1.
Silent film
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A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. The silent film era lasted from 1895 to 1936, in silent films for entertainment, the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, mime and title cards which contain a written indication of the plot or key dialogue. During silent films, a pianist, theatre organist, or, in large cities, pianists and organists would either play from sheet music or improvise, an orchestra would play from sheet music. The term silent film is therefore a retronym—that is, a term created to distinguish something retroactively, the early films with sound, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, were referred to as talkies, sound films, or talking pictures. A September 2013 report by the United States Library of Congress announced that a total of 70% of American silent feature films are believed to be completely lost, the earliest precursors of film began with image projection through the use of a device known as the magic lantern. This utilized a glass lens, a shutter and a persistent light source, such as a powerful lantern and these slides were originally hand-painted, but still photographs were used later on after the technological advent of photography in the nineteenth century. The invention of a practical photography apparatus preceded cinema by only fifty years, the next significant step towards film creation was the development of an understanding of image movement. Simulations of movement date as far back as to 1828 and only four years after Paul Roget discovered the phenomenon he called Persistence of Vision. This experience was further demonstrated through Rogets introduction of the thaumatrope, the first projected primary proto-movie was made by Eadweard Muybridge between 1877 and 1880. Muybridge set up a row of cameras along a racetrack and timed image exposures to capture the many stages of a horses gallop, the oldest surviving film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a film of people walking in Oakwood streets garden. Edison also made a business of selling Kinetograph and Kinetoscope equipment, due to Edisons lack of securing an international patent on his film inventions, similar devices were invented around the world. The Lumière brothers, for example, created the Cinématographe in France, the Cinématographe proved to be a more portable and practical device than both of Edisons as it combined a camera, film processor and projector in one unit. In contrast to Edisons peepshow-style kinetoscope, which one person could watch through a viewer. Their first film, Sortie de lusine Lumière de Lyon, shot in 1894, is considered the first true motion picture, the invention of celluloid film, which was strong and flexible, greatly facilitated the making of motion pictures. This film was 35 mm wide and pulled using four sprocket holes and this doomed the cinematograph, which could only use film with just one sprocket hole. From the very beginnings of film production, the art of motion pictures grew into maturity in the silent era. Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style, the silent era was also pioneering era from a technical point of view
2.
Femme fatale
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A femme fatale is a stock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art, in American early 20th century film, femme fatale characters were referred to as vamps, an allusion to their role as sexual vampires. The phrase is French for fatal woman, a femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. In some situations, she uses lies or coercion rather than charm and she may also make use of some subduing weapon such as sleeping gas, a modern analog of magical powers in older tales. She may also be a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape, a younger version of a femme fatale is called a fille fatale, or fatal girl. Femmes fatale are typically villainous, or at least morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification, the femme fatale archetype exists in the culture, folklore and myth of many cultures. Ancient mythical or legendary examples include Mohini, Lilith, the Sirens, historical examples from Classical times include Cleopatra and Messalina, as well as the Biblical figures Delilah, Jezebel and Salome. An example from Chinese literature and traditional history is Daji, the femme fatale was a common figure in the European Middle Ages, often portraying the dangers of unbridled female sexuality. The pre-medieval inherited Biblical figure of Eve offers an example, as does the wicked, along with them, there rose the gothic novel, The Monk featuring Matilda, a very powerful femme fatale. This led to her appearing in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, pre-Raphaelite painters frequently used the classic personifications of the femme fatale as a subject. Later, Salome was the subject of an opera by Strauss, and was popularized on stage, screen, another enduring icon of glamour, seduction, and moral turpitude is Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, 1876–1917. While working as a dancer, she took the stage name Mata Hari. Although she may have been innocent, she was accused of German espionage and was put to death by a French firing squad, after her death she became the subject of many sensational films and books. Other considerably famous femmes fatales are Isabella of France, Hedda Gabler of Kristiania, Marie Antoinette of Austria, one traditional view portrays the femme fatale as a sexual vampire, her charms leech the virility and independence of lovers, leaving them shells of themselves. Rudyard Kipling took inspiration from a vampire painted by Philip Burne-Jones, the poem inspired the 1913 eponymous film The Vampire by Robert Vignola, sometimes cited as the first vamp movie. Like much of Kiplings verse it became popular, and its refrain. Describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular 1915 film A Fool There Was that made Theda Bara a star, the poem was used in the publicity for the film. On this account, in the American slang of the era the femme fatale was called a vamp, from the American film-audience perspective, the femme fatale often appeared foreign, usually either of indeterminate Eastern European or Asian ancestry
3.
