Ready when you are C.B.

[milady 82]

I found out the meaning to the above mentioned phrase. Joe, he runs the scene shop at U.C.A., told me this story.

Cecil B. DeMille was filming the silent version of The Ten Commandments. The had this scale set of a city that is supposed to be destroyed by an earthquake. He tells the cameraman to start filming when he gives the word. DeMille goes off to work something out with one of the technicians and then the do the earthquake scene. When the city set is totally demolished he asks the cameraman how it looked. The cameraman says
"Ready when you are C.B.." It took them weeks to buid another set to do the shot.

:D

[LCD]

I've read something about this version too, or maybe it was another DeMille silent film, where a thousand unpaid extras for a crowd scene were all given lunches in return for their time. Some of those stories about behind-the-scenes Old Hollywood are fascinating, to say the least. I think Gloria Swanson said it (tongue in cheek perhaps?) in the Film Sunset Boulevard, to Mr. DeMille. (This is off the top of my head, mind you, I could be wrong.)