Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille

by Scott Eyman

BEST KNOWN AS THE DIRECTOR of such spectacular films as The Ten Commandments and King of Kings, Cecil B. DeMille lived a life as epic as any of his cinematic masterpieces. As a child DeMille learned the Bible from his father, a theology student and playwright who introduced Cecil and his older brother, William, to the theater. Tutored by impresario David Belasco, DeMille discovered how audiences responded to sets, lights, costumes, etc. He took this knowledge with him to Los Angeles in 1913, where he became one of the movie pioneers, in partnership with Jesse Lasky and Lasky’s brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn). Working out of a barn on streets fragrant with orange blossom and pepper trees, the Lasky company turned out a string of successful silents, most of them directed by DeMille, who became one of the biggest names of the silent era. With films such as The Squaw Man, Brewster’s Millions, Joan the Woman, and Don’t Change Your Husband, he was the creative backbone of what would become Paramount Studios. In 1923 he filmed his first version of The Ten Commandments and later a second biblical epic, King of Kings, both enormous box-office successes. Although his reputation rests largely on the biblical epics he made, DeMille’s personal life was no morality tale. He remained married to his wife, Constance, for more than fifty years, but for most of the marriage he had three mistresses simultaneously, all of whom worked for him. He showed great loyalty to a small group of actors who knew his style, but he also discovered some major stars, among them Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert, and later, Charlton Heston. DeMille was one of the few silent-era directors who made a completely successful transition to sound. In 1952 he won the Academy Award for Best Picture with The Greatest Show on Earth. When he remade The Ten Commandments in 1956, it was an even bigger hit than the silent version. He could act, in Billy Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard, DeMille memorably played himself. In the 1930s and 1940s DeMille became a household name thanks to the Lux Radio Theater, which he hosted. But after falling out with a union, he gave up the program, and his politics shifted to the right as he championed loyalty oaths and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist witch hunts. As Scott Eyman brilliantly demonstrates in this superbly researched biography, which draws on a massive cache of DeMille family papers not available to previous biographers, DeMille was much more than his clichéd image. A gifted director who worked in many genres; a devoted family man and loyal friend with a highly unconventional personal life; a pioneering DeMille comes alive in these pages, a legend whose spectacular career defined an era.

Genres: Biography, Film, Nonfiction, Memoir, Ebooks

596 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 7, 2010

About the author

Scott Eyman has authored 11 books, including, with Robert Wagner, the New York Times bestseller Pieces of My Heart.

Among his other books are "Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer," "Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford," "Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise," and "The Speed of Sound" (all Simon & Schuster) and "John Ford: The Searcher" for Taschen.

He has lectured extensively around the world, most frequently at the National Film Theater in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Moscow Film Theater. He's done the commentary tracks for many DVD's, including "Trouble in Paradise," "My Darling Clementine," and Stagecoach.

Eyman has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, as well as practically every film magazine extinct or still extant.

He's the literary critic for the Palm Beach Post; he and his wife Lynn live in Palm Beach.

Reviews

[Magnus Stanke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, well researched biography of the man we love to hate; no, it's not Erich von Stroheim but Mr C Blount DeMille - the man of many contradictions aka The Hypocrite. Here's a man whose biblical epics are mostly famous for their orgies, who preached the Good Book to his wife - and his various mistresses. And he loved his deer so much he stopped hunting them.
The films he is famous for today are all pretty appaling and he is at least equally notorious as a Red Baiter in the Witch-Hunt years, post WW2, who made mighty John Ford look like a liberal lefty in comparison.
Scott Eyman puts all this into context, brings out the director's silent cinema achivements - of which there were many - and seperates the myth from the known facts.
Highly recommended

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography is as epic as the man it covers -- massive amounts of history, personality, conflict, joy, pain...and it doesn't shy away from his transformation into a right-wing fascist obsessed with communists and anti-union busing activities. A creative powerhouse, a despicable man...except when he was neither of those things. A truly absorbing journey back in time.

[Alejandro Villarreal]

Scott Eyeman’s Empire of Dreams presents the life, career and outlandish personality of cinema’s pioneering showman, Cecil B. DeMille. Hefty in its length and scope, this biography seemed intimidating, but ultimately gave me a new understanding of a filmmaker I associated with big spectacles and extremely conservative politics.