Fort Lee, New Jersey
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Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, in the New York City Metropolitan Area, situated atop the Hudson Palisades. The borough is the terminus of the George Washington Bridge and is located across the Hudson River from the Manhattan borough of New York City. Named for the site of an early American Revolutionary War military encampment, according to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 2.888 square miles, including 2.541 square miles of land and 0.347 square miles of water. The borough is situated atop the escarpment of the Hudson Palisades on the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson rivers, the borough is bisected by the confluence of roads at GWB Plaza leading to the George Washington Bridge. Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the borough include Coytesville, Palisade, the borough borders Cliffside Park, Edgewater, Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield. and the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan. It was during Washingtons retreat in November 1776 that Thomas Paine composed his pamphlet, The American Crisis and these events are recalled at Monument Park and Fort Lee Historic Park. Fort Lee was formed by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 29,1904, with the creation of Fort Lee, Ridgefield Township became defunct and was dissolved as of March 29,1904. The Fort Lee Police Department was formed under borough ordinance on August 9,1904, the history of cinema in the United States can trace its roots to the East Coast where, at one time, Fort Lee was the motion picture capital of America. The industry got its start at the end of the 19th century with the construction of Thomas Edisons Black Maria, in 1909, a forerunner of Universal Studios, the Champion Film Company, built the first studio. They were quickly followed by others who either built new studios or who leased facilities in Fort Lee, such notables as Mary Pickford got their start at Biograph Studios. With the offshoot businesses that sprang up to service, the film studios, however, just as the development of Fort Lee production facilities were gaining strength, Nestor Studios of Bayonne, New Jersey, built the first studio in Hollywood in 1911. Californias more hospitable and cost-effective climate led to the shift of virtually all filmmaking to the West Coast by the 1930s. At the time, Thomas Edison owned almost all the relevant to motion picture production. Television and film in New Jersey remains an important industry, since 2000, the Fort Lee Film Commission has been charged with celebrating the history of film in Fort Lee, as well as attracting film and television production companies to the borough. In 1957, market researcher James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a screen, in Fort Lee, had influenced people to purchase more food. Vicary coined the term subliminal advertising and formed the Subliminal Projection Company based on a six-week test, Vicary claimed that during the presentation of the movie Picnic he used a tachistoscope to project the words Drink Coca-Cola and Hungry. Eat popcorn for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals, Vicary asserted that during the test, sales of popcorn and Coke in that New Jersey theater increased 57. 8% and 18. 1% respectively. In 1962, Vicary admitted to lying about the experiment and falsifying the results, an identical experiment conducted by Henry Link showed no increase in cola or popcorn sales
4.
Ziegfeld Follies
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The Ziegfeld Follies was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air. Inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris, the Ziegfeld Follies were conceived and mounted by Florenz Ziegfeld, reportedly at the suggestion of his then-wife, the shows producers were turn-of-the-twentieth-century producing titans Klaw & Erlanger. The Follies were a series of revues, something between later Broadway shows and the more elaborate high class Vaudeville variety show. The first Follies was produced in 1907 at the roof theatre Jardin de Paris, during the Follies era, many of the top entertainers, including W. C. They usually wore elaborate costumes by designers such as Erté, Lady Duff Gordon, the Tableau vivants were designed by Ben Ali Haggin from 1917 to 1925. Joseph Urban was the designer for the Follies shows starting in 1915. After Ziegfelds death his widow, Billie Burke, authorized use of his name for Ziegfeld Follies in 1934 and 1936 to Jake Shubert, who then produced the Follies. The name was used by other promoters in New York City, Philadelphia. Featuring numbers by Ray Bolger, Dennis Morgan, Virginia Bruce, and Harriet Hoctor, the MGM blockbusters show-stopper was the Irving Berlin-composed, A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody, which, by itself, cost more to produce than one of Ziegfelds entire stage shows. In 1941 MGM released Ziegfeld Girl, starring Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, James Stewart, celebrated numbers from Ziegfeld Revues were recreated, including the famed Wedding Cake set which had been used for Metros earlier film, The Great Ziegfeld. According to modern sources, Turners character was modeled after Ziegfeld Girl Lillian Lorraine, Brice appeared in the Follies for more than ten years. The 1964 musical, Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice, the 1968 Columbia film of the musical also starred Barbra Streisand as Brice and Walter Pidgeon as Florenz Ziegfeld. Esthers Follies The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies Alfred Cheney Johnston The Passing Show Joseph Urban Ziegfeld Theatre Ziegfeld on Musicals101. com Ziegfeld Follies at Internet Broadway Database
5.
