YES, MR.DEMILLE (1959)

94 Yes, Mr. DeMille emerged with another $250,000 pledge. So far, so good, but the last half-million is always the toughest. There was good reason to believe that they might get an attentive ear in at least one quarter-the most powerful banking interest in America, ruled over by the legendary Giannini family. Indeed, DeMille boasted a close relationship with Papa Giannini, the famed "A.P." It dated back several years when DeMille undertook what turned out to be a ticklish part-time job—running a bank's movie-loan department! Putting a film producer in the position of making loans to other film producers might appear to be the act of a deranged mind, but it was in truth a shrewd move- when one considered the fiber of a man like DeMille. Moreover, the banks at the time, 1915-20, put "the movie crowd" in a bracket not far removed from counterfeiters. Loan officers had a standing order, "Watch out for those movie pro- ducers/' In some banks, a request for a movie loan caused a stir comparable to a hold-up alarm. The turning point in this attitude came quickly enough; word got about that some of the studios were handling two or three million dollars quarterly. It struck financiers as a lot of money to be circulating without the customary 6 per cent participation on their part. The Commercial National Bank set up a motion picture branch at the corner of Cherokee and Hollywood. They placed DeMille in charge of loans, the first such arrangement in Holly- wood banking circles. It fixed on the youthful producer the awesome responsibility of deciding which film maker was "good for a loan," a position not likely to widen his circle of producer friends. They gave him a brass plate bearing his name, and authorized him also to sign $10 bills, U. S. currency, a privilege which he always regarded as one of the most delightful of his life. "It gave me a wonderful Comptroller of the Currency