Everything was the best that you could have, he recalls. He was also among the founders of Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Mayer was a delegate to the 1932 Republican National Convention with fellow Californians Knowland, Rolph, and Earl Warren. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill both loved the film, said historian Emily Yellin, and Roosevelt wanted prints rushed to theaters nationwide. Thank you for a great blog! In an unpublished memoir, the famous actress described being molested by Louis B. Mayer and threatened by other men part of Hollywood's ugly history of harassment. With MGM's film output as high as one film each week, he never panicked over a bad picture. A partnership was set up with B. P. Schulberg to make the Mayer-Schulberg Studio, In late 1922, Mayer was introduced to Irving Thalberg, then working for Universal Pictures. [49] "Louis B. Mayer defined MGM, just as MGM defined Hollywood, and Hollywood defined America", writes biographer Scott Eyman.[38]. Died Add to list Awards 3 wins Photos 9 Known for The Great Secret 5.4 Used to getting his way, Mayer was much too impatient to deal with troublesome architects. Because of the notoriety of the house, we would get some weird characters dropping by at times. [77] Author Peter Hay states that Mayer "cherished the Puritan values of family and hard work. They are reminders of a vanished time in the industry. [68], One of Rooney's repeat costars in Andy Hardy and other films was Judy Garland, with whom he made nine films. Personable guards greet the stars, but crude types end . [20] Then, they moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, where Mayer attended school. You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. Why were the residue of her stomach contents thrown away on autopsy? He left Cinerama in 1954 when the company was sold. I really enjoy it! Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industry's most prestigious movie studio, accumulating the largest concentration of leading writers, directors, and stars in Hollywood. Louis B Mayer was a film producer and executive also known as the 'lion of Hollywood'. 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 audiences. Mayer maintained that he was born in Minsk on July 4, 1885. Anxious to make more of them, on a hunch, he asked songwriter Arthur Freed to be associate producer for The Wizard of Oz. "[72], Jackie Coogan, then 11, marked the studio's debut using child stars with his role in The Rag Man in 1925. He may have been an immigrant with a good suit of clothes, but never forget that this was a man working hard to be an American. At age 12, he dropped out of school to help in his father's scrap metal business. He wanted to know. What Mayer couldn't do on his own, he hired the best talent he could find to do for him. [79], Therefore, having messages was less important to Mayer than giving his audience pure entertainment and escapism. You can read the whole history of Hollywood just from my book of menus, she once said. Cooper Janis says the panel caused a stir in Hollywood opinions were mixed as to whether it was vulgar. [73], 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. [82], From September 1939 until January 1940, all films that could be considered anti-Nazi were banned by the Hays Office. [35] Mayer issued statements to the press, calling Thalberg "the finest friend a man could ever have the guiding inspiration behind the artistic progress on the screen." The Eastman Museum maintains its collection of nitrate film at the Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center, a state-of-the-art facility consisting of twelve vaults containing more than 26 million feet of film and an inspection room with four workstations for the care and inspection of film material. Mayer replied, "A studio isn't salami, Nick. Mayer told him, "When this war is over, if you want to come back here, I'll find a job for you. He taught himself manners. SCU Presents' largest facility is the Louis B. Mayer Theatre. Mickey nodded. Louis B. Mayer's home at 625 Palisades Beach Rd, Santa Monica, built 1936. In 1956, the residence was purchased by British-born actor Peter Lawford and his wife, Patricia Kennedy, for $95,000. In his spare time, he hung around the York Theater, sometimes paying to watch the live vaudeville shows. Robert Wagner grew up in Bel Air playing with the Goetzes two daughters and attended Edies dinners for 30 years. Although not creative himself, he was an administrative genius whose best efforts epitomized all the virtues of the major. They were the good, clean, wholesome elements of the folksy entertainment that was MGM's specialty. [110] According to Eyman, "Mayer's view of America became America's view of itself. Louis B. Mayer's working-class family immigrated to New York when he was a small child, and in 1890 moved to Saint John, NB, where his father became a junk dealer. