
American Gallery - A Review of Coming Attractions
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Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Male)
Hey, everyone. Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, no.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Female)
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Tyler Redick (Chumba Casino Ad)
Me to a human, him to a bird.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Male)
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league anyways.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Female)
Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Male)
Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.
Charlton Heston (Narrator)
To introduce this episode of An American Gallery, here is the distinguished motion picture actor Charlton Heston.
Narrator / Historical Commentator
For over 50 years, one man's films have played in tents in the Arctic wastelands, in palatial theaters throughout the world's capitals, under a panoply of stars, in remote corners of the Sahara, in private screening rooms of multi millionaires and on sheets tacked up on military parade grounds. The films of no other man have been seen by as many people as those of Cecil B. DeMille. While modesty made him shun the appellation, who else would deny that he is the father of Hollywood? Hollywood as we know it today was born in 1913. This is DeMille's own story of that birth.
Charlton Heston (Narrator)
Cecil B. DeMille, motion picture producer, director, saluted. This week on An American Gallery. Sebastian Cabot stars as Mr. DeMille in a preview of coming attractions.
Cecil B. DeMille
There you are.
Jesse L. Lasky
Sizzle. Hope you haven't been waiting long.
Cecil B. DeMille
No, just long enough to work up an appetite. Jesse, how did the rehearsal go?
Jesse L. Lasky
Like every other Jesse Lasky production. Two days before opening.
Cecil B. DeMille
That bad?
Jesse L. Lasky
You know, the good Lord made the earth in seven days, but he never produced a play. Frankly, producing our first motion picture can't be any worse. Can you reach a menu here? Thanks.
Cecil B. DeMille
How did Sam do?
Jesse L. Lasky
Sam Goldfish was an excellent glove salesman.
Cecil B. DeMille
He didn't get Griffith to direct.
Jesse L. Lasky
DW Griffith likes to work for companies with a little something in the bank
Cecil B. DeMille
to guarantee his salary.
Jesse L. Lasky
And as anxious as he is to make features instead of one reelers, he's afraid of the trust.
Cecil B. DeMille
Trust? What's that?
Jesse L. Lasky
I don't know why I'm looking at this menu. I'm not hungry. Anyway, you were saying?
Cecil B. DeMille
The trust. The trust.
Jesse L. Lasky
My young writer of stage plays controls just about everything involved in the making of motion pictures. They have the patents and they book the pictures into the theater. They like their moving pictures short so they can keep the audience turning over.
Cecil B. DeMille
But the public likes films with a story. Adolph Zuka was very successful with that 4Real French picture he brought over. Here last year.
Jesse L. Lasky
Queen Elizabeth. Yes, but he also had Sarah Bernhardt to star and had to hire legitimate theaters to show it. Motion picture houses were afraid to touch it. They knew that if they did, the trust could keep them from getting any new films. By the way, did you happen to see Queen Elizabeth?
Cecil B. DeMille
No.
Jesse L. Lasky
Have you ever seen a movie, as the public are starting to call them?
Cecil B. DeMille
At least three of them.
Jesse L. Lasky
Did you get up to the Edison Studios to watch some shooting yesterday? What do you think?
Cecil B. DeMille
Well, if that's pictures we can make. The best pictures ever made.
Jesse L. Lasky
Well, since we couldn't get Griffith to direct the Squaw Man.
Cecil B. DeMille
How about you? You want me to direct the Squaw Man?
Jesse L. Lasky
Well, maybe in a dozen years I'll have a better choice. But this is 1913, and you can just about count the number of movie
Charlton Heston (Narrator)
directors on a halibut's fingers.
Jesse L. Lasky
Give me that menu back here. I say let's do it.
Cecil B. DeMille
Let's.
Jesse L. Lasky
I'll write out an agreement on the back of this menu before we leave here. But you can now consider yourself director general of the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. You write and direct them. Sam will sell them. Arthur Friend will be our legal counsel. And I'll do the worrying here in New York while you're out West.
Cecil B. DeMille
Out west? They're not making the Squaw man in New York.
Jesse L. Lasky
Well, the story's about the West. Why not shoot it there? Besides, that way we won't have to pay for a studio.
Cecil B. DeMille
But how far west?
