Louis B. Mayer
Home of Peace Memorial Park
Louis B. Mayer was the
stereotypical Hollywood studio mogul -- a short, feisty, cigar-chomping czar
who ruled his kingdom with an iron fist. His studios were true film factories,
with the stars treated like assembly-line workers, and "L.B." in charge of
everything for 27 years -- equally respected and feared, part father figure, part tyrant.
Mayer was born in a small town in the Minsk district of Russia,
although the exact date is not certain. Mayer knew only that he was born
in the summer, so he picked July 4 for his birthday. The family came to
North America, living for a while in New Brunswick, Canada. Mayer's father
worked as a peddler and a scrap metal dealer, and Mayer made several trips
to Boston, MA, to arrange for the sale of scrap metal. In 1904, the 19-year-old
Mayer moved to Boston, leaving his family behind in New Brunswick.
With the scrap metal business failing, Mayer purchased a small,
dilapidated, 600-seat theater called the Gem in the Boston suburb of Haverhill
in 1907. Mayer renamed the theater the Orpheum, and promised the public
that he would present only "high-class films." When the Orpheum became a
success, Mayer expanded into film distribution by opening the Louis B. Mayer
Following the enormous financial success of that film, Mayer
formed a series of distribution companies -- Master Photoplays, Serial Producing
Company and American Feature Film Company. In 1918, Mayer lured actress
Anita Stewart away from Vitagraph, formed Louis B. Mayer Pictures, and moved
to Los Angeles to start making his own films. His first production, "Virtuous
Wives" (1918), starring Stewart and Hedda Hopper, was a success.
Beginning with his promise of presenting only "high-class films"
in Haverhill, Mayer continued his policy of making films which stuck to the
themes of honor, fidelity, decency and virtue. His early films followed a
similar formula -- poor but decent girl faces severe temptations, and triumphs
over all in the end. "I will only make pictures that I won't be ashamed
to have my children see," Mayer said. And the film-going public seemed
to enjoy these themes as much as Mayer did.
While building his studio, Mayer hired 24-year-old Irving
Thalberg away from Universal Studios to be his vice president and production
assistant in 1923. Later that year, Marcus Loew, president of the powerful
Metro Pictures Corp. and the Loew theater chain; Frank Joseph Godsol,
president of the Goldwyn Company; and Mayer met to discuss a merger
of the three companies. Loew had a large and successful chain of theaters,
but he was unhappy with the way his film-production studio was being
operated. Godsol had a large and well-stocked studio in Culver City, but
lacked the distribution and exhibition facilities. And Mayer and Thalberg
could provide the successful studio management. The deal was signed in
1924, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was born.
Mayer moved to the Goldwyn lot in Culver City, a 40-acre
facility with a three-story office building and six large stages. With
the facilities and talent of the three combined studios at their disposal,
Mayer and Thalberg built an entertainment empire. One of their first
big productions was the epic "Ben-Hur" (1925), starring Ramon Novarro
and Francis X. Bushman, which was filmed partially on location in Italy.
For a time, the MGM film factory released an average of
one feature film per week. In 1936, Mayer was the first business executive
in the country to make $1 million per year, and he remained the highest-paid
executive through 1944. Thalberg felt entitled to an equal share, but
Mayer had begun to resent the prevailing opinion that Thalberg was the
real genius behind MGM's success. An angry Thalberg threatened to
leave MGM. Their conflict was finally ended when the sickly Thalberg
died of pneumonia in 1936.
The films made by MGM during Mayer's 27-year tenure
include "Anna Christie" (1930), "Grand Hotel" (1932), "Dinner at Eight"
(1933), "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935), "A Night at the Opera" (1935),
"Romeo and Juliet" (1936), "The Good Earth" (1937), "Captains Courageous"
(1937), "Marie Antoinette" (1938), "Boys Town" (1938), "The Wizard of Oz"
(1939), "Ninotchka" (1939), "Gone With the Wind" (1939), "The Philadelphia Story"
(1940), "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1941), "Mrs. Miniver" (1942), "The Human
Comedy" (1943), "Gaslight" (1944), "Anchors Aweigh" (1945), "The Yearling"
(1946), "Adam's Rib" (1949) and "Father of the Bride" (1950), as well as
the "Broadway Melody" series, the "Thin Man" series, the "Lassie" series,
and the "Andy Hardy" series -- which Mayer was always watching over to
keep the kissing and romance between young Andy Hardy and Polly Benedict
to an absolute minimum.
On the MGM payroll, according to the well-known studio
slogan, were "more stars than there are in heaven," including, at various
times, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor,
Buster Keaton, Katharine Hepburn, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney,
the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, William Powell, John Barrymore, Lionel
Barrymore, Myrna Loy, Ava Gardner and one of Mayer's personal discoveries,
Greta Garbo. Mayer was often personally involved in the private lives
of his employees, usually to make sure their public reputation matched
the studio's image for wholesomeness and decency. When MGM executive
and writer Paul Bern, recently married to MGM starlet Jean Harlow, committed
suicide, Mayer arrived on the scene before the police, and took Bern's suicide
note. He feared the incident might reflect poorly on the studio, but he was
eventually convinced to turn the note over to the police. When Mickey
Rooney, star of the "Andy Hardy" series and a well-known womanizer and
partygoer, started to get a little too much press, Mayer took him aside
and gave him the Mayer version of a Judge Hardy lecture: "You're Andy Hardy!
You're the United States! You're Stars and Stripes! You're a symbol! Behave
yourself!" There are even reports that when one of MGM's biggest stars was
driving drunk on Hollywood Boulevard and killed a pedestrian, Mayer arranged
for a low-level studio employee to take the blame in exchange for a life-time
job guarantee.
Mayer ruled over MGM as a big family -- with Mayer as the
paternalistic authority, rewarding loyalty and obedience, punishing
insubordination, and regarding opposition as personal betrayal.
By the late 1940s, the golden years for studio moguls
were coming to an end. The government was forcing the film industry to
divest its lucrative theater chains, and top stars and directors were
demanding a share of the profits that Mayer had always denied them. Dore
Schary, head of production at RKO Studios and former Academy Award-winning
writer at MGM (for "Boys Town") was hired to replace Thalberg. Schary
and Mayer battled from the very start. When the slumping financial
situation at MGM began to improve almost as soon as Schary returned to
the studio lot, rumors began circulating that Mayer would either resign
or be forced out by Nick Schenck, president of Loew's, Inc., which controlled
MGM. After yet another battle with Schary, Mayer called Schenck with
an ultimatum -- "It's either me or Schary." To Mayer's shock, Schenck
choose Schary, and Mayer submitted his resignation in 1951. After Schenck
retired in 1955, Mayer made an attempt to convince the major Loew's
stockholders to allow him back to control the studio again, but he was
rejected just weeks before he died.
In 1950, Mayer was given a special Academy Award, "for
distinguished service to the motion picture industry."
At Mayer's funeral, Jeanette MacDonald sang, "Ah, Sweet
Mystery of Life," and Samuel Goldwyn, the founder and former head of
the Goldwyn Company, reportedly quipped, "The reason so many people
showed up at his funeral was because they wanted to make sure he was dead."
Above Mayer's crypt is his sister, Ida Mayer Cummings
(1883 - 1968).
Mayer was born Ezemiel Mayer on July 4, 1882, in
Vilme, Russia. He died on Oct. 29, 1957, in Los Angeles, CA.
1885 - 1957
Back to biographies page