Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

Talking Pictures meriting, straining their nerves and their minds to carry forward still further this new art which has achieved so much in so short a time, which has before it still more alluring vistas. The simplest way of impressing this fact would be for us to go physically to Hollywood, or any other picture making center, and actually visit a studio. But this is not practical. It will take only a few incidents to show why visitors are not welcome; why it is that the studios have uniformed officers to guard their gates. The story is told of that day when Cecil B. DeMille, noted director, was filming The Ten Commandments. The scene was in the palace of the Pharaohs. Moses, played by the late Theodore Roberts, had come to plead for the release of the enslaved Israelites. Hundreds of men and women were in the setting. A score of cameras had been set to get every detail. An entire day had been spent in careful rehearsals and in placing hundreds of big lights. Finally, late in the evening, everything was ready for the first actual "shot." The director called "Camera," and the sensitized film began to pass behind the lenses of the cameras. Suddenly a taxi driver, in full uniform, appeared standing in the scene, near a group of bearded Jews. Coming to pick up a customer, probably one of that very group, he had stopped to view the scene and, not being able to see well from behind the lights, he had stepped in front of them. DeMille roared with rage. So far as is known, the young man is still running! And there was a young lady who did not see a cable lying at her feet while Norma Shearer and Clark Gable [8]