Authors of grand new book ‘Cecil B. DeMille’ to sign Thursday

Cecilia de Mille Presley and Mark A. Vieira, the authors of “Cecil B. Demille: The Art of the Hollywood Epic” will be signing the book at Book Soup on Thursday. The book, too, is epic, combining stills and never-before-seen artwork and ephemera from one of Hollywood’s most legendary directors.

As Presley writes in the book, her grandfather kept thousands of items from his film career: “storyboards, painting, costumes, artifacts, documents, scripts, photographs and his original nitrate prints.” The book includes all these and artworks created for DeMille when he was making his films, particularly his biblical and historical epics.

DeMille’s career in film stretched from 1914’s “The Squaw Man” to 1956’s “The Ten Commandments” (which he also made in 1923).

“What I really wanted to get across here was the amazing vision he had for art and making movies,” Presley, vice chairman of the National Film Preservation Foundation, told the Los Angeles Times. “He was the most successful film director and producer in silents and then again in sound.”

Historian Vieira explains, “He was the first director to have concept art done. Both in terms of style and content, he was a vanguard and didn’t get stuck in one genre.”

The two will sign “Cecil B. DeMille” Thursday at Book Soup in West Hollywood at 6:30pm.

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