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industry's most prestigious movie studio, accumulating the largest concentration of leading . [74] And unusual for a movie mogul, he took moral positions in his movies, especially when it came to portraying family valuesas in the Andy Hardy series. [93] Many assumed that his leaving meant the end of an era. The vintage footage in this video has been uploaded for research purposes, and is presented in unedited form.. With her house searched top to bottom for her diary, incriminating notes, letters, pictures, jewelry, her body posed multiple times, including one where shes holding her phone, timelines were reworked, along with so called witnesses stories, who were barely if at all questioned. [112] At Mayer's funeral in 1957, Spencer Tracy expressed Mayer's ambitions: The story he wanted to tell was the story of America, the land for which he had an almost furious love, born of gratitudeand of contrast with the hatred in the dark land of his boyhood across the seas. Joseph M. Schenck was an alternate delegate at the convention. I had been to his hometown. "I'll be good, Mr. Mayer. . At its peak, MGM employed 6,000. In 1976, Thoroughbred of California magazine named him "California Breeder of the Century". It was considered one of the finest racing stables in the United States and raised the standards of the California racing business. Mayer made himself head of production as well as studio chief. At home, Mayer was boss. a rundown burlesque house in the suburb of Haverhill. Louis B. Mayer Theatre - 390 to 571 seats. I also think Marilyn was murdered. As it turns out, the property is one I know quite well and had read about in countless books over the years the infamous Peter Lawford beach house in Santa Monica where my girl Marilyn Monroe is rumored to have trysted with both John F. Kennedy and his brother, Bobby, back in the 1960s. Just don't do it in public. Hello, This was so much fun to read. Some stars did not appreciate his attempts to control their private lives, while others saw him as a solicitous father figure. [51] In MGM films, "marriage was sacrosanct and mothers were objects of veneration". The property, which cost $26,000 to construct, featured a gatekeepers apartment, 13 onyx bathrooms, wood-beamed ceilings, wrought-iron balconies, foot-thick exterior walls to keep the interior cool during the summer, a pool, and a projection room with a movie screen that rose from the floor. All the studios observed five minutes of silence, while MGM closed its studio for the entire day. The post-war years saw a gradual decline in profits for MGM and the other studios. The article states, Their flight of fancyand what some might call anti-union maneuveringswiftly took wing. He, though, like other top film executives and Hollywood stars in the 1920s and early 1930s, was often too quick to dismiss news of inventions and major innovations on the horizon that might profoundly change the movie industry or possibly challenge in the future the growing dominance of films in the realm of American entertainment. This was in the late 70s so she obviously wasnt there! But despite his important role in MGM, Mayer was not a shareholder, and had no standing to challenge the sale. You're a symbol!" Well probably never learn the exact cause of Marilyns death/murder, because most of the people involved are long gone along with evidence. Mayer owned or bred a number of successful thoroughbred racehorses at his ranch in Perris, California, near Los Angeles. Its shoe workers, small shopkeepers and tradesmen were an ideal demographic for cheap entertainment. On Rosalie, for instance, when Nelson Eddy refused to sing a song he thought was too melodramatic, its songwriter, Cole Porter, went to Mayer and played it for him. In 1967, the Los Angeles Times profiled five couples who were at the top of what it called The Hollywood Establishment, including the Goetzes and Russell and Frederick Brisson. Tina Sinatra remembers touching the tutu of Edgar Degas bronze The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, which stood in the hallway. That was a good way to tell if it was someone we were expecting or someone who just wanted in. Film summary. Mayer died of leukemia on October 29, 1957. Selznick, Irene Mayer (May 1983). On that day, exactly 100 years ago, a half-educated scrap-metal dealer opened a 600-seat movie theater in a converted burlesque house in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was all he cared about", said Sidney.[91]. In 1918, Mayer moved his family to Los Angeles, where Louis B. Mayer Productions set up shop in half of a studio on Mission Road in East L.A. and started assembling a roster of stars. I was shocked. Louis B. Mayer: King of Hollywood (1999) is a documentary film directed by F. Whitman Trecartin that takes a look at life of filmmaker Louis B. Mayer, who as head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios, came to rule over movie stars.The film takes a look at the personal price that Mayer paid for that success. Eve Johnson said that their marriage had been engineered by Louis B. Mayer at MGM. In 1947, 15-year-old Elizabeth Taylor told off her boss, MGM head honcho Louis B. Mayer, arguably the most powerful man in Hollywood, for being mean to her mother. Then in 1904 the 20-year-old Mayer left Saint John for Boston, where he continued for a time in the scrap metal business, got married and took a variety of odd jobs to support his new family when his junk business lagged. [5], Mayer was forced to resign as MGM's vice president in 1951, when the studio's parent company, Loew's, Inc., wanted to improve declining profits. [61], With many of his actors, Mayer was like an overprotective father. I throughly enjoyed your pictures and great history lesson of this very famous house. [61] Beyond the well-entrenched aspect of sound by 1932, other technologies being discussed at that time in newspapers and on studio lots included color features, widescreen formatting, and even early television. Click here to subscribe. 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