Yet The Ten Commandments’ most lasting legacy was its marketing campaign. As he prepared for the debut, DeMille worked with the Fraternal Order of Eagles on an ambitious plan to “present plaques of the Ten Commandments on state capitol grounds, on courthouse lawns, public parks and other strategic places so that as many people as possible might view the laws of God.” The organization had been distributing copies of the Ten Commandments for years, inspired by an incident in which Judge E.J. Ruegemer of St. Cloud, Minnesota, learned that a juvenile defendant in his courtroom had never heard of the laws and “sentenced” the boy to learn and obey them. Ruegemer, the head of the Eagles’ Youth Guidance Commission, persuaded the fraternal order to take up the cause. Members and their families volunteered to make reproductions of the Ten Commandments, initially manufacturing them as paper scrolls in St. Paul and framing them with hand-cut wood and glass. The nearly 900,000 members of the organization popularized the venture, distributing scrolls far and wide. Recipients included city halls in small towns from Washington state to Pennsylvania, judges in Idaho and Massachusetts, and a police detective in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
When he learned of the Eagles’ campaign, DeMille immediately wanted to join in. A consummate showman, the director urged the Eagles to work on a grander scale. Instead of modest scrolls, he suggested the organization craft larger stone monuments that more closely resembled the tablets of Exodus. In the interests of accuracy, DeMille even sent Ruegemer a sample of the granite he had carved from Mount Sinai during his personal pilgrimage to the holy site. Sharing the filmmaker’s eye for detail, the judge reported back that the Eagles had decided to build their monoliths “from Wisconsin red granite, believing it to more closely resemble the Mount Sinai granite than our Minnesota reds.” In the spring and summer of 1955, the fraternal organization began dedicating these new stone monuments at sites like the lawn of the county courthouse in Evansville, Indiana. Soon after, DeMille and the Eagles joined forces. The Eagles wanted “to offer to Paramount Pictures our cooperation in publicizing and urging membership and families to see the forthcoming Ten Commandment film.” In return, DeMille promised to use the full influence of his publicity department, including personal appearances by stars of the film, to promote the Eagles’ work.
