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THE SIGN OF THE BOSS 169 the actor, sent word through an agent of his acceptance of the part of the clown. It was good news; DeMille was secretly determined to engage Stewart, at the right price of course, for a role which he felt the popular star was eminently qualified to play. What almost upended the boss was the disclosure that Stewart's charge would be only $50,000—one-fourth the actor's usual price per picture! Mr, DeMille was edified, and naturally perplexed. Even after Stewart explained his decision, he remained perplexed. Stewart told us that all his life he had dreamed of playing a clown, a burning desire from boyhood, and his elation over the offer was so great that he decided to set a price that DeMille could not refuse. Noble sentiments always moved the boss, especially in later years when his numerous political and union adversities im- pressed upon him the value of higher motives. On this occasion, however, he was able to put aside this reverence long enough one day to reflect on the outcome if he had had the foresight to reject Stewart's offer and haggle with him. "After all/* he mused, "the role of clown wasn't the biggest in the picture." During his relatively brief association with Mr. DeMille, Dan Lord observed him to be "a strange and fascinating blend of absolute monarch and charming gentleman, a prince with the instincts of a Barnum, a man with the Midas touch, a film director who made even more money in the banking business, extravagant, while all the time he never lost sight of a penny or really wasted a single foot of film." The late Roy Burns was DeMille's purchasing agent for forty years. Stocky, humorless, irascible, Burns won some eminence as one of the toughest traders in the movie mart. In time he drove bargains that drew grunts of satisfaction even from the boss. Burns moved in mysterious ways, never revealing the na- ture or outcome of a mission except in whispered disclosures to the boss. He did a good deal of scurrying back and forth, and had little to say to the staff; he communicated his findings to