Owen Moore
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Owen Moore was an Irish actor in American films, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937. S. Anchoria and was inspected on Ellis Island in May 1896, settled around Toledo, Ohio, Moore and his siblings went on to careers in motion pictures in Hollywood. While working at D. W. Griffiths Biograph Studios, Moore met a young Canadian actress named Gladys Smith whom he married on January 7,1911 and their marriage was kept secret at first because of the strong opposition of her mother. However, Gladys Moore would soon overshadow her husband under her stage name, in 1912, he signed on with Victor Studios, co-starring in a number of their films with studio owner/actress Florence Lawrence. Mary Pickford left Biograph Studios to join the Independent Moving Pictures to replace their major star, Pickford’s Canadian friend, carl Laemmle, the owner of IMP who soon merged IMP into Universal Studios, agreed to sign her husband as part of the deal. This humiliation, together with his wifes meteoric rise to fame, drastically affected Moore and alcohol became a problem led to violent behavior. In 1916, Pickford met actor Douglas Fairbanks, Pickford filed for a divorce from Moore, Pickford and Fairbanks married just days later in 1920. He also appeared in films for his own company as well as Goldwyn. Moore married a second time to another silent film actress, Katherine Perry, with the advent of sound film, Moores career declined and he became basically a supporting actor for newer stars. He competed, as the lead, with Cary Grant and Noah Beery, Sr. for the attentions of Mae West in She Done Him Wrong. His last film appearance was as a director in the 1937 drama A Star Is Born starring Janet Gaynor. After years of fighting alcoholism, Owen Moore died in Beverly Hills, California from an attack and was interred in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles. For his contribution to the picture industry, Owen Moore has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6727 Hollywood Boulevard. Owen Moore at the Internet Movie Database Owen Moore at Find a Grave Menefee, David Sweet Memories ISBN1469966956
6.
John Barrymore
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John Barrymore was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. After a success as Hamlet in London in 1925, Barrymore left the stage for 14 years, in the silent film era, he was well received in such pictures as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sherlock Holmes and The Sea Beast. During this period, he gained his nickname, the Great Profile and his stage-trained voice proved an asset when sound films were introduced, and three of his works, Grand Hotel, Twentieth Century and Midnight have been inducted into the National Film Registry. Barrymores personal life has been the subject of attention before. He struggled with alcohol abuse from the age of 14, was married and divorced four times, Much of his later work involved self-parody and the portrayal of drunken has-beens. His obituary in The Washington Post observed that with the passing of the years – and as his life became more public – he became, despite his genius in the theater. Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth in Philadelphia, and was known by family, although the Barrymore family bible puts his date of birth as February 15,1882, his birth certificate shows February 14. He was the youngest of three children and his siblings were Lionel, and Ethel. Barrymores mother, Georgie Drew Barrymore, was born into a prominent theatrical family, Barrymores maternal grandparents were Louisa Lane Drew, a well-known 19th-century American actress and the manager of the Arch Street Theatre, and John Drew, also an actor whose specialty was comedy. Barrymores maternal uncles were two more thespians, John Drew, Jr. and Sidney, Much of Barrymores early life was unsettled. In October 1882, the family toured in the US for a season with Polish actress Helena Modjeska, the following year his parents toured again with Modjeska but left the children behind. Modjeska was influential in the family, and she insisted that all three children be baptized into the Catholic Church, in 1884 the family traveled to London as part of Augustin Dalys theatrical company, returning to the US two years later. As a child, Barrymore was sometimes badly behaved, and he was sent away to schools in an attempt to instill discipline, the strategy was not always successful, and he attended elementary schools in four states. He was sent first to the annex of the Convent of Notre Dame in Philadelphia. I wanted to be an artist and he was expelled from the school in 1891 and was sent to Seton Hall Preparatory School in New Jersey, where Lionel was already studying. Barrymore was unhappy at Seton and was withdrawn, after which he attended several public schools in New York. In 1892, his grandmother Louisa Drews business began to suffer, the loss of their mothers income prompted both Ethel and Lionel to seek work as professional actors. Barrymores father was absent from the family home while on tour, and when he returned he would spend time at The Lambs
7.
