Interview: Cecilia De Mille Presley on Her Grandfather Cecil B. De Mille

Posted on April 8, 2015 at 3:18 pm

The great director Cecil B. De Mille, known for his grand, lavish epics like Claudette Colbert’s sizzling Cleopatra and the Biblical epics The Ten Commandments and Samson & Delilah, and Best Picture Oscar winner The Greatest Show on Earth deserves a book tribute every bit as big in scope and scale as his films. And he got one in the truly spectacular Cecil B. DeMille: The Art of the Hollywood Epic, a massive, sumptuous, and simply gorgeous book that is sure to be treasured by anyone who loves movies. It is filled with never-before-shared behind-the-scenes drawings and production stills. And it features the recollections by De Mille’s granddaughter, Cecilia de Mille Presley. I had the very great pleasure of chatting with Ms. Presley about the book and about being on the set of “The Ten Commandments” with her grandfather when she was just 15 years old.

How is it that you and your mother happened to go and be on the movie set while the film was being made?

Well mother was his right-hand man from forever and he raised me, I went everywhere with him.

And the sets were already built when you arrived?

Yes, well, they still had the scaffolding so if grandfather wanted to make any change he could. The scaffolding was still there but when we rounded that corner and saw the row of sphinxes it was amazing!

What did you do during the day while they were filming?

Just what I did on every other picture that I was on that he made. Just try to be of help, cart water, soothe people’s nerves, whatever I could do.

What were some of the challenges that he faced filming in Egypt?

The special effects came later but in Hollywood but in Egypt we hired whole tribes with thousands of people. We hired whole tribes out of the desert. They came with their flocks and their wives and their children and their camels and their geese and their water buffalo. And Frank Westmore, who was head of makeup, used to get in at five with with Dorothy Jenkins who did the costumes. I used to meet him on the set at five o’clock and help get everybody made up. Most of them were okay because a lot of the Bedouins dressed just like they did 5000 years ago but if they were wearing a watch I actually had to get it off of them. The Egyptians were wonderful.

Your grandfather became ill during the filming I understand.

He did, he had a major heart attack but it would have been a publicity nightmare to say that, so he said it was just a bout of dysentery and mother took over and directed the film. He never missed a day on the set. He knew if he wasn’t there it would be news so he went and sat quietly behind the camera and mother made all the decisions. Mother and Loyal Griggs, his cinematographer made all the decisions and after a week he felt stronger though very weak still and very skinny and then he recovered his strength and went back to Hollywood and he continued and made the film.

Did you spend any time with the lead actors?

Oh sure, I mean they were all friends Yul Brynner and Charlton Heston were the ones that went there. They were wonderful anything they could do to help. Everybody just pitched in. When Yul walked in a room he would just make some kind of statement and everybody would look at him, he was just that imposing. He wasn’t a really tall guy but he had a gorgeous build with great body and worked out, very handsome man; spoke three or four or five languages. He read constantly, very intelligent, he was an artiste. He was just a really nice guy to be around. You know I’ve known actors all my life, both actors and actresses and usually they are almost with no exception, they are just really nice people. Charlton Heston was a very good friend of mine and of the family. Chuck was very straight, very studious, he walked around with all the books on Moses he could find reading everything he could read about the life and times of Moses. He wanted to know what it was like to be there then. And he had many talks with Egyptologists and people that were familiar with that era. How would he act? What would he be seeing? He did that with every film, Chuck was like that when he played Michelangelo and Ben Hur, he always wanted to know everything.

And you worked with the camels? How was that?

Camels are kind of cranky but they are ok. They are fun to ride. But it is a rocky ride. The roughest ride was in the chariot. Chuck Heston took me for a ride in the chariot. I tell you I hung onto him with my life because there are no shock absorbers. But he loved it.

Tell me about the book.

Mark Viera<img src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=nellminowthemovi&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" / has have been after me for some time to write that and I finally thought, "Why am I doing saying no?" I have all these wonderful archives that nobody has ever seen. I mean the art and the photographs. You know it weighs over 6 pounds and it sold out in four months. We are on the second printing and we are going to into a third. They did such a beautiful job on this book it is spectacular, of all the reviews we have had not one has been a bad review. They’ve all been over the top. Not even one criticism of anything in that book of all the reviews we have had.

