In 1922, Cecil B DeMille came up with what he was convinced was a brilliant idea. He had already made a name for himself as the director of epic silent movies – movies that critics laid into with unrestrained glee, but which did terrific business at the box office.
DeMille decided that he would repay his audience’s loyalty by letting them decide what his next movie should be. In conjunction with the Los Angeles Times, he ran a competition – whoever came up with the best subject would win $1000. The winner was a man called FC Nelson, a manufacturer of lubricating oil from a small town in Michigan. Nelson submitted a single sheet of paper on which were written the words “Make the Ten Commandments”. But along with this he added a warning: “You Cannot Break the Ten Commandments – they will break you.”
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