CECIL B. DEMILLE - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED CHECK 02/19/1942 - HFSID 84253

CECIL B. deMILLE
Check signed by the Academy Award-winning producer and director in 1942, the year he produced and directed Reap the Wild Wind and appeared as himself in Star Spangled Rhythm.
Check signed: "Cecil B. deMille", 8¼x3¼. Hollywood, California, 1942 February 19. Check No. 2796, drawn on the Special Account of Cecil B. DeMille Productions, Inc. at the Bank of America, Los Angeles Main Office, payable to Cecil B. de Mille for $245. Noted to be for "Salary". Also signed in unknown hand on front. Stamped endorsement on verso. In 1942, deMille produced and directed Reap the Wild Wind, for which he was also the uncredited "Prologue Speaker". That year, he also appeared as himself in another feature film, Star Spangled Rhythm. Cecil Blount DeMille (1881-1959) won an Academy Award for Best Picture for The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), for which he was nominated for the Best Director Oscar, and he was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture for The Ten Commandments (1956). DeMille, who produced his first film (The Squaw Man) in 1914 and his last (The Buccaneer) in 1958, crafted several Westerns, such asThe Plainsman (1937) and other films, including The Greatest Show on Earth, but he is best known for producing and directing epic films (both silents and "talkies") inspired by the Bible and other themes of antiquity. These include The Ten Commandments (both the 1923 and 1956 versions), The King of Kings (1927), Sign of the Cross (1932), Cleopatra (1934) and Samson and Delilah (1949). He also produced such films as Adam's Rib (1923), The Volga Boatman (1926), The Buccaneer (1938), Union Pacific (1939), Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and The War of the Worlds (1953). DeMille, who appeared in several of his films, also wrote the stories and plays upon which several films were based. He also hosted and directed Lux Radio Theatre from 1936-1945, and DeMille was one of the 36 co-founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bank cancellation hole nicks the upper portion of the "C" in Cecil. Bank stamp on front, not at signatures. Fine condition.