I think what the book is about, it’s about certainly De Mille and how he made movies. De Mille was a modern-day Medici which doesn’t happen now. He brought in artists from all over the world, costume, jewelry, painters, everything from all over the world. He would tell them the story from his perspective and let them go. He didn’t want to tell them what to paint; he wanted them to tell him the new ideas. I have and we show in the book a concept drawing and this happens all the time, an artist would bring a concept drawing for the scene and he would film that scene exactly as that artist had shown. Where does the light come for the drama? These guys were brilliant and he knew they were brilliant. He wanted their ideas and used them. That is why when he accepted the Academy Award he said, “Pictures aren’t made by one man.” He said film is a collaborative art form and he was very well aware of all that.

My grandfather raised me. I moved in with him at seven and when I could dress myself he took me everywhere that he went, everywhere. And I bring those stories that nobody’s heard or knows about the actors we knew, about what he was thinking about all that and just fun stuff.

What made your grandfather want to oversee such enormous and complicated productions?

He was in his element doing that. People loved working with him and he worked with the same people over and over. He knew how to work with crowds. He could have 1000 extras and make it work. On the set if he didn’t think extras were giving the performances he wanted, he would pick one guy out that was just not paying attention and get him and say, “What are you doing? You have to act!” and be rough on him and then he might call him at the end of the day and say, “Look, I chose you and I’m going to give you more parts in this.”

And people love the films. One year, ABC didn’t run it and they called me and said, “We have never received more letters in our lifetime that we received because we didn’t show “The Ten Commandments.” I get letters saying, “The only time my teenage son will sit down with me is to watch “The Ten Commandments.” So you know it’s a lasting, wonderful thing.

Is that your favorite of his films?

I love The Sign of the Cross, that is a brilliant epic. And I love “The Ten Commandments, of course, I love The Plainsman. I love watching Gary Cooper — how good is that! And Union Pacific was one of my very favorites. Joel McCrea was so handsome. And Barbara Stanwyck was by far grandfather’s favorite actress. She was always on time, always knew her lines, never groused, willing to do anything the script called for. And she loved him. There is a quote in the book that she said, “I loved Mr. DeMille and Mr. DeMille loved me.”

And I understand you are still sending checks to people who worked with him.

Yes I am. you know he did something unusual twice when Joe Pew who had the Pew foundation. Joe Pew was a friend of his and a very wealthy man and they put a great deal of money in the making of The King of Kings and they sat down just the two of them and watched the movie and they agreed after seeing it that they would pay back the cost and they would never take a profit. De Mille gave all of his checks to charity and Joe Pugh gave all of his money to getting new prints out all over the world. They never took a dime of profit ever. And in “The Ten Commandments,” De Mille took ten percent of his profit and divided it among the hundred people that were key to the production of this film. And those checks I still write, unfortunately not as many as I used to. But I mean that has never been done.

What do you miss the most about that era of Hollywood?

The studio system of course is gone as it should be gone because actors should be able to call their own shots. But if you have a good studio head, like Paramount was at that time with Barney Balaban and Jesse Lasky, it was like a family. People got along, they all backed up each other. You know, it’s an absolute cut throat business today.

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A Rare Interview with Bill Watterson of “Calvin and Hobbes”

Posted on March 20, 2015 at 3:27 pm

I am a huge fan of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes comic strip and it was a thrill to see so many of the original drawings in the superbly curated show at the Billy Ireland Museum last year. Now that show’s catalogue, Exploring Calvin and Hobbes: An Exhibition Catalogue, has been published and it is a treasure. Watterson does not do interviews, preferring to let the work speak for itself. But he did agree to an interview with the curator who organized the show, and it is, as expected, wise, witty, and insightful. A portion of the interview ran in Michael Cavna’s Washington Post column. Here’s an excerpt of the excerpt.

As Calvin and Hobbes went on, the writing pushed the drawings into greater complexity. One of the jokes I really like is that the fantasies are drawn more realistically than reality, since that says a lot about what’s going on in Calvin’s head. So that, and my interest in creating a lively sense of animation, forced me to push the flatter, more cartoony and loose designs I started with into a more three-dimensional conception of form and space. If I wanted to draw Calvin from some odd camera angle, I had to visualize him sort of sculpturally, so I could draw it. That’s when you discover that the zigzag shorthand for his hair doesn’t work in perspective very well. Or you find that his tiny little legs are hard to make run, because he hardly has knees. You invent solutions to these sorts of problems, and that gradually changes the appearance of the strip.

