Alexander Nevsky Moreover DeMille s epics inspired directors such as Howard Hawks Nicholas Ray Joseph L Mankiewicz and George Stevens to try producing epics 231 Cecil B DeMille has influenced the work of several well known directors Alfred Hitchcock cited DeMille s 1921 film Forbidden Fruit as an influence of his work and one of his top ten favorite films 274 DeMille has influenced the careers of many modern directors Martin Scorsese cited Unconquered Samson and Delilah and The Greatest Show on Earth as DeMille films that have imparted lasting memories on him 275 Scorsese said he had viewed The Ten Commandments forty or fifty times 276 Famed director Steven Spielberg stated that DeMille s The Greatest Show on Earth was one of the films that influenced him to become a filmmaker 73 Furthermore DeMille influenced about half of Spielberg s films including War of the Worlds 231 note 14 The Ten Commandments inspired DreamWorks Animation s later film about Moses The Prince of Egypt 278 As one of the establishing members of Paramount Pictures and co founder of Hollywood DeMille had a role in the development of the film industry 255 Consequently the name DeMille has become synonymous with filmmaking 255 Publicly Episcopalian DeMille drew on his Christian and Jewish ancestors to convey a message of tolerance 279 280 DeMille received more than a dozen awards from Christian and Jewish religious and cultural groups including B nai B rith 281 However not everyone received DeMille s religious films favorably DeMille was accused of antisemitism after the release of The King of Kings 282 and director John Ford despised DeMille for what he saw as hollow biblical epics meant to promote DeMille s reputation during the politically turbulent 1950s 283 In response to the claims DeMille donated some of the profits from The King of Kings to charity 189 In the 2012 Sight amp Sound poll both DeMille s Samson and Delilah and 1923 version of The Ten Commandments received votes but did not make the top 100 films 284 Although many of DeMille s films are available on DVD and Blu ray release only 20 of his silent films are commercially available on DVD 285 note 15 Commemoration and tributes Edit The Lasky DeMille Barn was the place of origin of Paramount Pictures and the location in which The Squaw Man 1913 was filmed It became the Hollywood Heritage Museum in 1985 The original Lasky DeMille Barn in which The Squaw Man was filmed was converted into a museum named the Hollywood Heritage Museum It opened on December 13 1985 and features some of DeMille s personal artifacts 287 288 The Lasky DeMille Barn was dedicated as a California historical landmark in a ceremony on December 27 1956 DeMille was the keynote speaker 180 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014 289 The Dunes Center in Guadalupe California contains an exhibition of artifacts uncovered in the desert near Guadalupe from DeMille s set of his 1923 version of The Ten Commandments known as the Lost City of Cecil B DeMille 290 note 16 Donated by the Cecil B DeMille Foundation in 2004 the moving image collection of Cecil B DeMille is held at the Academy Film Archive and includes home movies outtakes and never before seen test footage 292 In summer 2019 The Friends of the Pompton Lakes Library hosted a Cecil B DeMille film festival to celebrate DeMille s achievements and connection to Pompton Lakes They screened four of his films at Christ Church where DeMille and his family attended church when they lived there 293 Two schools have been named after him Cecil B DeMille Middle School in Long Beach California which was closed and demolished in 2010 to make way for a new high school 294 and Cecil B DeMille Elementary School in Midway City California 113 295 The former film building at Chapman University in Orange California is named in honor of DeMille 296 During the Apollo 11 mission Buzz Aldrin refers to himself in one instance as Cecil B DeAldrin as a humorous nod to DeMille 297 The title of the 2000 John Waters film Cecil B Demented alludes to DeMille 298 299 DeMille s legacy is maintained by his granddaughter Cecilia DeMille Presley who serves as the president of the Cecil B DeMille Foundation which strives to support higher education child welfare and film in Southern California 300 In 1963 the Cecil B DeMille Foundation donated the Paradise ranch to the Hathaway Foundation which cares for emotionally disturbed and abused children 86 A large collection of DeMille s materials including scripts storyboards and films resides at Brigham Young University in L Tom Perry Special Collections 301 302 Awards and recognition Edit DeMille middle standing receives an Honorary Doctorate degree at Brigham Young University commencement 1957 Cecil B DeMille received many awards and honors especially later in his career The American Academy of Dramatic Arts honored DeMille with an Alumni Achievement Award in 1958 303 In 1957 DeMille gave the commencement address for the graduation ceremony of Brigham Young University wherein he received an honorary Doctorate of