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VOLUME 16
NEW BERN, N. C. 28560, FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1973
NUMBER 7
Hundreds of millions of
people the world over had
reason to mourn the passing of
Hollywood’s greatest showman,
Cecil B. DeMille. For our part,
we remembered with
gratitude the interest he
displayed in the Yuletide Revue
here.
Busy though he was, he took
time out when the Revue ob
served its 20th anniversary to
send a congratulatory
tel^am. In a later mail there
came. an autographed
photograph from him. In both
instances, DeMille referred to
himself as a “transplant^ Tar
Heel.”
Never, in his long and
illustrious life, did he lose sight
of the fact that his boyhood was
spent in the Old North State-
over at Washington. He grew up
in a home where there was a
distinct awareness of God, and
his religious background was
reflected in the spectacular
production of such epics as
“King of Kings” and “The Ten
Commandments.”
It surprised no one who really
knew DeMille, when a close
friend said quite simply after
his funeral that the most
distinguished movie maker of
all time regarded death as the
“beginning of the great ex
perience.” How he lived and
what he did with his talents had
already spoken eloquently of his
belief in the soul’s immortality.
DeMille was literally Ixwn
into show business. IBs parents
were touring New Enidand in a
road show at the time of his
birth, but came, to North
Carolina soon afterwards. He
proved to be the same sort of
trouper that his less notable
mother and father had been.
In fact, before heading for
Hollywood to pioneer the
flickers with Samuel Gddwyn
and Jesse L. Lasky, he was an
actor, a playwright and a
theatrical producer. In every
phase of entertainmeiitv he was
eminently qualified to speak
with authority.
All of which emphasizes the
tragic mistake that citizens in
our ‘ neighboring city of
Washington .made when they
permitt^ D^ille’s home to Iw
demolished and replaced with a
service station.
Iliere’s nothing wrong with a
service station—they are a
necessary and vital part of our
modern evistence—but no
business establishment of any
sort shouid have supplanted a
landmark of such importance.
For years the house was a
tourist home, and countless
millions would have paused to
visit the dwelling had it been
properly publicized and
utilized.
It seems to us that a worthy
tribute to DeMille and a lasting
attraction of the first magnitude
for Washington itself would
have been the cmversion of his
boyhood home into a motion
picture museum.
Not only DeMille but
everyone in Hollywood could
have furnished a vast store of
items for a show place such as
this. If onlv props, costumes
and the like from his own
productions had been collected
(Continued on page 8)
Nriii ffuhltr 2Itbrary
ONCE UPON A TIME—Unless you’re pushing 60 or
beyond it, you are prolMtbly too young to recall this
great movie star, Marie Dressier. She reached the
heists with Wallace Beery in Tugboat Annie, but it
was her role as the goitle housekeeper in Emma
that had audiences in tears and earned her an
Oscar as the best screen actress of the year. In her
younger days Edie was a successful Broadway
comedienne, became a has been, and then in her
late years soared to Hollywood star^m. Like
Helen Hayes, she never got so high and migbty that
a favorable mention in print didn’t bring a note of
thanks to the writer who was responsible. In our
case she also sent along a personally autographed
photo, as Helen Hayes md in a similar situation.