Eleonora Duse
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Eleonora Duse was an Italian actress, often known simply as Duse. She is regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time, Duse was the subject of the 1947 biographical film Eleonora Duse. Duse was born in Vigevano, Lombardy, and began acting as a child, both her father and her grandfather were actors, and she joined the troupe at age four. Due to poverty, she initially worked continually, traveling from city to city with whichever troupe her family was currently engaged and she came to fame in Italian versions of roles made famous by Sarah Bernhardt. While she made her career and fame performing in the theatrical warhorses of her day, she is remembered more for her association with the plays of Gabriele dAnnunzio. In regard to her character, it is important to note that reading was a lifelong passion. In 1879, while in Naples, she met journalist Martino Cafiero, however, less than a year later, while she was in mid-pregnancy, he left her. The baby did not survive birth, and shortly thereafter Cafiero died as well, Duse then joined Cesare Rossis theater company, and met actor Teobaldo Checchi. By 1885, the couple had one daughter, Enrichetta, but divorced after Duse became involved with another actor, by this time, her career was in full swing and her popularity began to climb. She travelled on tour to South America, and upon her return a year later she formed her own company, between 1887 and 1894 she had an affair with the Italian poet Arrigo Boito, perhaps best remembered as Verdis librettist. Their relationship was carried out in a clandestine manner, presumably because of Boitos many aristocratic friends. In later years the two remained on good terms until his death in 1918, in 1895 she met Gabriele dAnnunzio, who was five years her junior, and the two became involved romantically as well as collaborating professionally. Gabriele dAnnunzio wrote four plays for her, in contrast to her relations with Boito, her association with dAnnunzio was widely recognized. When dAnnunzio gave the lead for the premiere of the play La Città morta to Sarah Bernhardt instead of Duse, there was a furious fight, in contrast to Bernhardts outgoing personality, which thrived on publicity, Duse was introverted and private, rarely giving interviews. She found public appearances to be a distraction, and once remarked to a journalist that away from the stage, Bernhardt and Duse were unspoken rivals for many years. Comparisons of Duse to Bernhardt with regard to their acting talent were common and those who thought Duse the greater artist included George Bernard Shaw, who saw both actresses in London within the span of a few days, in the same play. Shaw gave his nod to Duse and defended his choice in an adamant oratory quoted by biographer Frances Winwar, ellen Terry, a famous British actress of the era who knew both well, observed How futile it is to make comparisons. Better far to thank heaven for both these women, in 1896, Duse completed a triumphant tour of the United States, in Washington President Grover Cleveland and his wife attended every performance
8.
Rudolph Valentino
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He was an early pop icon, a sex symbol of the 1920s, who was known as the Latin lover or simply as Valentino. He had applied for American citizenship shortly before his death at age 31. Valentino was born Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi in Castellaneta, Apulia and his mother, Marie Berta Gabrielle, was French, born in Lure in Franche-Comté. His father, Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fedele Guglielmi di Valentina dAntonguella, was Italian, Valentino had an older brother, Alberto, a younger sister, Maria, and an older sister, Beatrice, who had died in infancy. As a child, Rodolfo was indulged because of his exceptional looks and his mother coddled him, while his father disapproved of him. He did poorly in school and was enrolled in agricultural school at Genoa. After living in Paris in 1912, he returned to Italy. Unable to secure employment, he departed for the United States in 1913 and he was processed at Ellis Island at age 18 on December 23,1913. Arriving in New York City, Valentino soon ran out of money and he supported himself with odd jobs such as bussing tables in restaurants and gardening. Eventually, he work as a taxi dancer at Maxims Restaurant-Cabaret. Among the other dancers at Maxims were several displaced members of European nobility, Valentino eventually befriended Chilean heiress Blanca de Saulles, who was unhappily married to prominent businessman John de Saulles, with whom she had a son. Following the divorce, John de Saulles reportedly used his connections to have Valentino arrested, along with a Mrs. Thyme. The evidence was flimsy at best, and after a few days in jail, following the well publicized trial and subsequent scandal, Valentino could not find employment. Shortly after the trial, Blanca de Saulles fatally shot her ex-husband during a dispute over their son. Fearful of being called in as a witness in another trial, Valentino left town. In 1917, Valentino joined a company that traveled to Utah. He then joined an Al Jolson production of Robinson Crusoe, Jr. which was travelling to Los Angeles, by fall, he was in San Francisco with a bit part in a theatrical production of Nobody Home. While in town, Valentino met actor Norman Kerry, who convinced him to try a career in cinema, Valentino and Kerry moved back to Los Angeles and became roommates at the Alexandria Hotel
9.