Letter degree 304 Additionally in 1958 he received an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from Temple University 305 From the film industry DeMille received the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards in 1953 306 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America Award the same year 307 In the same ceremony DeMille received a nomination from Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for The Greatest Show on Earth 308 In 1952 DeMille was awarded the first Cecil B DeMille Award at the Golden Globes An annual award the Golden Globe s Cecil B DeMille Award recognizes lifetime achievement in the film industry 309 310 note 17 For his contribution to the motion picture and radio industry DeMille has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame The first for radio contributions is located at 6240 Hollywood Blvd The second star is located at 1725 Vine Street 172 DeMille received two Academy Awards an Honorary Award for 37 years of brilliant showmanship in 1950 313 and a Best Picture award in 1953 for The Greatest Show on Earth 306 DeMille received a Golden Globe Award for Best Director 314 and was additionally nominated for the Best Director category at the 1953 Academy Awards for the same film 315 He was further nominated in the Best Picture category for The Ten Commandments at the 1957 Academy Awards 316 DeMille s Union Pacific received a Palme d Or in retrospect at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival 317 Two of DeMille s films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress The Cheat 1915 and The Ten Commandments 1956 318 Filmography EditCecil B DeMille made 70 features 156 Fifty two of his features are silent films The first 24 of his silent films were made in the first three years of his career 1913 1916 109 Eight of his films were epics with five of those classified as Biblical 109 Six of DeMille s films The Arab The Wild Goose Chase The Dream Girl The Devil Stone We Can t Have Everything and The Squaw Man 1918 were destroyed due to nitrate decomposition and are considered lost 319 The Ten Commandments is broadcast every Saturday at Passover in the United States on the ABC Television Network 320 Directed features Edit Filmography obtained from Fifty Hollywood Directors 321 21 23 Silent films The Squaw Man 1914 The Call of the North 1914 The Virginian 1914 What s His Name 1914 The Man from Home 1914 Rose of the Rancho 1914 The Girl of the Golden West 1915 The Warrens of Virginia 1915 The Unafraid 1915 The Captive 1915 The Wild Goose Chase 1915 Lost 322 The Arab 1915 Lost 323 Chimmie Fadden 1915 Kindling 1915 Carmen 1915 Chimmie Fadden Out West 1915 The Cheat 1915 Temptation 1915 Lost 324 The Golden Chance 1915 The Trail of the Lonesome Pine 1916 The Heart of Nora Flynn 1916 Maria Rosa 1916 The Dream Girl 1916 Lost 325 Joan the Woman 1916 A Romance of the Redwoods 1917 The Little American 1917 The Woman God Forgot 1917 The Devil Stone 1917 The Whispering Chorus 1918 Old Wives for New 1918 We Can t Have Everything 1918 Lost 326 Till I Come Back to You 1918 The Squaw Man 1918 Lost 327 Don t Change Your Husband 1919 For Better for Worse 1919 Male and Female 1919 Why Change Your Wife 1920 Something to Think About 1920 Forbidden Fruit 1921 The Affairs of Anatol 1921 Fool s Paradise 1921 Saturday Night 1922 Manslaughter 1922 Adam s Rib 1923 The Ten Commandments 1923 Triumph 1924 Feet of Clay 1924 Lost The Golden Bed 1925 The Road to Yesterday 1925 The Volga Boatman 1926 The King of Kings 1927 The Godless Girl 1928 Sound films Dynamite 1929 Madam Satan 1930 The Squaw Man 1931 The Sign of the Cross 1932 This Day and Age 1933 Four Frightened People 1934 Cleopatra 1934 The Crusades 1935 The Plainsman 1936 The Buccaneer 1938 Union Pacific 1939 North West Mounted Police 1940 Reap the Wild Wind 1942 The Story of Dr Wassell 1944 Unconquered 1947 Samson and Delilah 1949 The Greatest Show on Earth 1952 The Ten Commandments 1956 Directing or producing credit Edit These films represent those which DeMille produced or assisted in directing credited or uncredited Brewster s Millions 1914 lost 328 The Master Mind 1914 The Only Son 1914 lost 329 The Man on the Box 1914 The Ghost Breaker 1914 lost 330 After Five 1915 331 Nan of Music Mountain 1917 332 Chicago 1927 Producer 333 When Worlds Collide 1951 executive producer 334 The War of the Worlds 1953 executive producer 335 The Buccaneer 1958 producer 336 Acting and cameos Edit DeMille frequently made cameos as himself in other Paramount films Additionally he often starred in prologues and special trailers that he created for his films having an opportunity to personally address the audience 337 The Squaw Man 1914 as Faro Dealer uncredited 338 Hollywood 1923 as Himself 339 Free and Easy 1930 as Himself 340 Estrellados 1930 as Himself Guest Appearance 341 Madam Satan 1930 as Radio Newscaster voice uncredited 342 The Last Train from Madrid 1937 as Crowd Member uncredited 343 North West Mounted Police 1940 as Narrator voice uncredited 344 Glamour Boy 1941 as Movie Director uncredited 