Another factor was simply that I got better at drawing as I went along, so I wanted to throw in whatever I was capable of doing. I kept trying to push the art as far as I could, because drawing was the fun part. I was eager to keep raising the bar and discover what else I might be able to do with the strip. By the end, I had a sort of calligraphic brush line I liked and I was very happy with the look of the strip. It looked like what I had in my head.

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Books

A New Alphabet Book for Women’s History Month: Rad American Women A-Z

Posted on March 1, 2015 at 3:37 pm

Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future! is a wonderful new alphabet book to teach girls, boys, and their families about sounds and letters and stories about women who dreamed big, accomplished great things, inspired others, and changed the world. Author Kate Schatz and illustrator Miriam Klein Stahl have created a wonderful tribute to these woman and resource for families. Ms. Shatz answered my questions about the book.

Where did the idea for this project come from?

The idea came when my daughter (who’s now 5) was about two. She’s such an amazing kid, and I want her to grow up to be empowered and inspired. I’m very conscious of the images of women and girls in the media, and want her to see a wide range of possibilities for who she can be and what she can do. We have a house full of great books, but I wanted her to have something more to read—something fun and bold but also educational and inspiring, to teach her about history in a way she could appreciate once she was a little older. I couldn’t find the book I wanted, so I decided I’d try to write one myself. After I had my son, I felt even more motivated to create it, because it’s not just young girls that need powerful female role models—it’s boys, too.

Did you have female or feminist role models when you were growing up?

Absolutely. I was lucky enough to be raised by and around very strong, loving women. I’d cite my mother Barbara, and though she may not have identified as a feminist, my Nana as well. As a child I was always drawn to books about spunky, adventurous, bold girls—Harriet the Spy, Nancy Drew, the Anastasia Krupnik books. In middle school I wanted to be a journalist, and I loved (the TV character) Murphy Brown and MTV’s Tabitha Soren. And then I found feminist heroes in music: riot grrl, PJ Harvey, Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos. One thing to note about these figures is that they’re all white—outside of musicians and performers like Janet Jackson, Neneh Cherry, Tracy Chapman, and MC Lyte, I wasn’t exposed to a diverse array of feminist role models until later in high school (when I sought it out on my own) and then in college—that’s one thing I hope to remedy with this book.

Did anything surprise you as you researched the book?

Going into this project I considered myself to be relatively well-versed in women’s history—I quickly realized how much I don’t know, and how many fascinating women I’ve never heard of. It was also incredible to learn more about women I was familiar with. I often knew the basic gist of a person’s life and accomplishments (or thought I knew!) and as I went in-depth with my research I learned so much more. It was a humbling and exciting journey to explore and absorb all of these stories. Only 26 ended up in the book, but I learned about so many more!

What were your best resources for research?

I used a number of great books and websites. A Mighty Girl exposed me to a number of fantastic existing children’s books. I often visited the website for the PBS Makers project, as well as the National Women’s History Project and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. I visited the Oakland Public Library to check out specific biographies on individual women, but also used books like “The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History” and “What Every American Should Know About Women’s History” as frequent reference points. And of course I used your basic Google search, and actually found great value in the “suggested results” of these searches, which often led me to people I’d never heard of.

Why is it important for both boys and girls to learn about these women?

The term “women’s history” is significant, but also limiting, as it can imply that it’s a history only for or of interest to women—not for everyone. The women we profile are Americans, and their stories are part of American history, to be included in our textbooks and our collective consciousness alongside the many, many male heroes that we learn about. The majority of the women in the book are non-white, and for many reasons their stories have been left out of mainstream and traditional accounts of “important” historical events and individuals. Even when we do teach the history of women and people of color, it tends to rely on the same singular figures over and over. Children—and adults—should know that Amelia Earhart was not the only female aviator. Rosa Parks was not the only black woman in the Civil Rights movement. Susan B. Anthony was not the only one fighting for suffrage. These women were amazing and are absolutely important, but there’s so much more to the (hi)story.

Who were some of the women you most regretted having to leave out and will they be in some future edition?