Natacha Rambova
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Natacha Rambova was an American film costume and set designer, best known for her marriage to Rudolph Valentino. Although they shared interests such as art, poetry and spiritualism, his colleagues felt that she exercised too much control over his work. In later life, she continued her spiritualist activities, as well as studying Egyptology, Rambova was born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy in Salt Lake City. Her father, Michael Shaughnessy, was an Irish Catholic who fought for the Union during the American Civil War and her mother, Winifred Kimball, was a granddaughter of Mormon leader Heber C. Winifred was four times married, settling eventually on millionaire perfume mogul Richard Hudnut, Rambova was adopted by her stepfather, making her legal name Winifred Hudnut. A rebellious teenager, Rambova was sent to a strict British boarding-school and her family had encouraged her to study ballet purely as a social grace, and were appalled when she chose it as her career. Although too tall to be a ballerina, she was given leading parts by Kosloff. Rambova’s mother was outraged at this affair with a married man. But when Rambova fled abroad, her mother relented and agreed to her continuing to perform with the company, when Kosloff was hired by Cecil B. DeMille as a performer and costume designer for Hollywood films, Rambova carried out much of the work as well as the historical research. Kosloff would then steal her sketches and claim credit for them as his own, both professionally and personally, her partnership with Kosloff was tempestuous. He was a controlling and abusive man with other lovers. When Kosloff started work for film producer Alla Nazimova at Metro Pictures Corporation. Nazimova requested some alterations, and was most impressed when Rambova was able to make these changes immediately in her own hand, so she offered Rambova a position on her production staff as an art director and costume designer, enabling her to leave Kosloff at last. Rambovas first film for Nazimova was Billions, followed by Uncharted Seas, on which she first met Rudolph Valentino, and they then had to pretend to separate until Valentino’s divorce was final, and they married on May 13,1922 in Mexicali, Mexico. But the law required a year to pass before remarriage, and Valentino was jailed for bigamy, however, their honeymoon at her adopted father’s romantic mountain hideaway at Johnsburg, NY, was an experience they would both treasure. They legally remarried on March 14,1923, both Rambova and Valentino were Spiritualists, and they visited psychics and took part in séances and automatic writing. Valentino wrote a book of poetry Daydreams with many poems about Rambova and she too wrote a book about the time she spent with him, claiming to be in contact with him in the afterlife via psychics
10.
Bust (sculpture)
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A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a persons head and neck, and a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual and these may be of any medium used for sculpture, such as marble, bronze, terracotta or wood. A parallel term, aust, is a representation of the part of an animal or mythical creature. Sculptural portrait heads from classical antiquity are sometimes displayed as busts, however, these are often fragments from full-body statues, or were created to be inserted into an existing body, these portrait heads are not included in this article. Herma Portraiture Livius. org, Bust gallery of famous ancient Greeks Oxford definition Dictionary. com definition
11.
