Louis B. Mayer - Career until the death of Irving G. Thalberg Louis Burt Mayer (born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1884 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the most prestigious film studio in the film industry, amassing the largest concentration of Hollywood's most prominent writers, directors, and stars. Mayer was born in the village of Dymer, Ukraine. His parents were Jacob and Sarah (Meltzer) Meir (both Jewish), and he had two sisters—Yetta, born ca. 1878, and Ida, born ca. 1883. His family moved to Long Island, where they lived from 1887 to 1892 and where his two brothers were born—Rubin, in April 1888, and Jeremiah, in April 1891. They then moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, where Mayer attended school. His father opened a scrap metal business, J. Mayer & Son. An unskilled immigrant, he struggled to make a living. Young Louis dropped out of school at twelve to work with his father and help support the family. He roamed the streets with a wagon labeled "Junk Dealer," collecting whatever scrap metal he could find. When a tin shop owner, John Wilson, saw him with his wagon, he began giving him useless copper shavings, and Mayer considered Wilson his first business partner and best friend. Wilson recalled being impressed by the boy's good manners and bright personality. Whenever Mayer visited Saint John, he would place flowers on Wilson's grave, just as he did on his mother's. In his spare time, he frequented the York Theatre, sometimes paying to see live vaudeville shows. He fell in love with the entertainment world. Then, in 1904, Mayer, at the age of 20, left Saint John for Boston, where he continued for a time in the scrap metal business, married, and worked various odd jobs to support his new family while his scrap metal business failed. Early Career Mayer renovated the Gem Theater, a rundown 600-seat burlesque house in Haverhill, Massachusetts, which he reopened on November 28, 1907, as the Orpheum, his first movie theater. To overcome the building's unfavorable reputation, Mayer debuted a religious film at his new Orpheum, From the Manger to the Cross, in 1912. Within a few years, he owned all five Haverhill theaters and, with Nathan H. Gordon, formed the Gordon-Mayer partnership, which controlled the largest theater chain in New England. In 1914, the partners organized their own film distribution agency in Boston. Mayer paid D.W. Griffith $25,000 for the exclusive rights to show The Birth of a Nation (1915) in New England. Mayer bid on a film that one of his scouts had seen but he had not, even though he was well aware of the Ku Klux Klan plot; his decision earned him over $100,000. Using the profits from the popularity of The Birth of a Nation, Mayer partnered with Richard A. Rowland in 1916 to create Metro Pictures Corporation, a talent booking agency in New York City. Two years later, Mayer moved to Los Angeles and founded his own studio, the Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation. The first production was "Virtuous Wives" in 1918. 4 805 / 5 000 In late 1922, Mayer was introduced to Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936), who was then working for Universal Pictures. Mayer was looking for someone to manage his small but dynamic and growing studio. In that first meeting, Thalberg made an immediate positive impression on Mayer, writes biographer Roland Flamini. Later that evening, after Thalberg had left, Mayer told studio lawyer Edwin Loeb to tell Thalberg that if he wanted to work for Mayer, he would be treated like a son. Although their personalities were in many ways opposite, with Mayer being more outspoken and nearly twice his age, Thalberg was hired as vice president in charge of production at Louis B. Mayer Productions. According to Flamini, Thalberg was hired because, although Mayer was an astute businessman, he lacked Thalberg's strong ability to combine producing quality films with achieving commercial success. Leading the New Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios Marcus Loew (May 7, 1870 – September 5, 1927) was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the film industry. Owner of the Loew's cinema chain, he had purchased Metro Goldwyn a few months earlier but was unable to find anyone to oversee his new West Coast holdings. Mayer, with his proven success as a producer, was an obvious choice. He was named head of studio operations and vice president of Loew's, based in Los Angeles, reporting to Loew's longtime right-hand man, Nicholas Schenck. He would hold this position for the next 27 years. Before the end of the year, Mayer added his name to the studio with Loew's blessing, renaming it Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Three years after the merger, MGM became the most successful studio in Hollywood. Loew died in 1927, and Schenck became president of Loew's. Mayer and Schenck hated each other intensely; Mayer reportedly referred to his boss, whose name was pronounced "Skenk," as "Mr. Skunk." Two years later, Schenck agreed to sell Loew's—and MGM—to William Fox, which angered Mayer. But despite his significant role in MGM, Mayer was not a shareholder and had no standing to challenge the sale. So he used his Washington connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay the merger on antitrust grounds. During the summer of 1929, Fox was seriously injured in a car accident. By the time he recovered, the stock market crash had wiped out his fortune, destroying any chance of the deal going through, even if the Justice Department had withdrawn its objections. However, Schenck believed Mayer had cost him a fortune and never forgave him, making an already frigid relationship even worse. Working with Irving Thalberg Mayer and Thalberg were a brilliant duo who worked well together. They trusted each other, and neither operated unilaterally. Mayer took charge of the business side of the studio's management, such as setting budgets and approving new productions. Thalberg, sometimes called the "child prodigy," took charge of all MGM productions. Director Joseph M. Newman said their skills complemented each other well, with Thalberg having a great mind for storytelling and Mayer having superior business acumen. They shared a guiding philosophy: to make the best films they could at any cost, even if it meant reshooting the entire film. More important to them than showing a consistent profit on their films was seeing MGM become a high-quality studio. This goal began with his early silent films, when stars like Greta Garbo, Mayer's discovery, performed against lush backdrops and with spectacular camerawork. Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; September 18, 1905 – April 15, 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a top-tier star during the silent era and early Golden Age of Hollywood. Although they initially got along well, their relationship strained due to philosophical differences. Thalberg preferred literary works to the blockbusters Mayer desired. He fired Thalberg as head of production in 1932, while Thalberg was recovering from a heart attack, and replaced him with producer David O. Selznick. But MGM was dealt a severe blow when Thalberg died on September 14, 1936, at the age of 37. His death came as a shock to Mayer and everyone at MGM and the other studios. Mayer issued statements to the press, calling Thalberg "the best friend a man could have... the inspiration who guided artistic Mayer issued statements to the press, calling Thalberg "the best friend a man could have... the inspiration that guided artistic progress on the screen." His funeral was a grand affair in Los Angeles. All studios observed five minutes of silence, while MGM closed its studio for the entire day. Mayer dedicated the MGM headquarters building and named it the Thalberg Building. He had the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences establish the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given to producers to recognize their exceptional careers, now considered one of the most prestigious awards in the Hollywood film industry. Alex