For nearly every woman featured in this book, there are at least 3 others that were almost included. It was very challenging to decide. We do have plans for additional books, and are already planning several. Some letters just have more names to choose from—A, E, F, J, K, M, and S, for example—and some (Q, X, Y, Z) don’t. A was a big challenge, because it’s the first letter and it sets the tone—and because there are so many awesome, amazing As! It could have been Audre Lorde or Adrienne Rich or Abigail Adams or Anne Sullivan. F was almost Fannie Lou Hamer, but E is Ella Baker, and they were working in the same field at the same time, and we wanted as much variety as possible. I definitely want to include Fannie Lou in the next book! J was going to be Jane Addams, but when I learned about the amazing but not very well-known educator and activist Jovita Idar I decided to feature her instead. I love that M is for Maya Lin but I’d like to include astronaut Mae Jamison in a future book. S went through several iterations as well, and was almost Sister Corita Kent, an incredible nun who was a graphic artist, as well as Sylvia Rivera, a transgendered activist and Stonewall vet. Bottom line: there is no end to the incredible stories that deserve to be told.

Why is the X group so significant and what do you hope kids will get from that write-up?

X is significant because it reminds us of how much we don’t know, and how much is yet to come. It’s significant because the illustration and the text challenge how we define and perceive heroism and greatness—many of the images are of people doing “ordinary” things like reading, parenting, and working. You don’t need to be a nationally celebrated figure to be rad, to have an impact on the world. Hopefully readers will think of the many reasons why we don’t necessarily know the names of all the women who have done great, heroic things. Hopefully it will inspire them to consider the past but also look toward the future, and to recognize the radness in themselves and the people around them.

Tom Shales on SNL and Lorne Michaels

Posted on February 20, 2015 at 8:00 am

Of all the tributes and critiques of “Saturday Night Live” as it starts its fifth decade, none is more astute than Tom Shales’ for Daily Beast. Shales is the co-author of Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests. In this column he talks about producer Lorne Michaels, and his original idea that the show should be for the generation who grew up on television. It was media-aware and subversive from the beginning.

In the earliest days of Saturday Night Live it didn’t occur to Michaels, who of course created the show, that they would establish characters and bring them back for repeat sketches, with the conspicuous exception of The Bees, with the “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players” dressed in fat padded bee costumes that had been lying around.

Michaels said later he brought the bees back because the only note he got from network executives after the first show was: “Lose the bees.” So it was that SNL began, defying authority and ever-evolving as a showcase for the best and sometimes bravest American humor. It’s Comedy Mountain.

Two New Books About LOVING Movies

Posted on February 18, 2015 at 8:00 am

Actor/comedian Patton Oswalt (“Ratatouille”) has written a memoir about immersing himself in old movies. Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film is not just about the hundreds of movies he watched; it is about how he used what he saw as a kind of therapeutic education in life. Oswalt describes this period of his life as a four-year compulsion. At first, it helps him hide from some of the issues in his life, but then it helps him to understand and confront them.

Over at Last Seat on the Right, my friend Michał Oleszczyk reviews a compilation of answers to the question “What do you love about movies?” The book is What I Love About Movies: An Illustrated Compendium, with answers from egendary directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Pedro Almodovar, Darren Aronofsky, Quentin Tarantino, and Spike Jonze, and A-list acting icons such as Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Kristen Stewart, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Tom Hardy, all collected over the years by film review and commentary magazine Little White Lies, as they conducted interviews. Oleszczyk writes:

The book’s opening response comes from Francis Ford Coppola, and it is appropriately grand: the maker of Apocalypse Now (1979) states simply that “the human race was waiting for cinema” (p. 21). Darren Aronofsky concurs, pointing to the close-up as “an overlooked great invention of the 20th century” (p. 161), while Viggo Mortensen lives up to his taciturn, if potent, screen persona by offering the single briefest response in the volume: “The places you will go” (p. 101). There’s no denying that there is no great revelation awaiting in the wings of the 50 answers we get (rather predictably, the word “transported” gets the biggest mileage), but it is the very difficulty with defining the central passion of their lives that is most telling in those filmmakers’ responses. Accompanied by lucid, often brilliant reading of their works by the “LWL” writers (the four-member team also incuses Adam Woodward and Sophie Monks Kaufman), the responses enter into exciting friction with the critical writing – as well as with the artwork, which is never less than lively (it is “LWL” tradition that every piece is credited both to the person responsible for the “words” and the one providing the “pictures”).

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