Cecil B. DeMille's Typewriter and Ten Commandments Tablets to Auction

The typewriter that Cecil B. DeMille used for his 1914 movie The Squaw Man goes under the hammer at Heritage Auctions tomorrow in its dedicated Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Collection auction.

He used his Underwood No. 5 typewriter - metal accented with a black frame featuring gold lettering and striping - to type the scenario for the film which was his directorial debut, and which was written in long hand by him and Oscar Apfel on the train from New York to Los Angeles. It originally belonged to DeMille's typist-bookkeeper Stella Stray, and passed from her to DeMille in December 1913. The Squaw Man was the first feature film made in Hollywood

Also on offer is a promotional pair of the red granite tablets from DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956). These are hewn from red granite brought from Mt. Sinai where Moses stood when God revealed himself in the burning bush and where the Ten Commandments were created. DeMille consulted with scholars of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and Dr. Ralph Marcus wrote him a version of the Ten Commandments in early Canaanite lettering from the era of Moses. Each tablet weighs approximately 32 pounds (14.5 kg) and are the same size and appearance as the lightweight prop plastic tablets handled by Charlton Heston as Moses in the film.

Accompanying the Ten Commandments tablets is a custom-built wooden display cabinet DeMille commissioned to exhibit them for promotional and educational purposes.