DeMille was so much more nuanced. And that’s the gift this biography gives.

In reality, DeMille was a man of contradictions. Known primarily for his religious epics, many of the films he made in the 1920s-silent and 1930s-PreCode era were socially provocative stories that questioned the sexual and societal mores of their day.

In what came as one of the books surprises, DeMille also lived his life free of any societal strictures. He was married to Constance DeMille, who arrived at an understanding with him: he was allowed to have as many female companions as he wished, but had to come back to his family every night. Throughout the early part of his life, he carried on with affairs, including with three women who were frequent professional collaborators on his films.

Additionally, DeMille’s filmmaking career coincides with the birth of Hollywood’s film industry. A failed New York playwright and actor, and hopelessly in debt, he co-founded a film company (which eventually became Paramount Studios) and moved to Los Angeles to direct his first film. If the film had flopped, he would have declared bankruptcy and been financially ruined.

But DeMille came to be known for his quality films with their high rate of box-office success. His taste always seemed to coincide with the movie public’s, and he reaped the benefits.
Throughout his life, he was the ultimate risk taker, which may have been the key to his lifelong success. And he always sought the highest standards of quality, no matter the cost.

The book takes us from his childhood to his last days as a world-renowned Hollywood producer; it’s an excellent record of the highs and lows of a Hollywood career during its Golden Age.

Eyeman’s body of work is consistent in its quality and research, and this biography is further proof of it. In terms of understanding this singular filmmaker, Eyeman has dug into the history and psyche of his subject and come up with a fascinating document.

Truly a book worthy of its titanic subject.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amiable and well-researched. Eyman makes a strong case that DeMille was a better director than he was ever credited as being. Frankly, having sat through several of his pictures that DeMille himself rated as his "best", I think it's a little forced. There is beautiful cinematography in The Sign of the Cross, The King of Kings, The Greatest Show on Earth and The Ten Commandments, but the dialogue is usually from hunger, the acting kind of wooden (except Claudette Colbert in The Sign of the Cross and Cleopatra; she always knew how to play this stuff!) and the storylines banal. Yes, he did get fantastic shots of crowds. But in an age when few people will see his movies as he meant them to be seen --- on a large screen --- it's hard to imagine that DeMille will show up in 21st century film studies.

The book is a little discursive, but there are a number of sharply etched sections that carry it --- DeMille's early years with Lasky, Goldwyn and Zukor, and a very interesting discussion of the struggle for control of the Director's Guild.

Recommend.

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty good, straightforward biography,though the author makes his share of minor errors. He underplays the importance of THE LUX RADIO THEATRE in DeMille's life, and he likely would have skipped over it entirely if it hadn't been for the fight DeMille had with AFRA over it. (It certainly seems as if the author never bothered to listen to a LUX broadcast while researching this book.)

[Jim Lindgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating account of the movie director's life and career. He was a complicated man, and the author is able to present all his contradictions and let you decide what you think. Although it is clear that the author is sympathetic.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I am a more a fan of the author than the subject. While I'm still not clamoring to see all of De Mille's films, I did enjoy reading about him and the large arc of film history his life touched. Very well written.

[Chronic Chihuahua · Rating 1 out of 5]

Toxic Misogynist

Wow he really was a toxic misogynist and ableist.

They make sure they keep this shit out of the public eye.

Remember, the body is the organ of emotion.

Reading those honest leaders to his wife made my skin crawl.

The way that he enjoyed that she was "pure" and groomed, sorry, taught by him for only him.

He loved that she was so self sacrificing, she let him just galavant everywhere.

He loved that she was self sacrificing and she was the one who would never leave.

Ugh, honestly, I wasn't impressed by this man behaving like he was dipping his dick repeatedly to learn what mistresses had to teach him.

I thought perhaps he would be open to the same for her but no the man is a malignant narcissist and thats why the artists hated him.

Epic life of personal self importance.

Went into this excited.

Came out of it shaking and remembering that Charlie Chaplin raped, impregnated, married and divorced TWO minors, to avoid going to prison.

Its time we start talking about who these people were, not refer to the character references that they seek to impose on our hearts.