269 Reap the Wild Wind 1942 as Prologue Speaker voice uncredited 344 Star Spangled Rhythm 1942 as Himself 345 The Story of Dr Wassell 1944 as Narrator uncredited 346 Variety Girl 1947 as Himself 347 Unconquered 1947 as Narrator uncredited 348 Jens Mansson in America 1947 as Himself 269 Samson and Delilah 1949 as Narrator uncredited 349 Sunset Boulevard 1950 as Himself 350 The Greatest Show on Earth 1952 as Narrator voice uncredited 344 Son of Paleface 1952 as Photographer uncredited 351 The Ten Commandments 1956 as Himself film introduction and Narrator uncredited 352 The Buster Keaton Story 1957 as Himself 353 The Buccaneer 1958 as Himself Prologue uncredited final film role 344 Portals Biography United States New Jersey Los Angeles California Theatre Film Conservatism ChristianityExplanatory notes Edit There are several variants of DeMille s surname His family s Dutch surname originally spelled de Mil became de Mille when William deMille Cecil s grandfather added an e for visual symmetry 2 As an adult he adopted the spelling DeMille because he believed it would look better on a marquee but continued to use de Mille in private life 3 The family name de Mille was used by his children Cecilia John Richard and Katherine DeMille s brother William and his daughters Margaret and Agnes as well as DeMille s granddaughter Cecilia de Mille Presley also used the de Mille spelling 4 DeMille s niece and William deMille s daughter Agnes de Mille was a famed dancer choreographer 24 Unlike the other children the DeMille s adopted John was never told about his birth parents 79 DeMille liked to sail and dive he had several boats throughout his lifetime He donated The Seaward his most cherished boat to the merchant marine for service during World War II The boat was returned to him destroyed DeMille gave up the boat and never bought another one 87 Katherine s father had been killed in World War I and her mother had died of tuberculosis 94 To DeMille s dismay Katherine became an actress however she ultimately gained his approval In 1936 she married actor Anthony Quinn 95 After the death of William deMille DeMille revealed to Richard DeMille that William was his father and he had been born to William and a mistress DeMille had adopted him to avoid revealing the affairs to William s wife The mistress could not keep the boy due to her tuberculosis 96 DeMille became a notable psychiatrist filmmaker and writer 97 98 99 Frequent actors and actresses on the show included Barbara Stanwyck Claudette Colbert Loretta Young Don Ameche and Fred MacMurray 135 The project was later completed by DeMille s former assistant director Sam Wood who was notoriously anti communist 140 DeMille claimed that MacPherson was not a good writer but she received credit in his films because she gave him many ideas for the screenplays 143 The gathering drew 93 000 with short speeches by Hedda Hopper and Walt Disney Among those in attendance were Ann Sothern Ginger Rogers Randolph Scott Adolphe Menjou Gary Cooper and Walter Pidgeon Though the rally drew a good response most Hollywood celebrities who took a public position sided with the Roosevelt Truman ticket 146 While the film was a huge success DeMille regretted that he could not share the success with his wife who had developed Alzheimer s disease 167 The estate cycled through several different homeowners for the next 30 years until it was bought by American actress Angelina Jolie in 2017 for nearly 25 million 176 Further illustrated by his home life DeMille required formality and politeness at home Sons and daughters in law were required to call him Mr DeMille and Richard deMille never recalled hugging his father claiming he received handshakes instead 210 DeMille had considered making the film himself He bought the rights to the novel in 1925 but abandoned the project in pre production 277 In the 1950s Paramount sold its entire pre 1948 film library including those of DeMille to EMKA Consequently most of DeMille s pre 1948 films no longer belong to Paramount 286 The set was discovered by Peter Brosnan after hearing a rumor in 1982 that DeMille had ordered the enormous set to be buried after filming rather than taken away A documentary titled The Lost City of Cecil B DeMille follows the story of Brosnon s 30 year journey to find and uncover the set 291 Later recipients of the award include Kirk Douglas Robert Redford Lauren Bacall 311 Jeff Bridges was the 2019 Cecil B DeMille Award winner 312 Citations Edit TODAY in Masonic History Archived from the original on November 10 2013 Eyman 2010 p 15 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 18 Eyman 2010 p 15 DeMille Cecil B 1959 Autobiography of Cecil B DeMille New York Prentice Hall via archive org a b Eyman 2010 p 18 Louvish 2007 p 6 Eyman 2010 pp 15 17 30 206 Louvish 2007 p 465 Eyman 2010 p 17 Eyman 2010 pp 15 21 a b c Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 1 Eyman 2010 p 23 Eyman 2010 p 22 Louvish 2007 p 3 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 18 Eyman 2010 pp 15 17 138 Easton Carol 1996 No