Cecil B. DeMille

1881–1899: early years

Cecil Blount DeMille was of paternal Dutch ancestry. His surname was spelled de Mil before his grandfather William added an "le" for "visual symmetry".

As an adult, Cecil De Mille adopted the spelling DeMille because he believed it would look better on a marquee, but continued to use de Mille in private life. The family name de Mille was used by his children, Cecilia, John, Richard, and Katherine. Cecil'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.

DeMille 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. On September 1, 1881, the family returned with the newborn DeMille to their flat in New York. DeMille was named after his grandmothers, Cecilia Wolff and Margarete Blount. 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. His older brother, William C. DeMille, was born on July 25, 1878.

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. In New York, Henry also taught English at Columbia College (now Columbia University). 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. Henry de Mille frequently collaborated with David Belasco in playwriting; their best-known collaborations included "The Wife", "Lord Chumley", "The Charity Ball", and "Men and Women".

Cecil B. DeMille's mother, Beatrice, a literary agent and scriptwriter, was the daughter of German Jews. 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.

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. They married on July 1, 1876, despite Beatrice's parents' objections due to the young couple's differing religions; Beatrice converted to Episcopalianism.

DeMille watched his father and Belasco rehearse plays. He attended a lunch with his father and actor Edwin Booth. As a child, DeMille created a character named Champion Driver based on Robin Hood.

His father and his family had lived in Washington, North Carolina, until Henry built a three-story Victorian-style house for his family in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey; named this estate "Pamlico". 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. DeMille's sister, Agnes, was born on April 23, 1891; his mother nearly did not survive the birth. Agnes died on February 11, 1894, from spinal meningitis.

DeMille's parents operated a private school in Pompton Lakes 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.

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. de Mille School for Girls in her home in February 1893. The school aimed to teach young women to properly understand and fulfill their duties to themselves, their home, and their country. Beatrice had "enthusiastically supported" Henry's theatrical aspirations. She later became the second female play broker on Broadway. On Henry'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 the age of 15. He fled the school to join the Spanish–American War, but failed to meet the age requirement. At the military college, even though his grades were average, he reportedly excelled in personal conduct.

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 in the play The Arcady Trail. In the audience was Charles Frohman, who cast DeMille in his play Hearts Are Trumps, DeMille's Broadway debut.

DeMille was an active Freemason and member of Prince of Orange Lodge #16 in New York City.

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 film's authenticity. During pre-production, DeMille was dealing with his first serious health issue. In March 1938, he underwent a major emergency prostatectomy. He had 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. After his surgery and the success of Union Pacific, DeMille first used three-strip Technicolor in 1940, in North West Mounted Police. DeMille wanted to film in Canada, but due to budget constraints, the film was instead shot in Oregon and Hollywood. Critics were impressed with the visuals but found the scripts dull, calling it DeMille's "poorest Western". Despite the criticism, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of the year. Audiences liked its highly saturated color, so DeMille made no further black-and-white features. 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, even though 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 it. He claimed he abandoned the project in order to complete a different project, but it was actually to preserve his reputation and avoid appearing reactionary. While concurrently filmmaking, he served during World War II at age 60 as his neighborhood air-raid warden.

In 1942, DeMille worked with Jeanie MacPherson and William DeMille to produce a film, Queen of Queens, that 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 consider it Catholic propaganda. Consequently, the film was never made. MacPherson worked as a scriptwriter on many of DeMille's films. In 1938, DeMille supervised the film compilation Land of Liberty as the American film industry's contribution to the 1939 New York World's Fair. He used clips from his own films in it. Land of Liberty was not a high-grossing film, but it was well-received, and DeMille was asked to shorten its running time to accommodate more showings per day. MGM distributed the film in 1941 and donated profits to World War II relief charities.

In 1942, DeMille released Paramount's most successful film, Reap the Wild Wind. It had a large budget and many special effects, including an electronically operated giant squid. After working on it, DeMille was the master of ceremonies at a rally organized by David O. Selznick in the Los Angeles Coliseum in support of the Dewey–Bricker presidential ticket as well as Governor Earl Warren of California. DeMille's 1947 film Unconquered had the longest running time (146 minutes), longest filming schedule (102 days), and largest budget ($5 million). Its 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.

