When
Cecil B. DeMille was in pre-production on this film, he asked to screen the original
Cleopatra (1917) with
Theda Bara. No prints could be found in Los Angeles, so a copy was borrowed from the Fox office in New York. After DeMille viewed the film, it was sent back to Little Ferry, NJ. On 7/9/37 a fire at the storage facility destroyed almost all of Fox's known archived prints, most likely including "Cleopatra". The screening for DeMille's company, on 2/15/34, may have been the last time anyone saw the legendary film. However, on September 14, 2023, 42 seconds of extremely rare footage of the final act in which Cleopatra prepares to die as the Roman Legion marches upon her palace was procured from a 1920's toy film projector and presented on YouTube.