The Greatest Showman: Cecil B. DeMille | Betty Lasky

[Betty Lasky] I started working on a memoir of my father many years ago and uh... I recently found some notes that I had written at that period. And it seems so perfect that I'd like to read it to you. "He had a "Rooseveltian' personality and that made him a spokesman for the industry." "He was a master diplomat." "His smile was sincere, he truly loved people." "He had the enthusiasm, he made the creative decisions and mentored his best friend, Cecil B. DeMille" "Zukor and Lasky, that's Adolph Zukor and Lasky, were a great combination and you would not have had the 'Golden Age' without them." Now... he was so different from the other moguls because he came out of California. He was a second-generation Californian. His father was born in Sacramento. He was born in San Francisco. I'm a third-generation Californian. And all of the other moguls, as I know you know, crawled out of Ghettos on the east side, most of them anyway, on the east side of Europe and uh... found their way to New York and eventually to Hollywood. So... he was, he was different. They were always waiting to see who was going to knock them out...who was after them. And my father never distrusted anyone. He truly cared about people and thought that everyone meant well toward him which, of course, was his undoing. Toward the end of his life when the IRS got after him because he had an attorney who made a bad decision to take a capital gains on "Sergeant York" and he lost his fortune. But he did not lose his smile or his belief that things would work out for him. And uh... he, he had an open door in his office and he was, he was that friendly. He didn't shut himself in and he would take visitors and the press around the vast studio in Hollywood. And if you lived in Hollywood in the teens and the twenties you worked at Lasky's. That's what it was called. And, of course, times changed and he was forgotten. But this new book of...this marvelous book of Cecilia DeMille Presley and Mark Greco... Mark uh... Mark...uh...Vieira has already been through one printing and is a big success and it, you get the relationship between my father and DeMille. And they were best friends from the moment they met until the end of their lives. They were born a year apart and they died a year apart and never a week passed that they weren't in touch and going to DeMille's ranch paradise together or going to an opening together because my mother was a painter and not fond of the big social lives and the openings and uh...Mr. DeMille's wife was the same way, but they went to openings together and they were constantly in touch and it was a wonderful relationship. Although the day came when Mr. DeMille could no longer save my father from Zukor's acts because of the expense of his films. But my...when he left Paramount and was not too successful on his own my father helped him get back to Paramount and of course he saved the studio with his big epics. So that is...that gives you a brief look at him. If there any questions? I will say that some of his favorite films- Sir James' Barrie's "Peter Pan" and "The Covered Wagon"- which are my favorites from the early period, were closely supervised by him, particularly "The Covered Wagon." He...it had been planned as a small feature and he built it into a tremendous... period film of the covered wagons coming West because his grandfather had come West on a covered wagon and it really inspired him. And I've seen it with live music. If you can ever see it with a live orchestra it is an experience that is unforgettable. So... I think uh... also the fact that he signed Chevalier, Maurice Chevalier in Paris, when all the studios had turned him down because of his accent says something... says something. Yes, of course my mother fell for him. And, he said, "I'll come to Hollywood if I can meet Mary and Doug, you know, Doug Fairbanks-" Mary Pickford and Doug Fairbanks. And right away a banquet was arranged so he could meet them. But uh...so that gives you a general picture. He was quite different from the others but he got along with everyone. Uh... Louis B. Mayer, we called him "Louis B." And uh... someone he didn't but my father did and Harry Warner, of course. So, uh... that gives you a general...idea. [Audience clapping].