Satyr
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In Greek mythology, a satyr is one of a troop of ithyphallic male companions of Dionysus with goat-like features and often permanent erection. Early artistic representations sometimes include horse-like legs, but in 6th-century BC black-figure pottery human legs are the most common, in Roman Mythology there is a concept similar to satyrs, with goat-like features, the faun, being half-man, half-goat, who roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are associated with pipe-playing. Greek-speaking Romans often used the Greek term saturos when referring to the Latin faunus, the satyrs chief was Silenus, a minor deity associated with fertility. These characters can be found in the complete remaining satyr play, Cyclops, by Euripides. The satyr play was a short, lighthearted tailpiece performed after each trilogy of tragedies in Athenian festivals honoring Dionysus, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the satyr play regularly drew on the same myths as those dramatized in the tragedies that preceded. The groundbreaking tragic playwright Aeschylus is said to have especially loved for his satyr plays. Mature satyrs are depicted in Roman art with goats horns. As Dionysiac creatures they are lovers of wine and women, because of their love of wine, they are often represented holding wine cups, and they appear often in the decorations on wine cups. Attic painted vases depict mature satyrs as being built with flat noses, large pointed ears, long curly hair. Satyrs often carry the thyrsus, the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone, in earlier Greek art, Silenos appear as old and ugly, but in later art, especially in Hellenistic art, he is softened into a more youthful and graceful aspect. This transformation or humanization of the Satyr appears throughout late Greek art, another example of this shift occurs in the portrayal of Medusa and in that of the Amazon, characters who are traditionally depicted as barbaric and uncivilized. A humanized Satyr is depicted in a work of Praxiteles known as the Resting Satyr, Praxiteles gives a new direction to the satyr in art. Although not mentioned by Homer, in a fragment of Hesiods works satyrs are called brothers of the nymphs and Kuretes. In the Dionysus cult, male followers are known as satyrs, in Attica there was a species of drama dealing with the legends of gods and heroes, and the chorus was composed of satyrs and sileni. In the Athenian satyr plays of the 5th century BC, the chorus commented on the action and this satyric drama burlesqued the serious events of the mythic past with lewd pantomime and subversive mockery. One complete satyr play from the 5th century survives, the Cyclops of Euripides, the Satyr and the Traveller, one of Aesops Fables, features the satyr as the benevolent host for a traveler in the forest in winter. The satyr is bewildered by the claim to be able to blow hot and cold with the same breath, first to warm his hands, then to cool his porridge
12.
Cecil B. DeMille
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Cecil Blount DeMille was an American filmmaker. Between 1913 and 1956, he made a total of 70 features and he is acknowledged as a founding father of the cinema of the United States and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. His films were distinguished by their scale and by his cinematic showmanship. He made silent films of every genre, social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, DeMille began his career as a stage actor in 1900. He later moved to writing and directing stage productions, some with Jesse Lasky, DeMilles first film, The Squaw Man, was also the first feature film shot in Hollywood. Its interracial love story made it a hit and it put Hollywood on the map. The continued success of his productions led to the founding of Paramount Pictures with Lasky and his first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments, was both a critical and financial success, it held the Paramount revenue record for twenty-five years. In 1927 he directed The King of Kings, a biography of Jesus of Nazareth, the Sign of the Cross was the first sound film to integrate all aspects of cinematic technique. Cleopatra was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, after more than thirty years in film production, DeMille reached the pinnacle of his career with Samson and Delilah, a biblical epic which did an all-time record business. Along with biblical and historical narratives, he directed films oriented toward neo-naturalism. He went on to receive his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for his circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth and his last and most famous film, The Ten Commandments, is currently the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. He was also the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B, DeMille Award, which was later named in his honor. There are several variants of DeMilles surname and his familys Dutch surname was originally spelled de Mil and then became de Mille. As an adult, he adopted the spelling DeMille for professional purposes, the family name de Mille was used by his children Cecilia, John, Richard, and Katherine. DeMilles brother William and his daughters, Margaret and Agnes, as well as DeMilles granddaughter, Cecilia de Mille Presley, Cecil Blount DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, while his parents were vacationing there, and grew up in Washington, North Carolina. His father, Henry Churchill de Mille, was a North Carolina-born dramatist and lay reader in the Episcopal Church and his mother was Matilda Beatrice DeMille, whose parents were both of German Jewish heritage. She emigrated from England with her parents in 1871 when she was 18, Beatrice grew up in a middle-class English household. DeMilles mother was related to British politician Herbert Louis Samuel, DeMilles parents met as members of a music and literary society in New York