DeMille's next film, Samson and Delilah (1949), was Paramount's highest-grossing film up to that time. A Biblical epic with sex, it was a characteristically DeMille film. 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth became Paramount's highest-grossing film to that point and won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Story. It 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, the film was not well received by critics but was an audience favorite. In 1953, DeMille signed a contract with Prentice Hall to publish an autobiography. He reminisced into a voice recorder, the recording was transcribed, and the information was organized by topic. Art Arthur also interviewed people for the autobiography. DeMille did not like the biography's first draft, saying he thought the person portrayed in it was an egotistical "SOB". In the early 1950s, Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner recruited DeMille to serve on the board of the anti-communist National Committee for a Free Europe, the public face of the organization that oversaw Radio Free Europe. In 1954, Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott asked DeMille for help designing the cadet uniforms at the newly established United States Air Force Academy. DeMille's designs, most notably the cadet parade uniform, were praised by Air Force and Academy leadership, adopted, and still worn.

Politics and Lux Radio Theatre

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

From June 1, 1936, until January 22, 1945, DeMille hosted and directed Lux Radio Theatre, a weekly digest of current feature films. Broadcast on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from 1935 to 1954, Lux Radio was one of the most popular weekly shows in radio history. While DeMille was host, the show had 40 million weekly listeners, and DeMille had an annual salary of $100,000. From 1936 to 1945, he produced, hosted, and directed every show, with the occasional exception of a guest director. He resigned from Lux Radio because he refused to pay a dollar to the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA), on the principle that no organization had the right to "levy a compulsory assessment upon any member".

DeMille sued the union for reinstatement but lost. He 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 to campaign for the right to work. He gave speeches across the nation for the next few years. DeMille's primary criticism was of closed shops, but later included criticism of communism and unions in general. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his case, but DeMille lobbied for the Taft–Hartley Act, which passed. It prohibited denying anyone the right to work if they refused to pay a political assessment. But the law did not apply retroactively, so DeMille's television and radio appearance ban lasted the rest of his life, though he was permitted to appear on radio or television to publicize a movie. William Keighley replaced him. DeMille never worked in radio again.

Scandalous dramas, Biblical epics, and departure from Paramount

Films became more sophisticated, and the Lasky company's subsequent films were criticized for their primitive and unrealistic set design. Consequently, Beatrice DeMille introduced the Famous Players–Lasky to Wilfred Buckland, whom DeMille knew 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 later converted from theater to Hollywood and spent the rest of his career as a film director. DeMille frequently remade his own films. In 1917, he remade The Squaw Man (1918), only four years after the original. Despite its quick turnaround, the film was fairly successful. DeMille's second remake at MGM in 1931 was a failure.

After five years and 30 hit films, DeMille became the most successful director in the American film industry. In the silent era, he was renowned for Male and Female, Manslaughter, The Volga Boatman, and The Godless Girl. His trademark scenes included bathtubs, lion attacks, and Roman orgies. Many of his films featured scenes in two-color Technicolor. In 1923, DeMille released the modern melodrama The Ten Commandments, a significant change from his previous irreligious films. The film was produced on a budget of $600,000, and it was Paramount's most expensive production to date. This concerned Paramount executives, but the film was the studio's highest-grossing film. It held the Paramount record for 25 years until DeMille broke the record again.

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. Consequently, DeMille left Paramount in 1924 despite having helped establish it. He joined the Producers Distributing Corporation. 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. Aside from The King of Kings, none of DeMille's films away from Paramount were successful. The King of Kings established DeMille as "master of the grandiose and of biblical sagas". Considered at the time the most successful Christian film of the silent era, DeMille calculated that it had been viewed over 800 million times around the world. 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 first 11 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.

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. He was also a real estate speculator, an underwriter of political campaigns, vice president of Bank of America, and vice president of the Commercial National Trust and Savings Bank in Los Angeles, where he approved loans for other filmmakers. 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.