Louis B. Mayer

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For the North Carolina jurist, please see Louis B. Meyer.

Louis Burt Mayer (born Eliezer Meir 1882^[1] – October 29, 1957) was an early film producer, most famous for his stewardship and co-founding of the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in its golden years. Known always as Louis B. Mayer (pronounced Louie) and often simply as "L.B", he believed in "wholesome entertainment" and went to great lengths to collect "more stars than in the heavens".

Contents 1 Early life 2 Early career 3 MGM boss 4 Later years and fall from power 5 Personal life 6 Thoroughbred horse racing 6.1 Death and legacy 6.2 Cultural references 7 External links 8 See also 9 Notes

[edit] Early life

Born to a Jewish family in Minsk, Russian Empire (now Belarus), his family immigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada when he was still very young and Mayer attended school there. His father started a scrap metal business and Louis worked with his father in the business until he was in his late teens, when he went to Boston.

[edit] Early career

On November 28, 1907 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theater. Within a few years he had the largest theater chain in New England and in 1916 Mayer partnered with Richard A. Rowland to create Metro Pictures Corporation based in New York City. A Hollywood facility was set up in late 1918. Mayer then left the partnership to start his own production company, Louis B. Mayer Pictures, and later became a partner with B. P. Schulberg in the Mayer-Schulberg Studio. In 1924 Marcus Loew bought Louis B. Mayer Pictures and as part of the deal made Mayer head of the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

[edit] MGM boss

As a studio boss, Louis B. Mayer built MGM into the most financially successful motion picture studio in the world and the only one to pay dividends throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s. However he frequently clashed with production chief Irving Thalberg who preferred literary works over the crowd-pleasers Mayer wanted. He ousted Thalberg as production chief in 1932 while Thalberg was recovering from a heart attack and replaced him with independent producers until 1936 when he became head of production as well as studio chief. This made Mayer the first executive in America to earn a million-dollar salary. Under Mayer, MGM produced many successful films with high earning stars including Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Judy Garland and many others. Although he had a reputation for ruthless expediency and allegedly narrow views about what subjects were suitable topics for motion pictures, Katharine Hepburn referred to him as a "nice man" (she personally negotiated many of her contracts with him).

[edit] Later years and fall from power

By 1948, due to the introduction of television and changing public tastes, MGM suffered a considerable dropoff in its success. Three years without a major Oscar award provoked further conflict between Mayer and Nicholas Schenck, president of MGM's parent, Loews, Inc. Mayer worked to control costs and searched for a "new Thalberg", hiring writer and producer Dore Schary as production chief. Schary (who was 20 years Mayer's junior) preferred message pictures in contrast with Mayer's taste for "wholesome" films. Three years later, Mayer reportedly called Loews headquarters in New York with an ultimatum, "It's either him, or me" and Schenck fired Mayer from the post he'd held for 24 years. Mayer tried to stage a boardroom coup but failed and largely retired from public life.

[edit] Personal life

Mayer had two daughters from his first marriage to Margaret Shenberg. Daughter Irene Gladys Mayer, married producer David O. Selznick and second daughter Edith (Edie) Mayer married to producer William Goetz (who became President of Universal Pictures).

Active in Republican Party politics, Mayer served as the vice chairman of the Republican Party of California from 1931 to 1932 and as its state chairman between 1932 and 1933. He and Thalberg played a role in attacking muckraker and reformist Upton Sinclair's 1934 California gubernatorial bid.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Thoroughbred horse racing

Mayer owned or bred a number of successful thoroughbred racehorses at his 504 acre ranch in Perris, California, 72 miles east of Los Angeles.

In the 2005 biography, Lion of Hollywood, author Scott Eyman wrote that: "Mayer built one of the finest racing stables in the United States" and that he "almost single-handedly raised the standards of the California racing business to a point where the Eastern thoroughbred establishment had to pay attention." Among his horses was Your Host, sire of Kelso, the 1945 U.S. Horse of the Year, Busher, and the 1959 Preakness Stakes winner, Royal Orbit. Eventually Mayer sold off the stable, partly to finance his divorce in 1947. His 248 horses brought more than $4.4 million.

In 1976, Thoroughbred of California magazine named him "California Breeder of the Century".

[edit] Death and legacy

Louis B. Mayer died on October 29, 1957 and was interred in the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. His last words (reportedly) were, "Nothing matters."

[edit] Cultural references

Son-in-law David O. Selznick (who married Mayer's daughter Irene in the 1930s), refused any financial help from Mayer, and instead chose to establish an independent film production studio. Gone with the Wind, David O. Selznick's largest-scale picture, was released in 1939. Ironically, Gone with the Wind was eventually bought by MGM and now is one of several thousand films in the MGM library - which at the present, is divided between MGM themselves (1986-present), and Warner Bros. (which owns the pre-1986 films).

Mayer has been portrayed numerous times in movies including:

• Mommie Dearest (by Howard Da Silva)
• RKO 281 (by David Suchet)
• De-Lovely (by Peter Polycarpou)
• The Aviator (by Stanley DeSantis)
• The Last Tycoon (by Robert Mitchum) and
• Barton Fink (parodied by Michael Lerner)
• Hollywoodland

Mayer has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

[edit] External links

• Time 100 profile of Louis B. Mayer
• Biography resources dedicated to Louis B. Mayer
• Louis B. Mayer at IMDb

[edit] See also

Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Mayer's exact birthday was never recorded. He was born in 1882, and believed that he was born in the summer, and adopted July 4 as his birthday. He subsequently also changed his birthyear to 1885.

• Scott Eyman. Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B Mayer (2005) Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-7432-0481-6