B. Reeves Eason ran a produce business before going into stock and vaudeville. He is known for using 42 cameras to film the spectacular chariot race in the Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman version of Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ (1925). (The chariot race was filmed at what is now the intersection of LaCienega and Venice Boulevards in Los Angeles.) This 1925 version was the most expensive silent film ever made, costing $3.9 million, and in 1921 the sum of $600,000 was paid for the rights to film the classic Lew Wallace novel (the highest price ever paid for rights during the silent era). Eason also directed the "burning of Atlanta" in the classic Gone with the Wind (1939).