Legendary Hollywood producer-director Cecil Blount DeMille (1881–1959) was born on this day in Ashfield, Massachusetts. A visionary known as the P.T. Barnum of the movies, he transformed cinema into spectacle.

DeMille began as a respected silent film director and transitioned seamlessly into talkies. He championed grandeur and narrative power, firmly believing that film was art. His vision radiated opulence… and possibility.

His ego was as bold as his sets. “You are here to please me. Nothing else on earth matters,” he once told his crew. He pioneered the use of the director’s megaphone, becoming as legendary behind the scenes as on screen.

A founding force of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, DeMille created iconic epics like The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and The Ten Commandments (1956). Steven Spielberg called the Red Sea sequence “the best special effects sequence of all time.”

Across a 50-year career, he was a gifted storyteller who understood what audiences would love. “Give me any two pages of the Bible and I’ll give you a picture,” he declared...And he did.

DeMille helped shape the very foundation of epic filmmaking, launching the careers of stars like Gloria Swanson and Charlton Heston. His creative legacy endures, including the cherished tradition of handprints at Grauman’s Theatre.

“The public is always right,” he believed. And they were because they chose him, again and again, with awe and admiration.