Jesse L. Lasky
Arizona. That's pretty far west. Town there called Flagstaff.
Cecil B. DeMille
The Squirrel man is supposed to take place in Wyoming.
Jesse L. Lasky
Cecil, the west, after all, is the West.
Cecil B. DeMille
Has anybody ever made a film out West?
Jesse L. Lasky
Yeah, a few one reelers. Now, for my surprise, you're gonna be directing Dustin Farnum.
Cecil B. DeMille
Dusky agreed to do a movie for $250 a week.
Jesse L. Lasky
First, I offered him a quarter inch in the company, but he didn't bite. And now we come to you. I know you have no capital to invest, so will you be the writer and director in return for a quarter interest in the company?
Oscar Apfel
Jesse, you can't do that.
Cecil B. DeMille
It's like paying me $5,000. I mean, that. That's what the rest of your investing.
Jesse L. Lasky
We're gambling with money. You're gambling with time. We could fail, Cecil. You'd only be out the train fare for you and the wife. A little cecilia.
Cecil B. DeMille
That's just a matter of hawking the family silver again.
Jesse L. Lasky
Then we're doing it.
Cecil B. DeMille
Flag post, here we come.
Jesse L. Lasky
That's Flagstaff. Now, I'm gonna hire a fellow named Oscar Apfo, who's done some directing. He'll hold your hand, but you're the boss. Then I've got Al Gandolf as your cameraman. And Dusty will be bringing his dresser. You know Fred Clay, of course. You'll have about five days on the train. Time enough to write the script. And in a couple of months, we'll show Mr. Edison why he invented motion pictures. CECECIL DeMille, this is Oscar Apple.
Oscar Apfel
How are you?
Cecil B. DeMille
Fine, thank you, Jesse. Where are Dusty and friend?
Jesse L. Lasky
They just boarded the train.
Oscar Apfel
Al's in the baggage car checking his camera on the film.
Cecil B. DeMille
I thought Sam was coming down.
Jesse L. Lasky
He's out selling the picture.
Cecil B. DeMille
Selling? But we haven't even made it yet.
Jesse L. Lasky
Oh, and the egg I'm eating next Sunday hasn't been laid yet either. But my grocer's already agreed to buy it.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, for a producer, you come up with lousy analogies.
Jesse L. Lasky
All you got a camera, film, a cameraman, an actor, pencils and paper. Now go make me a movie.
Cecil B. DeMille
But I just thought of something. Where do we develop the film?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Develop the film? Develop the film. How do I know? Ask a friendly Indian.
Oscar Apfel
Cecil, when Dusty has his first confrontation with the Indian Indian girl in this scene, why don't we have him?
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil.
Oscar Apfel
Cecil.
Cecil B. DeMille
I hear you, Oscar. I hear you.
Oscar Apfel
Worried about something.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oscar, we're gonna have at least five reels. Maybe as many as eight.
Oscar Apfel
Possible.
Cecil B. DeMille
Do you realize what the Trust has done every time they exhibited pictures more than one reel?
Oscar Apfel
Laugh, they show one reel at a time. People come back the next day to see the second reel, and so on.
Cecil B. DeMille
The score man was a hit play. Would it have succeeded if people had to return to the theater seven or eight times to see it all?
Oscar Apfel
Well, I figure that's Sam Goldfish's problem.
Cecil B. DeMille
I've even heard stories about the Trust sending in strong armed men to sabotage long production.
Oscar Apfel
That's why I like this job. I don't think they'll be looking for us in Flagstaff. Cecil. I'm no veteran in this business. I don't think there is such an animal. But it's been proven the public will not only sit through pictures five or six reels long, but they'll pay dollars instead of nickels to see them. Besides, Mr. Lasky is supposed to do the worrying, not you.
Cecil B. DeMille
I can't help it, Oscar. Every other art form is a thousand years old or more altered, refined through the centuries. But moving pictures are entirely new art. I'm not talking about the Galloping Tintypes, as my brother calls them, but films that deal with characters and tell stories. We're mavericks, Oscar. We're not conforming. We're rebels leading a handful of other rebels.
Oscar Apfel
And you're feeling the responsibility.
Cecil B. DeMille
It gets heavier as we get closer to Flagstaff, I can tell you that.
