YES, MR.DEMILLE (1959)

'54 Yes, Mr. DeMille Are you religious, in the sense that you observe rituals? Well, I don't think I am religious in the true ritual. If faith in God and belief in Divinity is religion, I don't think that the practice of forms is necessary in religion, and I think it is very apt, in many instances, to deprive thought of its religious value, if it is presented in a definite form that you repeat over and over again every day of your life. I think the importance of contact with a Supreme Being or a Supreme Mind is well. I think Jesus of Nazareth covers it more thoroughly probably than any being—any Divine Being-that has ever visited the earth. He gives a very careful method of approaching contact with the Supreme Being and he was against form most of the time. He went into the Temple and threw form out, because form had led to money values and it had gotten as far away from religion, if religion means, as I believe it does, the contact of the human being with the Divinity. Form is not necessary... it all depends on the individual. You asked me whether I have gone by form—I have not. My father went to church always, and followed form, but never taught form. He tried to teach the meaning of the forms, and if you can absorb the meaning of the forms, then forms will not be harmful, but beneficial. But if they are just forms and the meaning of the form does not reach you, then they are harmful because they stop your own individual thinking and your own individual contact with the Supreme Being. Insofar as Mr. DeMille's career and reputation ever became an issue, it was the staffs task to keep a nice balance between pride and public relations. What the boss loved to hear about himself might be injurious—if it caused the public or press to react badly. He expected us to be alert to such things, and not hesitate to tell him when he was about to commit an inadvis- able act. "I can't watch out for everything," he often reminded