Ugh, he drove her to dementia. So many things he mentioned he loved about his wife, are things that contribute to cognitive failure in women.

Wow, that went from "I feel bad for him" to, "Oh right, he was a real big Narc."

I went into this believing it was an open marriage and instead it has become clear that she did not want this situation with him.

"Sexually incompatible" is what the world believes and yet he describes a very compatible attraction to her.

Even her father communally aided him in this.

That was fucking a tragic turn of events.

[David Allwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through his incredibly comprehensive biographies, The author Scott Eyman, is gradually building an impressive history of Hollywood itself. And through ‘Empire of Dreams’ he tells the life of one of the Hollywood’s greatest pioneers, Cecil B. DeMille. Like DeMille and his movies, the book is epic. To benefit from such a book, the reader cannot be in a hurry and should have at least a fleeting interest in the subject, but Eyman makes DeMille real and, through fascinating detail, builds a comprehensive understanding of the man and his movies. DeMille played a significant role in the founding and building of the Hollywood movie industry and this is sometimes overlooked in favour of a plethora of personal minutiae, but overall this is a book to be savoured, enjoyed which offers an understanding of a pioneer and his role in founding the American film industry.

[Mark Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of research went into this book and it was very through. The print could have been larger but then it would have been about 800 pages.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating biography of a complex man.

[Steve Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding biography. I would have given this 5 stars but it was too long.

[Shawn Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eyman does his usual best in covering DeMille, a classic figure rarely given his due credit for playing such an integral role in establishing Hollywood as the entertainment capital of the world. From capturing DeMille's eccentric public persona to breaking down DeMille's dozens of silent and sound films, Eyman gives us a captivating behind-the-scene glance at a larger-than-life filmmaker.

Full Review at: https://tinyurl.com/js3pejzv

[Samantha Glasser]

Author Scott Eyman will be doing a book signing at the Columbus Moving Picture Show in Columbus, Ohio in May 2022.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really balanced look at one America's greatest forgotten directors. Remembered by few today, DeMille was able to put forth some of the most remarkable films that were produced during the silent era including "The Cheat" (1915),"The Whispering Chorus"(1918),"The Ten Commandments"(1923) and "The King Of Kings"(1927) and made some of the mid-twentieth century's most iconic sound films such as "Sign Of The Cross" (1932), "The Greatest Show On Earth" (1952) and the remake of "The Ten Commandments" (1956). Scott Eyman's book gives us a very in-depth look at the career of one of the pioneers of Hollywood and founders of Paramount Pictures.

[Richard Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a valuable and corrective biography that restores the reputation of Cecil B. DeMille, one of Hollywood's great pioneers. In Many ways, DeMille virtually created film making, and his influence is with us even now. But he began to make epic films involving huge casts and enormous budgets, and his influence and prestige waned. Now, this excellent biographer offers us a tender, delightful, and kind study of a very great man.

[Drew Zagorski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read The Lion of Hollywood, as well as bios of Cohn, Goldwyn, and Lasky, among others. The thing about these characters is that once you've read one of their bios, you've read them all. They have essentially identical stories with only a few different wrinkles. I guess if this was the first of this batch of hollywood bios I'd read, I'd probably rate it higher. But it felt like I'd been there before... and before... and, well, you get the idea.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other than being a rampant hypocrite (Bible-Thumpin' movie maker likes his women on the side) and a stool pigeon for the Feds amid the Red Scare of the 1950s and a compadre of Joe McCarthy, he was a sweetheart.

Also notable: He balked at a $1 donation to support Proposition 12 (maintaining unions in California notably in the entertainment industry) out of principle. Yet, led a revolt years later in the Directors Guild of America for forcing members to sign a loyalty oath.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic biography on one of the founding fathers of Hollywood, following DeMille's career from acting in New York to founding a film studio in Hollywood in 1913 to his successes and difficulties in over 40 years of filmmaking. I have read Scott Eyman's biographies on Ernst Lubitsch and L.B. Mayer before, he is a brilliant biographer for the Hollywood greats.

[Jill Delaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought it was very good, very in depth and fair. Enjoyed it.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captures the life of Cecil B. DeMille very well.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok book if you are interested in early Hollywood and, of course, D.W. the man.