Oscar Apfel
Well, we'll be there in a few hours. And we got that last scene to finish.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oscar. Is our script any good?
Oscar Apfel
Is a play any good before an audience sees it?
Cecil B. DeMille
All right, you've made your point. Back to the script. Dusty's last scene with the Indian girl. This is Flagstaff. Flagstrap.
Oscar Apfel
A little hot for December.
Cecil B. DeMille
Yeah, so it is.
Oscar Apfel
Well, there's Dusty. I guess Al's getting the camera in the film.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oscar. Yeah. This is the West.
Oscar Apfel
This is the West.
Cecil B. DeMille
Been in Wyoming?
Constance DeMille
Yes.
Cecil B. DeMille
Squirrel man takes place in Wyoming. Yes. Does this look like Wyoming?
Constance DeMille
No.
Cecil B. DeMille
This train goes on to Los Angeles, doesn't it?
Oscar Apfel
More fare, more budget. Jesse will have a fit couple of
Cecil B. DeMille
people have shot some one wheelers in Los Angeles.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
All aboard.
Oscar Apfel
You're the director general.
Cecil B. DeMille
I say thumbs down to Flagstaff.
Oscar Apfel
Second the motion.
Cecil B. DeMille
Ow. Ow. Get the camera back on the train. Go give him a hand, Oscar.
Oscar Apfel
Right.
Cecil B. DeMille
Dusty, hurry. Get back on.
Fred Clay
We're not staying in Flagstaff.
Cecil B. DeMille
Here. You. You elude little boy. Quick, give me a hand with this luggage.
Fred Clay
Fred, on the train. We're going on. Hurry. Hurry.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Yes, sir, gentlemen.
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Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Male)
Hey, everyone. Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, no.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Female)
We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Together. We're married.
Tyler Redick (Chumba Casino Ad)
Me to a human, him to a bird.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Male)
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways.
Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Female)
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Liberty Mutual Spokesperson (Male)
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Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
There was a lot of excitement when the word spread the two Easterners at the Alexandria Hotel were here to make some flickers.
Cecil B. DeMille
You don't say.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Everybody figured on getting their hands on some of that eastern money.
Cecil B. DeMille
You don't say.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Never had no stars like Dustin Farnham in Los Angeles before. That's for sure.
Oscar Apfel
You don't say Mr. Revere.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, you can call me Harry. Yeah, you do. Mr. DeMille, we're kind of informal out here.
Cecil B. DeMille
You don't say Harry.
Oscar Apfel
Then is this still Los Angeles?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Well, I'm glad you asked me that. We're still in the county, but this little area we're in now is called Hollywood. Hollywood Incorporated just 10 years ago. 1903.
Cecil B. DeMille
The town having a festival or something?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Not that I know of.
Cecil B. DeMille
Then why are all the trees decorated?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Them's oranges. Hollywood's full of orange and lemon trees. Reach out and pick one.
Oscar Apfel
Go to Harry Potter. Harry, this laboratory you have.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Best in the West. You run your film through the camera and I'll show you pictures the next day. Providing it don't rain.
Cecil B. DeMille
I suppose I shouldn't ask, but what's the rain got to do with it?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, well, I got a leak. A great big one. Drips into the chemicals, makes the dilution wrong.
Cecil B. DeMille
Ever think of fixing it?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Why, it never rains in Southern California.
Cecil B. DeMille
You don't say.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Now, we call this Hollywood Boulevard. You got some shops and a hotel right up there ahead. We're gonna turn here on Vine Street. My lab's right over there, gentlemen.
Cecil B. DeMille
See?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
You can see my sign from here.
Cecil B. DeMille
Is that someone's barn right next door to you?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Sure is. Jake Stearn's barn.
Oscar Apfel
Cecil, are we both thinking the same thing?
Cecil B. DeMille
Well, I didn't see any office buildings. Couldn't afford one if we did. Once lived over a stable in Pompton, New Jersey.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Hey, there's Jake now.
Fred Clay
Whoa.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Whoa there, Nelly. Whoa. Jake, Got some fine gentlemen from the East I want you to meet. Jake, this is Mr. Cedric DeMille.
Oscar Apfel
I call him Mr. DeMille.
Jake Stern
Howdy.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
And Mr. Oscar.