Intermissions The Life of Agnes de Mille New York City Da Capo Press pp 6 8 ISBN 978 0 306 80975 0 a b Louvish 2007 p 4 Eyman 2010 pp 16 17 23 Eyman 2010 p 24 Eyman 2010 pp 26 27 a b Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 18 Powell William S ed 1986 Dictionary of North Carolina Biography Vol 2 Chapel Hill North Carolina University of North Carolina Press p 51 ISBN 080781329X Retrieved July 2 2019 Louvish 2007 p 13 Eyman 2010 p 28 Eyman 2010 p 28 Eyman 2010 p 29 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 20 Highman 1973 p 8 Eyman 2010 pp 30 31 Acocella Joan November 5 2015 Agnes DeMille s Artistic Justice The New Yorker Retrieved May 23 2019 LaPlaca Bryan September 19 2011 Back in the Day Sept 18 1991 De Mille s Pompton Lakes roots recalled NorthJersey com Retrieved April 21 2014 Highman 1973 p 8 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 1 Louvish 2007 p 14 a b Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 47 Louvish 2007 p 14 Highman 1973 p 9 Louvish 2007 p 17 Louvish 2007 p 20 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 2 a b c Louvish 2007 p 20 Louvish 2007 pp 20 21 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 21 Louvish 2007 pp 30 31 a b Louvish 2007 p 90 Eyman 2010 p 80 Eyman 2010 pp 167 168 a b c Louvish 2007 p 24 Borrillo Theodore A 2012 Denver s historic Elitch Theatre a nostalgic journey a history of its times pp 64 65 ISBN 978 0 9744331 4 1 OCLC 823177622 a b c d Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 2 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 20 Louvish 2007 pp 32 33 Louvish 2007 p 37 Cecil B DeMille plays Internet Broadway Database Retrieved December 8 2011 Louvish 2007 p 26 a b Louvish 2007 p 27 Louvish 2007 p 29 a b Louvish 2007 p 31 Louvish 2007 p 38 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 1 Presley amp Vieira 2014 pp 20 21 Louvish 2007 p 45 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 21 Louvish 2007 pp 46 47 Dick 2001 p 7 Louvish 2007 p 47 News of Other Cities Atlantic City PDF New York Dramatic Mirror May 14 1913 via fultonhistory com Birchard 2004 p 2 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 22 Dick 2001 p 7 Abel 2005 p 229 Dick 2001 p 7 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 18 a b Edmonds amp Mimura 1980 p 38 a b c d Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 9 a b Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 3 Louvish 2007 p 66 Higashi 1994 p 1 Louvish 2007 p 58 Eames 1985 pp 9 10 Edmonds amp Mimura 1980 p 40 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 3 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 29 Dick 2001 p 8 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 4 Louvish 2007 p 59 a b c Eames 1985 p 10 a b Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 8 Louvish 2007 p 65 Louvish 2007 p 60 Lowe Walter October 22 1956 DeMille at 75 Still Creating Kentucky New Era Retrieved April 29 2014 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 12 Louvish 2007 pp 69 70 a b Eyman 2010 p 99 a b Louvish 2007 p 71 Louvish 2007 p 75 a b Louvish 2007 p 84 Louvish 2007 pp 76 77 a b c d e Eames 1985 p 11 Eyman 2010 p 131 a b Rasmussen Cecilia September 21 1997 Echoes of Epics in DeMille s Paradise Los Angeles Times Retrieved July 17 2019 Eyman 2010 p 370 Louvish 2007 p 95 Dick 2001 p 11 Birchard 2004 pp 172 173 Eyman 2010 pp 140 141 Eyman 2010 p 141 Eyman 2010 p 162 Louvish 2007 p 185 Eyman 2010 p 162 Bergan Ronald June 5 2001 Anthony Quinn Colourful Hollywood star who built a career playing ethnic heroes and villains The Guardian Retrieved May 24 2019 Louvish 2007 p 90 206 207 Guide to the Richard DeMille Collection Online Archive of California California Digital Library Retrieved May 23 2019 Birchard 2004 p xvi Cecil DeMille 77 Pioneer of Movies Dead in Hollywood The New York Times January 22 1959 Retrieved May 24 2019 Birchard 2004 p 21 Eames 1985 p 17 Eames 1985 p 19 Eames 1985 p 28 He Himself Was Colossal The Montreal Gazette January 22 1959 Retrieved April 29 2014 Eames 1985 p 13 23 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 10 Dick 2001 p 15 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 pp 5 6 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 pp 8 12 a b c d Louvish 2007 p xiv Bakker Freek L 2009 The Challenge of the Silver Screen An Analysis of the Cinematic Portraits of Jesus Rama Buddha and Muhammad Leiden Brill p 18 ISBN 9789004168619 Retrieved June 20 2019 Louvish 2007 p 278 Masters Nathan May 23 2017 How a Hollywood Director Almost Launched L A s First Commercial Airline KCET Public Media Group of Southern California Retrieved May 30 2019 a b c Register of the Cecil B DeMille Archives 1863 1983 L Tom Perry Special Collections Brigham Young University Retrieved May 23 2019 Financing Hollywood through the Great Depression Bank of America Bank of America Corporation Retrieved May 30 2019 Mahar Karen Ward 2006 Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press p 199 ISBN 0801884365 Retrieved June 20 2019 cecil b demille approved loans for other filmmakers