Cecil B. DeMille: The Epic King

Cecil B. DeMille was one of Hollywood's greatest directors, his name synonymous with epic movies, where casts of thousands, spectacular sets and some of Hollywood's most famous stars dazzled the public. He was the quintessential director complete with riding boots, breeches, riding crop and megaphones, the latter to make sure no one missed his directions. His filmography of 70 films spans the Hollywood timeline from the inception of the movie industry with silents to the mid 1950s where his epics included sound, technicolor and wide screens. He was not always pleasant or easy to work with, and he was not necessarily the greatest director of actors, but his films were so highly regarded by the public few lost money. The DeMille story is essentially the history of the American movie industry from its earliest days in Los Angeles where films were made in barns and shown on flimsy screens--sometimes plain white sheets--to the harsh realities of the McCarthy hearings on Hollywood in the 1950s. The New York Times summed up Cecil B. DeMille as "the Phineas T. Barnum of the movies—a showman extraordinary.” [1,535-word Titans of Fortune biographical profile]