Cecil B. DeMille
Apple. That's apple.
Fred Clay
Oh, sure.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
We don't allow no apples in orange country.
Jake Stern
Howdy.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
These gentlemen are flicker makers.
Jake Stern
Jake, you don't say.
Cecil B. DeMille
You've got competition, Mr. Stern. Mind if we look around your barn?
Jake Stern
Help yourself.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
You gentlemen are more interested in my lab, I'm sure.
Oscar Apfel
Harry, your lab gets our work.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Well, I consider that a contract, sir. Yes, indeed.
Oscar Apfel
You did say there were no other labs.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
That's right.
Oscar Apfel
Then you can also consider the contract
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
signed, you Eastern businessman.
Cecil B. DeMille
Mr. Stern, would you consider renting us a portion of your bond to use for offices while we're shooting our pictures?
Jake Stern
Might.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
I got a little stage adjoining the laboratory, gentlemen. I even got diffusers.
Cecil B. DeMille
Sounds wonderful. Excuse us a moment. Oscar, come here. What's a diffuser?
Oscar Apfel
Well, you know how the stages are open at the top so you can
Cecil B. DeMille
use the sunlight Mean like the Edison studio?
Oscar Apfel
Well, sometimes, Cecil, especially in California, the sun gets too bright. Diffusers are strips of cloth stretched across
Cecil B. DeMille
the roof to diffuse the sunlight.
Oscar Apfel
Hey, this looks ideal.
Constance DeMille
The lab?
Oscar Apfel
The stage offices? Of a sort.
Cecil B. DeMille
We can set up partitions. And all we'll need is a desk chair and some place to edit the film.
Oscar Apfel
I say we close the deal.
Cecil B. DeMille
Good. Mr. Stern, we'd like to use the bond.
Jake Stern
Five dollars a week.
Constance DeMille
Five?
Jake Stern
I don't bargain.
Cecil B. DeMille
Accept it.
Jake Stern
Horses and carriages stay. But they was here first.
Oscar Apfel
He's got a point.
Cecil B. DeMille
Agreed.
Jake Stern
$5, please.
Cecil B. DeMille
Have to give you a check. We'll be opening a bank account.
Jake Stern
No good.
Cecil B. DeMille
Why not?
Jake Stern
Banks won't do business with Flickr makers.
Oscar Apfel
But we're going to put money in.
Jake Stern
Won't take it.
Jesse L. Lasky
What?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
He's right, gentlemen. Banks have peculiar ideas about flicker makers. But I got a friend runs the grocery hereabouts, and he's got a safe where you can keep your cash.
Jake Stern
When I get my five bucks, you can move in.
Cecil B. DeMille
Got work to do, Sus.
Oscar Apfel
Look at it this way. If we go any farther west, our hats will float.
Cecil B. DeMille
They might float right here. What's all that? Water?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, Jake's just holding down the barn.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oscar, remind me to get some boots. My dearest Constance. Miraculously, things are progressing well. They schedule shooting to begin on the 29th, so we'll probably be seeing the New Year. In looking at the footage of our first day shooting. We're paying some actors as much as $5 a day. But when you consider that Jane Darwell, who's already appeared in some films, demands $10 a day, you can see we're being cautious with our limited funds. I found a small place to rent here in Hollywood and share it with the prairie wolf we use in the film. Since I could find no other accommodations for him and find the nights dreadfully lonely without you and Cecilia. With that in mind, our leading lady, Winifred Kingston, has spent her spare time looking for a house large enough to accommodate the three of us. I want the two of you to come out on the first train, and I promise you the Wolf will be evicted by the time you arrive. The new house is in the Couenga Pass, a lovely bit of country between Hollywood and in the San Fernando Valley. There are only dirt trails, so I'll be purchasing a horse. Your husband will look more like a cowboy than Dusty does. What with the horse, the boots I wrote you about, and the gun I carry. For I live in constant dread that the Trust will discover us and sabotage our efforts. By the way, Oscar thinks I'm foolish because I plan to shoot every scene twice. But I'll feel much more secure knowing that I have an extra negative of each day's work in the house with me. Please telegraph me as soon as you know what train you'll be taking. I must rush over to the lab now to see some tests we shot today. Hug and kiss, Cecilia, for me. And never, never forget how desperately I miss you. Oh, my love. Cecil.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
It's dark inside, gentlemen, so just let me lead the way. Keep the whole building dark. Could be a light streak someplace, you know, and that won't do for a film laboratory.