Stein Megan June 2 2017 Angelina Jolie Buys Historic Cecil B DeMille Estate for 24 5 Million People Retrieved June 26 2019 Presley amp Vieira 2014 pp 152 155 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 166 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 7 Blanke 2018 p 129 Blanke 2018 pp 129 130 Dick 2001 pp 15 21 Eames 1985 p 88 Eames 1985 p 88 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 198 Eames 1985 pp 98 100 Eyman 2010 p 7 Eyman 2010 pp 270 272 Eyman 2010 p 376 a b Eyman 2010 p 288 a b c d Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 367 Cutchins Dennis Krebs Katja Voigts Eckart eds 2018 The Routledge Companion to Adaptation New York Routledge ISBN 9781315690254 Retrieved July 17 2019 a b c d Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 368 Eyman 2010 p 375 Eyman 2010 pp 375 377 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 369 Eames 1985 p 140 Eyman 2010 pp 332 333 a b c Eames 1985 p 149 Louvish 2007 pp 359 360 a b Eyman 2010 pp 337 338 Louvish 2007 p 372 Louvish 2007 p 271 a b Eyman 2010 pp 96 97 Eyman 2010 pp 336 337 Eames 1985 p 158 a b David M Jordan FDR Dewey and the Election of 1944 Bloomington and Indianapolis Indiana University Press 2011 pp 231 232 Eames 1985 p 183 Eames 1985 p 191 Eames 1985 p 202 The 25th Academy Awards Oscars org Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Retrieved November 12 2019 Eyman 2010 pp 436 437 Eyman 2010 p 481 Eyman 2010 p 482 Weiner Tim 2007 Legacy of Ashes The History of the CIA New York Doubleday p 36 ISBN 978 0 3855 1445 3 Radford Bill A Digger A Director and A Practical Joker Colorado Springs Gazette USAF Academy 50th Anniversary Edition Spring 2004 a b c Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 371 Eyman 2010 p 438 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 371 Eyman 2010 p 438 Edmonds amp Mimura 1980 p 115 a b c Eames 1985 p 218 340 Eames 1985 p 218 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 384 Presley amp Vieira 2014 pp 381 387 Birchard 2004 pp 357 358 Eyman 2010 pp 452 453 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 396 Phillips Casey March 26 2016 Sixty years later The Ten Commandments remains one of the most popular biblical films ever made Times Free Press Retrieved May 30 2019 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 387 a b c d Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 402 Dick 2001 p 76 Eyman 2010 pp 494 496 500 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 402 Eyman 2010 p 507 a b Blake Gene Hollywood Star Walk Cecil B DeMille Los Angeles Times Retrieved December 19 2012 Donnelley Paul 2004 Fade to Black A Book of Movie Obituaries 3rd ed Omnibus Press p 318 ISBN 1 844 49430 6 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 12 Louvish 2007 p 433 a b David Mark June 2 2017 Angelina Jolie Buys Cecil B DeMille s Estate at Record Shattering Price Variety Retrieved June 26 2019 Eyman 2010 pp 506 507 De Mille daughter dies upi com June 26 1984 Vyzralek Patti September 26 1988 Christie s East to Auction DeMille Possessions Los Angeles Times Retrieved June 26 2019 a b Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 398 Louvish 2007 pp 8 9 Louvish 2007 pp 15 16 Louvish 2007 p 13 Eyman 2010 pp 18 22 Eyman 2010 p 51 Eyman 2010 p 53 a b c d Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 5 Louvish 2007 p 27 a b c Shales Tom April 5 2004 New Testament to Genius Turner s Cecil B DeMille The Washington Post Retrieved July 16 2019 Eyman 2010 p 48 a b Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 11 Blanke 2018 p 272 Blanke 2018 pp 272 273 Eyman 2010 pp 297 298 Eyman 2010 pp 324 325 Cecil B DeMille s Samson and Delilah Brings the World s Greatest Love Story to the Screen Lethbridge Herald April 7 1951 Retrieved June 20 2019 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 124 The Spectacles of Cecil B DeMille CBS News CBS Interactive Retrieved June 20 2019 Cinema The Great Train Wreck Time Time USA May 7 1951 Retrieved June 20 2019 Doherty 1999 p 26 Howard Rosemarie April 4 2011 The Ten Commandments Making Miracles premieres at BYU Deseret News Retrieved June 20 2019 a b Eyman 2010 p 94 Eyman 2010 p 100 Eyman 2010 p 112 Eyman 2010 p 298 Eyman 2010 p 363 a b Eyman 2010 p 364 Jorgensen Jay Scoggins Donald L 2015 Creating the Illusion A Fashionable History of Hollywood Costume Designer Philadelphia Running Press p 300 ISBN 9780762458073 Retrieved July 16 2019 Eyman 2010 pp 9 10 Eyman 2010 p 369 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 259 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 344 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 363 Jeanie Macpherson Women Film Pioneers Project Women Film Pioneers Project at Columbia University Retrieved July 11 2019 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 8 Hollywood Legend Claudette Colbert Dies Los Angeles Times July 31 1996 Retrieved May 27 2019 McSmith Andy Byrne Ciar April 7 2008 Charlton Heston as you won t remember him The Independent Retrieved May 27 2019 Maltin Leonard ed 2005 Leonard Maltin s Classic