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154 Jes> Mr. DeMilk always that the spirit of a letter must reflect most admirably on the signer. We struggled with what came to be known as "hog letters/' A "hog letter * was viewed with universal horror by the staff. It meant that draft after draft had been rejected by DeMille, that in all likelihood an unfortunate aide was pacing back and forth in his office, exclaiming to anyone who would listen, "I've got one of those hog letters cooking/' "Hog letters" came into being shortly after the filming of The Story of Dr. Wassell The Navy hero of the story, Dr. Corydon Wassell, an Arkansas country doctor, sent DeMille a razorback hog. It was a royal animal, big and firm, representa- tive of its breed. Touched by the gesture, DeMille rallied his staff. A letter to Dr. Wassell must be written that would rank as high in the art of letter writing as this hog ranked among razor- backs. The letter must move Wassell as much as the hog has moved DeMille. In a brief caucus out of DeMille's hearing, the staff agreed the only way to achieve that effect was to send Wassell a com- parable hog or maybe one of DeMille's "epic turkeys/ 7 Both being out of the question, they set to the task of trying to fashion a piece of prose that would engulf Wassell with its transcendental beauty. Sydney Biddell, a literate fellow who was then helping with production affairs, was the first to send in a draft. It was rejected as "too lofty/' The second was "not lofty enough." The third, "not warm enough/' By the fourth and fifth submissions, Biddell had vowed a permanent oath against all hogs, with special calumny on the heads of Arkansas razorbacks. Observing Biddell floundering, DeMille called for drafts from another assistant. Then another, until two weeks had passed.