Oscar Apfel
Then you've already developed a negative and made a print?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
No, we're fast, but not that fast. I figure you can look at some of the frames through a viewer I got, then tomorrow we can project the print I'll be making.
Cecil B. DeMille
My feet, they're all tangled up in something.
Oscar Apfel
Is that what I've been hearing?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Well, I can't imagine. Well, let me see here, gentlemen. Let's take this outside a minute and have a look. See? It's film.
Oscar Apfel
A whole mess of it.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
I can't imagine what it.
Oscar Apfel
It's negative.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Well, the only stuff I processed was ours.
Cecil B. DeMille
Let me see that.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Now, hold it up to the light. You'll recognize if it's your film.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oscar, it's ours.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
I can't understand it.
Oscar Apfel
It's all but mutilated. Nobody could make a print from that.
Cecil B. DeMille
I. I don't know what to say.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Mr. Burns and me, we're the only ones with keys.
Cecil B. DeMille
Harry, did you ever process a feature here before?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
You must be about the first ones making a feature out here, the Trust.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oscar, they.
Constance DeMille
Here are your boots, darling. I'll dry. Oh, Cecil, you haven't eaten a bite of breakfast.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, I'll take it with me, dear.
Constance DeMille
Two eggs, sunny side up.
Cecil B. DeMille
All right. I'll pick some oranges on the way.
Constance DeMille
Are you worried about something?
Cecil B. DeMille
I was just wondering, darling, how come Jake Stern has the cleanest barn in the west, yet I have the dirtiest arches?
Constance DeMille
I told you, when he's hosing, put your feet on the waste paper basket.
Cecil B. DeMille
I had to let Stella use it.
Constance DeMille
Stella, you told me you fired it because she wanted more money.
Cecil B. DeMille
I did, but I didn't know the typewriter belonged to her.
Constance DeMille
Darling, is this all really happening?
Cecil B. DeMille
Sometimes I get the feeling that here you Cecilia me, that this is the movie and what we're getting on film is the reality. Constance, Oscar thinks we're in at the beginning of something very Important. We both think Hollywood might be the best place in the whole country to make movies. We've got ideal weather. Mountains, deserts, ocean. About the only thing we can't duplicate near here is the North Pole. I can see movies using this terrain. Teachers, where the characters share equal billing with the terrain. Do you realize that the Holy Land not only has a similar climate, but that.
Constance DeMille
You're going to be late? Oh.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, yes. Did you pack my eggs?
Constance DeMille
You're going to pick oranges. But your lunch is packed and Cecilia's waiting by your horse.
Cecil B. DeMille
Look out there, Constance. Not a cloud in the sky.
Constance DeMille
Here's your lunch. Oh, this letter came for you yesterday.
Cecil B. DeMille
No. First of this address. I didn't know anybody.
Constance DeMille
What is it?
Cecil B. DeMille
Well, if I didn't know better, I'd say it was a joke. See for yourself.
Constance DeMille
It's words pasted from newspapers. Get out of the motion picture field. Close your studio. Heed this. If you value your life, this all. What does it mean?
Cecil B. DeMille
Trust. It has to be.
Constance DeMille
What on earth is a trust?
Cecil B. DeMille
Give me that. I want you to forget it, just as I intend to. Now I am late. I'll see you at dinner, darling.
Constance DeMille
Bye,
Fred Clay
Papa. Papa, you promised to take me for a ride this morning.
Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, would you trade that ride for one big kiss? I know you're late this evening for sure. There. Now you go help your mother clear up the kitchen.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
I will.
Fred Clay
Bye, Papa.
Cecil B. DeMille
Love you. I love you, too. Guess he scares easily. Oh, don't you worry, old girl. He won't shoot again now that he knows I'm armed. You know something? Either he's from the trust, or we've just had a brush with our first movie critic.
Fred Clay
Yeah.
Jesse L. Lasky
Clark, can you help me, please?
Cecil B. DeMille
Yes, sir. Welcome to the Hollywood Hotel.