Movie Guide New York Plume p 496 ISBN 9780147516824 Retrieved June 20 2019 Louvish 2007 p 346 Folkart Burt A March 7 1984 Henry Wilcoxon Los Angeles Times Retrieved June 20 2019 Kozlovic Anton Karl Spring 2004 The Deep Focus Typecasting of Joseph Schildkraut as Judas Figure in Four DeMille Films Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 6 2 doi 10 3138 jrpc 6 1 002 Louvish 2007 p 478 Birchard 2004 pp 235 236 Union Pacific TCM Turner Classic Movies Retrieved June 20 2019 Peterson Bettelou December 6 1988 What Happened to William Boyd Deseret News Retrieved June 20 2019 Lucia Cynthia Grundmann Roy Simon Art eds 2016 American Film History Selected Readings Origins to 1960 Chichester UK Wiley p 87 ISBN 9781118475133 Retrieved June 20 2019 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 375 a b c Eyman 2010 p 5 Higashi 1994 p 2 Eyman 2010 pp 5 6 a b c d Eyman 2010 p 6 Louvish 2007 p 64 Higashi 1994 p 3 Eames 1985 p 11 Eyman 2010 p 478 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 16 Townsend Allie A Brief History of Movie Special Effects Time Retrieved July 2 2019 The Ten Commandments Documentary Making Miracles Six Disc Limited Edition Blu ray DVD Combo Cecil B DeMille Paramount Hollywood California Paramount Pictures 2011 Watkins Daniel March 10 2015 Reap the Wild Wind or Don t Cecil B DeMille the Evolving Neo Naturalist Notebook MUBI Retrieved June 20 2019 Louvish 2007 pp xiv xv Louvish 2007 p 69 Louvish 2007 pp xv xvi Louvish 2007 p 340 Louvish 2007 pp 81 111 178 Louvish 2007 pp 90 255 Louvish 2007 p 402 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 5 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 12 Dirt is Not Necessarily Paydirt Variety January 25 1956 p 3 via Archive org Records Guinness World 2014 Guinness World Records Vol 60 2015 ed pp 160 161 ISBN 9781908843708 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 14 Blanke 2018 p 300 Dirks Tim All Time Box Office Hits By Decade and Year Filmsite org American Movie Classics Retrieved January 5 2012 Pulver Andrew November 28 2014 Ridley Scott from Alien to Exodus a Cecil B DeMille for the digital age The Guardian Retrieved June 21 2019 Louvish 2007 p 270 Louvish 2007 p xvii a b c Kozlovic Anton Karl Spring 2009 Samson as a Moses Figure in Cecil B DeMille s Samson and Delilah 1949 Americana e Journal of American Studies in Hungary V 1 Retrieved July 10 2019 Birchard 2004 p xii Williams 2014 p 355 James Nick et al BFI Sight amp Sound Top Ten Poll 2002 How the directors and critics voted Archived from the original on September 15 2016 Retrieved July 19 2019 Higgins Bill November 25 2018 Hollywood Flashback Cecil B DeMille Accepted the Golden Globe Named for Him in 1952 The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved June 21 2019 Hoad Phil January 15 2016 Reel dictators why despots love directors The Guardian Retrieved June 21 2019 Nichols Chris February 16 2013 Disp L A Case 45 Cecil B DeMille s Riding Crop LA Magazine Retrieved June 21 2019 Rasmussen Cecelia September 21 1997 Echoes of Epics in DeMille s Paradise Los Angeles Times Retrieved June 21 2019 Eyman 2010 p 64 Eyman 2010 p 147 Grobel Lawrence The Hustons New York Scribner 1989 p 399 ISBN 978 1 62914 289 0 Brownlow K 1976 The Parade s Gone by Berkeley CA University of California Press p 185 ISBN 978 0 520 03068 8 Presley Cecil B DeMille p 357 King 2007 p 59 a b c Birchard 2004 p 374 Eyman 2010 pp 7 8 Thomas Kevin May 16 1990 DeMille s Re Released Commandments Better Than Ever Los Angeles Times Retrieved June 25 2019 Eyman 2010 pp 1 2 Liz Smith and the Tribune Content Agency December 19 2014 Cecil B DeMille the greatest filmmaking showman rediscovered Chicago Tribune Retrieved June 22 2019 Mantgani Ian 10 Great Films that Influenced Alfred Hitchcock BFI Film Forever British Film Institute Retrieved May 28 2019 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 6 Sobchack Vivian ed 1996 The Persistence of History Cinema Television and the Modern Event New York Routledge p 112 ISBN 0415910846 Retrieved June 21 2019 Flynn John L 2005 War of the Worlds From Wells to Spielberg Owings Mills MD Galactic Books p 56 ISBN 0976940000 Retrieved July 1 2019 Dan Wooding s strategic times Assistnews net Archived from the original on March 29 2003 Retrieved March 3 2009 Kozlovic Anton K 2016 The Construction of a Christ figure within the 1956 and 1923 Versions of Cecil B DeMille s The Ten Commandments Journal of Religion amp Film 10 1 1 Retrieved May 23 2019 Birchard 2004 p 292 Louvish 2007 pp 422 423 Blanke 2018 p 139 Eliot Marc 2006 Jimmy Stewart A Biography New York Harmony Books p 345 ISBN 9781400052219 The International Film Magazine Sight amp Sound All films BFI Film Forever British Film Institute Retrieved July 10 2019 Presley amp Vieira 2014 pp 404 405 White Timothy R 1988 Life After Divorce The Corporate Strategy of Paramount Pictures Corporation in the 1950s Film History 2 2 114 JSTOR 3815029 King Susan August 21 2015 Hollywood Heritage volunteers preserve the Industry s earliest incarnation Los Angeles Times Retrieved July 10 