CECIL B. DEMILLE - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/18/1956 - HFSID 251432

CECIL B. deMILLE
While is is working on his epic film, The Ten Commandments, the Academy Award-winning producer and director writes to a correspondent regarding U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft, who credited deMille for helping to ensure the passage of The Taft-Hartley Act.
TLS: "C.B. deMille", 1p, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1956 June 18. On letterhead of Paramount Pictures Corporation to Mr. W. M. Hart, York, Pennsylvania. Begins: "Dear Mel". In full: "Thank you for your letter of May 29th and the copy of your tribute to Senator Taft, whom I also knew well and revered. Your letter describes a gloomy prospect, but we must all do what Taft would be doing if he were still with us - fighting doggedly for freedom on all fronts. Sincerely". At lower margin, beneath a logo for "Office of Cecil B. DeMille", is imprinted: "Current Production/'The Ten Commandments'". The Ten Commandments, for which deMille was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, was released on October 5, 1956. ROBERT A TAFT (1889-1953), a Republican U.S. Senator from Ohio (1939-1953), had died on July 31, 1953. He was the Chairman of the Senate Labor Committee in 1947, when deMille testified before Congress in February, asking for the body to ban the closed shop, which deMille felt gave unions control over "the right to work" and thereby "the right to live." The 1947 Taft-Hartley Act outlawed closed shops and unfair union practices and authorized the President to seek federal court injunctions in cases of impending strikes that would threaten the national interest. Taft said that the law would not have been passed without deMille's celebrity bringing nationwide awareness of abuse of unions' powers. 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. Lightly creased with folds, lower horizontal fold at the fourish at end of signature. File holes at blank left and right margins. Fine condition with interesting content.