Jesse L. Lasky
My name is Lasky, president of the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, New York. I wonder if you could direct me to my company Studio.
Cecil B. DeMille
Studio?
Charlton Heston (Narrator)
Motion picture studio.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Never heard of it.
Jesse L. Lasky
We're having a private showing of our first feature, the Squaw Man.
Charlton Heston (Narrator)
Ever heard of that?
Cecil B. DeMille
No, sir.
Jesse L. Lasky
Well, our director general is Cecil B. DeMille. Maybe you never heard of him either. Don't you ever get out from behind that desk?
Cecil B. DeMille
Oh, say, you know, I just remembered. There's a bunch of people making the
Jesse L. Lasky
movie in a barn down on Vine Street.
Cecil B. DeMille
Now, if you go east on Hollywood
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Boulevard and turn right at Vine Street.
Cecil B. DeMille
Ladies, gentlemen, my fellow workers and very good friends, there's little I can say by way of introduction to the scoreman, which we're all about to see for the first time each of you has been as close to it as I have. In a way we pioneered together. Our story is about frontier America. And our efforts, hopefully will introduce to our country and the world a new frontier. A creative wilderness that may someday be settled by a new breed of artists from all over the world. But why don't we let the picture speak for itself? Harry, I'll get the lights if you're ready.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.
Constance DeMille
Darling, what's happening?
Cecil B. DeMille
I don't know, Papa.
Fred Clay
The words are jumping.
Jesse L. Lasky
The picture's skittering off the top of the screen.
Cecil B. DeMille
Harry, is the projector loaded correctly?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Sure is. I don't understand it.
Oscar Apfel
You're sure it's working right, Harry?
Cecil B. DeMille
I'm positive, Austin.
Jesse L. Lasky
Cecil.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
That's happening in every scene.
Oscar Apfel
Cecilia. Cecil. It must be in the film.
Cecil B. DeMille
Harry, stop the projector. We're ruined.
Jesse L. Lasky
You know what this means, Sam?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Goldfish, our attorney, me.
Jesse L. Lasky
We could all face jail sentences because we've sold the exhibition rights to this picture. We've had cash advances that we put
Cecil B. DeMille
into the cost of production. He's right. We've sold something we don't even have.
Oscar Apfel
Could this be the work of the trust?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
No, I don't think so, Oscar. Mr. DeMille, look here. I'm holding a piece of your print against a piece of your negative.
Oscar Apfel
Let me see that.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Look close, you'll find something different.
Cecil B. DeMille
Sprocket holes don't line up.
Oscar Apfel
That's right, they don't.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
What did you use to sprocket your film with, Mr. DeMille?
Jesse L. Lasky
What's he talking about?
Cecil B. DeMille
Wait a minute, Jesse. I think we're a victim of my Dutch thrift.
Oscar Apfel
That second hand British made sprocket puncher you bought.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Well, that explains it.
Jesse L. Lasky
I don't want explanations.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
Are we ruined or not? I don't know, Jesse, you sprocketed your negative at 65 holes for every foot of film. All American equipment runs at 64 holes.
Jesse L. Lasky
Well, what does that mean? We'll have a hit. And England.
Oscar Apfel
There has to be an answer.
Jesse L. Lasky
I was gonna send Sam such a triumphant telegram.
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
All right, now, look. If you'll all just calm down.
Cecil B. DeMille
What is it, Harry?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
There's a man in Philadelphia, they call him Pop Rubin. Knows more about film than any man alive.
Cecil B. DeMille
Do you think he could do something?
Narrator / Cecil B. DeMille
I think they've handled this problem before. They just paste a thin strip of film over your old sprocket holes and punch new ones in.
Cecil B. DeMille
What's he talking about, Jesse? I think he just said the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. Was back in business.
Fred Clay
Darling, you're so late.
Cecil B. DeMille
We've been celebrating. Let's go inside by the light. I want to read this to you.
Constance DeMille
Not too loud.
Jesse L. Lasky
The.
Constance DeMille
The.
Cecil B. DeMille
It's a telegram from Sam Goldfish. They loved the picture at the trade showing in New York. And he has sold. Sold the squaw man to 44 out of the 48 states and expects to have the last four sold within two weeks.
Constance DeMille
Oh, darling, how wonderful.