2019 Sullivan Michael December 9 2010 Hollywood preservator dies Variety Retrieved July 10 2019 National Register of Historic Places Program National Park Service National Park Service Retrieved July 10 2019 The Lost City of Demille Dunes Center Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes Center Retrieved July 10 2019 Linden Sheri June 13 2017 The Lost City of Cecil B DeMille Film Review The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved July 10 2019 Cecil B DeMille Collection Academy Film Archive September 4 2014 Cecil B DeMille Film Festival July 2 amp 16 The Free Public Library of the Borough of Pompton Lakes Emanuel Einstein Memorial The Free Public Library of the Borough of Pompton Lakes Retrieved July 10 2019 After 54 years it s the end for DeMille Middle School Press Telegram June 17 2010 Retrieved May 23 2019 Inga Daniel April 2 2017 Vietnamese Language Roundtable showcased effectiveness of dual language immersion program at DeMille Elementary School Daily Titan Retrieved May 23 2019 Chapman alum filmmaker takes a Stand The Orange County Register January 5 2015 Retrieved May 23 2019 Apollo 11 Technical Air to Ground Voice Transcription Nasa Lunar Surface Journal Mennel Barbara 2012 Queer Cinema Schoolgirls Vampires and Gay Cowboys London Wallflower pp 41 42 ISBN 9780231850209 Retrieved August 1 2019 Levy Emanuel 2015 Gay Directors Gay Films New York Columbia University Press p 314 ISBN 9780231526531 Retrieved August 1 2019 Gibson Barbara Cecilia DeMille Presley Joins National Film Preservation Foundation Board of Directors National Film Preservation Foundation Retrieved July 10 2019 Hubbard Lincoln August 28 2000 BYU special collections archives houses extensive Cecil B DeMille memorabilia The Daily Universe Brigham Young University Retrieved July 10 2019 Toone Trent December 11 2014 The Ten Commandments director Cecil B DeMille was friend to LDS Church President David O McKay Deseret News Retrieved July 10 2019 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 402 Eyman 2010 pp 34 36 496 BYU Hears Understand the Law of God DeMille Advises 1957 Graduates The Salt Lake Tribune June 7 1957 Retrieved July 18 2019 Eyman 2010 p 493 a b Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 369 5th Annual DGA Awards Honoring Outstanding Directorial Achievement for 1952 Directors Guild of America Retrieved May 21 2019 5th Annual DGA Awards Honoring Outstanding Directorial Achievement for 1952 Directors Guild of America Retrieved May 21 2019 Jeff Bridges to Receive Cecil B DeMille Award at 2019 Golden Globes Variety Variety Media December 17 2018 Retrieved May 23 2019 The Cecil B deMille Award Golden Globe Awards Hollywood Foreign Press Association Retrieved July 9 2019 Academy Alum Cecil B DeMille The Founding Father of Hollywood Filmmaking The American Academy of Dramatic Arts American Academy of Dramatic Arts Retrieved May 29 2019 Jeff Bridges to Receive Cecil B DeMille Award at 2019 Golden Globes Variety Variety Media December 17 2018 Retrieved May 29 2019 DeMille wins Oscar History A amp E Television Networks Retrieved May 21 2019 Cecil B deMille Golden Globe Awards Hollywood Foreign Press Association Retrieved May 21 2019 The 25th Academy Awards Oscars Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Retrieved May 21 2019 The 29th Academy Awards Oscars Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Retrieved May 21 2019 McCarthy Todd May 26 2002 Pianist tickles Cannes Variety Retrieved May 21 2019 Complete National Film Registry Listing Library of Congress Congress gov Retrieved July 9 2019 Presley amp Vieira 2014 p 404 Warren Steve April 20 2019 So Let It Be Done As ABC Re Airs Ten Commandments for the 45th Time Here s What You Didn t Know About 1 Epic Special Effect Christian Broadcast Network Retrieved May 22 2019 Tasker Yvonne Leonard Suzanne eds 2015 Fifty Hollywood Directors London Routledge ISBN 9781315745039 Birchard 2004 p 47 Birchard 2004 p 50 Birchard 2004 p 64 Birchard 2004 p 83 Birchard 2004 p 125 Birchard 2004 p 134 McNary Dave February 27 2015 Robert Townsend Directing Brewster s Millions Reboot Variety Retrieved May 17 2019 The Only Son Cecil B Demille motion picture Performing Arts Databases The Library of Congress Retrieved May 22 2019 Soister amp Nicolella 2012 p 219 American Film Institute 1997 p 14 Birchard 2004 p 369 Lumenick Lou July 6 2010 DVD Extra The first and best Chicago 1927 New York Post NYP Holdings Retrieved June 17 2019 Havert Nik 2019 The Golden Age of Disaster Cinema A Guide to the Films 1950 1979 Jefferson NC McFarland amp Company Inc p 6 ISBN 9781476634807 Retrieved July 12 2019 Jorgensen Jay 2010 Edith Head The Fifty Year Career of Hollywood s Greatest Costume Designer Philadelphia Running Press p 184 ISBN 9780762438051 Retrieved July 12 2019 Birchard 2004 p 370 Ringgold amp Bodeen 1969 p 12 Eyman 2010 p 3 Edmonds amp Mimura 1980 p 121 Maltin 2009 p 492 American Film Institute 1997 p 318 Eyman 2010 p 275 Kear Lynn 2009 Evelyn Brent The Life and Films of Hollywood s Lady Crook Jefferson NC McFarland amp Company p 228 