03/02/2008 09:05:23

Happy Birthday!!!

03/02/2008 12:26:01

Happy Birthday, Luke1 :)

03/02/2008 09:20:08

03/02/2008 05:40:16

03/02/2008 01:26:39

happy birthday...
March 2, 1925

DeMille founds studio
Director, producer, and screenwriter Cecil B. DeMille founds his own studio on this day in 1925. DeMille had left Famous Players-Lasky in January 1925 but would return after only a short time on his own.

DeMille was born in Ashfield, Mass., into a family with a strong background in theater. After studying drama at the Pennsylvania Military College and New York's Academy of Dramatic Arts, DeMille acted in and later became general manager of a theatrical company founded by his mother. He also collaborated on plays with his brother William, an established playwright. In 1913, he co-founded the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co. with Jesse Lasky and glove salesman Samuel Goldfish (who later changed his last name to Goldwyn). Lasky merged with The Famous Players Film Co. in 1916, and through a series of additional mergers and acquisitions the studio became Paramount Famous Lasky in 1927, and later evolved into Paramount Pictures.

The Lasky company's first silent film, The Squaw Man (1914), was the first feature to be shot in Hollywood. The film was an enormous success, and the company's subsequent films, including Joan the Woman(1917) and The Whispering Chorus (1918), helped make DeMille's name a household word.

In 1921, De Mille formed his own company, Cecil B. DeMille Productions Inc., and started making Bible-based epics, partly in response to the public perception of Hollywood as immoral. His silent versions of The Ten Commandments in 1923 and The King of Kings in 1927 were box-office hits. DeMille left Famous Players-Lasky in 1925 and formed the Cinema Corporation of America. Three years later, he and his staff joined MGM, but in 1934, they headed back to his old studio, now called Paramount Publix Corp, where he made The Sign of the Cross (1932). His extravagant, flamboyant films also included Cleopatra (1934), The Crusades (1935), and a massive remake of The Ten Commandments (1956). De Mille directed and produced all 70 of his films and won a special Academy Award for showmanship in 1949. In 1952, The Greatest Show on Earth won an Academy Award for Best Picture. De Mille also won the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Motion Picture Academy the same year. He died in 1959 at age 78.