Cecil B. DeMille
Jesse figures our investment has at least doubled. He's decided we're going to make a picture a month. Now, look at this magazine, the Moving Picture World. Here, full page. Read it.
Constance DeMille
The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company announces the production of Brewster's Millions to be produced by Jesse Lasky, America's most artistic director, employing the skills of Oscar Apful, acknowledged peer of directors and genius of innovators. And Mr. Cecil B. DeMille, master playwright, director and author of humorous dramatic successes.
Fred Clay
Oh, darling, humorous successes.
Cecil B. DeMille
Well, Jesse never could count. Well, unless he was using cash.
Constance DeMille
Oh, I'm so happy for you. A picture a month. And before long there'll be more pictures coming out of Hollywood than New York,
Cecil B. DeMille
than anywhere on earth.
Constance DeMille
Oh, if you say so, darling. Now, would the director general, that master playwright and author of numerous dramatic successes care to dine?
Cecil B. DeMille
Just wash up. And to think how I worried about the Trust ruining us. Those men have no vision, Constance. If they can't grow and develop the way the public's taste in movies is growing and developing, they have to perish. And their nickelodeons with them. People are paying as much as 50 cents and a dollar to see the Squaw Man. You realize what's happening? We're charting a whole new course in motion pictures. Do you realize that?
Constance DeMille
Yes, darling. And I also realized the dinner is getting very cold.
Cecil B. DeMille
I'm sorry. My arm. Madam, it's just that it's been such a wonderful day. I finished the shooting script for Brewster's Millions. And would you look at that. You've got our silver out of hock.
Constance DeMille
And I have a feeling it's never going back.
Narrator / Historical Commentator
Needless to say, Mrs. DeMille kept her silver. The man responsible for selling the Squaw man to the exhibitors, Sam Goldfish, went on to achieve great stature in the film industry. We all know him as Sam Goldwyn. Mr. DeMille never claimed for himself a monopoly on the concept of feature length films. Ironically, considering the numerous biblical films DeMille made. The first feature was made in 1908 and was called the Life of Moses. But because of the trust, it was released only one wheel at a time. There was a handful of other features predating Squaw man, but none had the impact of DeMille's. In fact, no other filmmaker in the world has made as memorable and lasting a mark in the movie. Going public as the son of a poor schoolmaster turned playwright, Cecil B. DeMille,
Charlton Heston (Narrator)
This has been another portrait in an American gallery. Today, a preview of coming attractions starred Sebastian Cabot as Cecil B. DeMille. Featured in the cast were Olin Soule, Sidney Miller, Jack Carroll, Herb Vigren, Jim Nusser, Catherine McLeod and Mona Lewis. Sound by Gene Twombly. The story was written by Robert M. Young. Produced and directed by William Lally. Art Ballinger speaking. This is the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.
Fred Clay
Sam. Sa.
Cecil B. DeMille
Foreign.
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Podcast: Harold's Old Time Radio
Episode: American Gallery - A Review of Coming Attractions
Date: March 23, 2026
This episode of Harold's Old Time Radio presents a dramatized account, originally from “An American Gallery,” of Hollywood’s birth and the pioneering efforts of Cecil B. DeMille and associates as they embark on producing one of America’s first feature-length motion pictures: The Squaw Man. The episode walks listeners through the adversities, innovations, and triumphs that defined the nascent days of filmmaking in Hollywood, culminating in the emergence of feature-length movies as a cultural phenomenon.
The Motion Picture Trust (the “Trust”):
Choosing Location:
First Impressions of Hollywood:
Business Realities:
Technical Learning Curve:
A New Artistic Frontier:
Epilogue:
The episode captures the optimistic, pioneering spirit of early Hollywood and its characters—full of risk, resourcefulness, light banter, and reverence for artistic ambition. The dialogue is lively, with some tongue-in-cheek exchanges reflecting industry uncertainty and camaraderie among the founders.
“American Gallery – A Review of Coming Attractions” illuminates how a handful of determined innovators, amid uncertainty and adversity, transformed a small orchard town into the film capital of the world. Through dramatization, the episode brings to life the struggle and vision that birthed Hollywood and established feature-length motion pictures as a global entertainment form. The episode is both a nostalgic tribute and an inspiring tale of artistic perseverance.