ISBN 9780786443635 Retrieved May 22 2019 a b c d Lyon 1984 p 125 Crowther Bosley December 31 1942 Star Spangled Rhythm Bulky All Star Variety Show Makes Its Premiere Appearance at the Paramount Theatre The New York Times Retrieved May 22 2019 Birchard 2004 p 375 T M P October 16 1947 Variety Girl Follows the Style of Big Broadcast Films Permitting Paramount Studio to Parade Most of Its Stars The New York Times Retrieved May 22 2019 Nowlan Robert A Nowlan Gwendolyn W 1994 Film Quotations 11 000 Lines Spoken on Screen Arranged by Subject and Indexed Jefferson NC McFarland amp Company p 478 ISBN 9780786474066 Retrieved May 22 2019 Samson and Delilah 1949 BFI Film Forever British Film Institute Retrieved May 22 2019 Rothman Lily Ronk Liz February 2 2017 Rare 1949 Photographs Show the Making of Sunset Boulevard Life Archived from the original on February 2 2017 Retrieved May 22 2019 Lyon 1984 p 126 Crowther Bosley November 9 1956 Screen The Ten Commandments De Mille s Production Opens at Criterion The Cast The New York Times Retrieved May 22 2019 Birchard 2004 p 376 General sources EditAbel Richard ed 2005 Encyclopedia of Early Cinema London Routledge ISBN 978 0415234405 Retrieved May 22 2019 American Film Institute 1997 Gevinson Alan ed Within Our Gates Ethnicity in American Feature Film 1911 1960 Berkeley University of California Press ISBN 978 0520209640 Retrieved May 21 2019 Birchard Robert S 2004 Cecil B DeMille s Hollywood University Press of Kentucky ISBN 978 0813123240 Blanke David 2018 Cecil B DeMille Classical Hollywood and Modern American Mass Culture London Palgrave Macmillan doi 10 1007 978 3 319 76986 8 ISBN 978 3319769868 Dick Bernard F 2001 Engulfed The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood Lexington University Press of Kentucky ISBN 978 0813122021 Doherty Thomas 1999 Pre Code Hollywood Sex Immorality and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930 1934 New York Columbia University Press p 26 ISBN 0231110952 Retrieved June 20 2019 demille madam satan destruction of an airship Eames John Douglas 1985 The Paramount Story New York Crown Publishers Inc ISBN 0517553481 Edmonds I G Mimura Reiko 1980 Paramount Pictures and the People Who Made Them San Diego A S Barnes amp Company Inc ISBN 978 0498023224 Eyman Scott 2010 Empire of Dreams The Epic Life of Cecil B DeMille New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0743289559 Higashi Sumiko 1994 Cecil B DeMille and American Culture The Silent Era Berkeley University of California Press ISBN 0520085574 Highman Charles 1973 Cecil B DeMille New York Da Capo Press ISBN 0306801310 King Elliot H 2007 Dali Surrealism and Cinema Harpenden UK Kamera Books ISBN 978 1904048909 Louvish Simon 2007 Cecil B DeMille A Life in Art New York Thomas Dunne Books ISBN 978 0312377335 Lyon Christopher ed 1984 The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers Directors Filmmakers Volume II Chicago St James Press ISBN 978 0912289052 Orrison Katherine Written in Stone Making Cecil B DeMille s Epic The Ten Commandments New York Vestal Press 1990 ISBN 187951124X Maltin Leonard ed 2009 Leonard Maltin s 2009 Movie Guide New York Plume p 492 ISBN 978 0452289789 Retrieved May 22 2019 free and easy film Presley Cecilia DeMille Vieira Mark A 2014 Cecil B DeMille The Art of Hollywood Epic Philadelphia Running Press ISBN 978 0762454907 Ringgold Gene Bodeen DeWitt 1969 The Films of Cecil B DeMille New York Citadel Press Soister John T Nicolella Henry 2012 American Silent Horror Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films 1913 1929 Jefferson NC McFarland amp Company ISBN 978 0786435814 Retrieved May 22 2019 Williams Tony 2014 Larry Cohen The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker Jefferson NC McFarland amp Company ISBN 978 1476618197 Retrieved July 19 2019 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cecil B DeMille Wikisource has original works by or about Cecil B DeMille Wikiquote has quotations related to Cecil B DeMille Official website by the Cecil B DeMille Foundation Cecil B DeMille at the Internet Broadway Database Cecil B DeMille at IMDb Cecil B DeMille at the TCM Movie Database Works by or about Cecil B DeMille at Internet Archive Cecil B DeMille at Virtual History Cecil B DeMille s Early Films Costs and Grosses by David Pierce Silent Film BookshelfArchival materials Edit Cecil B DeMille papers Vault MSS 1400 L Tom Perry Special Collections Harold B Lee Library Brigham Young University DeMille s personal and business papers including correspondence audio and video recordings financial ledgers and memorabilia Other collections related to DeMille at the L Tom Perry Special Collections Harold B Lee Library Brigham Young University The Mary Roberts Rinehart Papers Vault SC 1958 03 ULS Special Collections University of Pittsburgh Library includes conversations with DeMille about her plays Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cecil B DeMille amp oldid 1139057822, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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