The Last Picture Show eye fell on an interesting title, "The Last Picture Show". The back of the book said it was about "kids growing up in Texas" and Bogdanovich decided that it did not interest him and put it back. A few weeks later, actor Sal Mineo handed Bogdanovich a copy of the book. "I always wanted to be in this," he said, "but I'm a little too old now" and recommended that Bogdanovich make it into a film. At the time, Bogdanovich was married to Polly Platt and he asked her to read it. Her response was, "I don't know how you
The Greatest Show on Earth (film) him for a lifetime of filmmaking going well back into the silent movie era. DeMille's best work had been done before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was created. It may be that the members of the Academy (which included many veterans of the silent era) felt that as an elder statesman of Hollywood and founding member of the Academy, he deserved the honor even if other films that year were better than "The Greatest Show on Earth". Many people today would agree that "The Ten Commandments", DeMille's next (and last) film which he produced and directed,