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3. AN idea had been lurking in the mind of Cecil Blount DeMille for a long time. A "western" with Israelites instead of cowboys! Pioneers trekking westward was Holly- wood's richest plot vein, and it did not matter much what the variations were—sheepherders plaguing cattlemen, Indians plaguing new settlements, bad white men plaguing good white men, the hard life vs. determined heroine fresh from big city, the. countryside vs. "the dirty railroaders," and on, on and on. If Brigham Young went West, DeMille reasoned, why not Moses? The people of Israel yearned for a land of hope, too, but on top of that escaped from the degrading cruelties of the Egyptians. Moses would provide two big dips of melodrama. It was spring, 1923. The public was clamoring for spectacle on the screen. James Craze had released The Covered Wagon, a biggie costing $800,000. In its sensational wake Wagon left behind one inescapable truth for DeMille—the world was ready for the brand of spectacle he long had dreamed of making. And now he had the format, an epic version of Moses and the flight from Egypt. Its title, The Ten Commandments. A differ- ent "western" and a spectacle in the same exciting package! He tested the idea on a few minor officials. They were under- standably startled. It meant a Bible story of major proportions cast loose amid the risky shoals of the bubbling 1920's, an era of whims and high revelry. It did not seem quite the time for a deeply religious theme. DeMille was aware that Paramount had not invested in the Testaments Old or New, not on this scale, anyway. He went directly to Adoph Zukor, the mighty mite of Paramount, shrewd, 88