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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM), is an American media company specializing in film and television production and distribution based in Beverly Hills, California. It was founded on April 17, 1924 and has been owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon since 2022.
- Lists of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films - Wikipedia
This is a list of feature films originally released and/or...
- List of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio films - Wikipedia
The following list is a filmography of all animated short...
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Simple English Wikipedia, the free ...
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., (also known as...
- Lists of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films - Wikipedia
This is a list of feature films originally released and/or distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (to include MGM/UA Entertainment Co., MGM/UA Communications Co., MGM-Pathe Communications Co. and MGM/UA Distribution Co.).
- Early Life
- Early Career
- Heading New Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios
- Managing MGM
- Themes, Musicals and Formula
- World War II Issues
- Declining Years at MGM
- Personal Life
- Death
- Legacy
Mayer preferred to say that he was born in Minsk. Bosley Crowther, in an early biography, gave his birthplace as "a little town near Minsk". Other sources cite such places as Demre and Dmra, "a village between Minsk and Vilnius". Charles Higham and Scott Eyman state that Mayer was born in Dymer near Kyiv in Ukraine; this accords with what Mayer him...
Mayer renovated the Gem Theater, a rundown, 600 seat burlesque housein Haverhill, Massachusetts, which he reopened on November 28, 1907, as the Orpheum, his first movie theater. To overcome an unfavorable reputation that the building had, Mayer opened with a religious film at his new Orpheum, From the Manger to the Cross, in 1912. Within a few year...
Mayer's big breakthrough was in April 1924 when his company subsequently merged with two others to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer(MGM). The 24-year-old Thalberg was made part-owner and accorded the same position as vice president in charge of production. Marcus Loew, owner of the Loew's chain, merged Metro Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn's Goldwyn Pictures Co...
Management style
In his overall management skills, Mayer was considered a great executive, someone who could have run General Motors equally as well as a large studio like MGM, said producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz. He worked at the studio all the time, and decisively, without any fixed schedule, but disliked paperwork. Some said Mayer had a lot in common with newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Hearst had financed multiple MGM pictures, while MGM benefited by having film reviews included nationwide in th...
Growth of the studio
At its peak in the 1940s, MGM employed six thousand people, had three entrances, and covered 185 acres in Culver City, California, outside of Los Angeles. It had forty cameras and sixty sound machines, used on its six separate lots, and connected with its own rail line. About 2,700 people ate in the commissary every day. Power was supplied by an in-house electrical plant which could light a town of 25,000. In addition, MGM maintained a police force of fifty officers—larger than that of Culver...
Creating a "star system"
Mayer helped create what is termed the "star system". At one point he explained the process he went through in creating a star:
While MGM's films during the 1920s and 1930s were often known for containing adult themes and strong female stars, such as Greta Garbo, after Thalberg's early death in 1936, Mayer promoted a change in emphasis to more male leads, family themes, and child stars. And unusual for a movie mogul, he took moral positions in his movies, especially when it...
Unlike Charlie Chaplin, who produced The Great Dictator, the other, much larger Hollywood studios lacked the freedom to make such independent films. Mayer understood that the Germans could ban or boycott Hollywood films throughout much of Europe, with serious economic implications, since 30 to 40 percent of Hollywood's income came from European aud...
The post-war years saw a gradual decline in profits for MGM and the other studios. The number of high-grossing films in 1947 dwindled to six, compared to twenty-two a year earlier. MGM had to let go many of its top producers and other executives. Mayer was pressured to tighten expenses by the studio's parent company, although Mayer's reputation as ...
Accusations of sexual abuse
Louis B. Mayer has been accused of sexual abuse, including having groped a then-teenage Judy Garland. According to Gerald Clarke's book Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, Mayer "held meetings with the young woman seated on his lap, his hands on her chest". In an interview with Larry King, Shirley Temple claimed that Mayer "came on to" her mother while at the same time, Temple was in the adjacent office of Arthur Freed, who, she claimed, disrobed before her; she proceeded to laugh until he t...
Family
Mayer had two daughters from his first marriage to Margaret Shenberg (1883–1955), which ended in divorce in 1947. The elder of these, Edith (Edie) Mayer (1905–1988), whom he would later become estranged from and disinherit, married producer William Goetz (who served as vice president for Twentieth-Century Fox and later became president of Universal-International). The younger, Irene (1907–1990), was the first wife of producer David O. Selznickand became a successful theatrical producer. In 19...
Entertainment and leisure
At his home on Saint Cloud Road in the East Gate Bel Air neighborhood, Sundays were reserved for brunches in what was an open house, which often included visiting statesmen or former U.S. presidents, along with various producers, directors or stars. There would be a buffet supper, drinks, and later a movie.Mayer drank almost no alcohol, cared nothing for fine cuisine, and did not gamble, but might play penny-ante card games for fun. For leisure activities, he liked going to the Hollywood Bowl...
Mayer died of leukemia on October 29, 1957. He was buried in the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. His sister, Ida Mayer Cummings, and brothers Jerry and Rubin also are buried there.
Mayer and his lieutenants built a company that was regarded by the public and his peers alike as the pinnacle of the movie industry."Louis B. Mayer defined MGM, just as MGM defined Hollywood, and Hollywood defined America", writes biographer Scott Eyman. In 1951, he was given an honorary Oscar for heading MGM for over 25 years. At the event, screen...
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM), is an American media company specializing in film and television production and distribution. Founded on April 17, 1924, and based in Beverly Hills, California, it is owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon.
- (November 9, 1924-April 22, 1928) Visuals: Same as the final Goldwyn Pictures logo, but a new lion named "Slats" occupies the circle. Slats moves his head from right to left and then looks at the camera, and later looks around aimlessly.
- (October 1, 1927-September 27, 1928) This logo is currently missing in action. Please do not add reconstructions of the logo if any exist, as they are likely not accurate to the actual logo.
- (September 1, 1928-October 13, 1953) Original B/W version. Original B/W version #2. Original B/W version #3. Original B/W version with NRA logo. Copyright notice version.
- (November 2, 1928-March 15, 1932) Visuals: Another lion named "Telly" appears in a newly redrawn film-like ribboning. He is the first of the two two-strip Technicolor lions.
The following list is a filmography of all animated short subjects distributed by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) motion picture studio through Loew's Incorporated between 1930 and 1958 and between 1961 and 1967.
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., is an American media company specializing in film and television production and distribution based in Beverly Hills, California. It was founded on April 17, 1924 and has been owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon since 2022.
