I’ve read that at least 14,000 extras and 15,000 animals were used in the filming of The Ten Commandments. Now, I  have no idea if it’s factual or not but a long-held old Hollywood story (involving an extra) goes like this: While filming a scene that precedes Moses’ descent from Mount Horeb with the two stone tablets, the legendary producer/director Cecil B. DeMille was seated on top of a ladder, looking down on the action. He was in the middle of one of his customary LONG-WINDED speeches and directions through a megaphone to the hundreds of extras involved. Legend has it that he was angered when he spied a female extra talking to another woman during (horrors!) his speech.  He was so incensed that he pointed and directed everyone’s attention to the horrified woman and asked if she’d like to share (with everyone else) what she was saying to the other woman…. what could have been SO IMPORTANT that she’d dare not listen to him with rapt attention?!

After an awkward few seconds of silence, the young woman confessed, “I was just saying to my friend here, ‘I wonder when that bald-headed old fart is gonna call ‘Lunch!‘”

Unfazed, DeMille stared blankly at the woman for a moment… then lifted his megaphone and shouted, “Lunch!”