ROAR TALENT
| Published date | 22 April 2024 |
| Publication title | Huddersfield Daily Examiner |
The legendary Hollywood studio of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed 100 years ago this month by Marcus Loew, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B Mayer when they combined their three companies - Metro Pictures,
Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Louis B Mayer Productions. Goldwyn was ousted before the merger went ahead and went on to carve a career as an independent producer, although his name remained in the studio name.
Judy Garland used to say "I was born at the age of 12 on an MGM lot" and she appeared in numerous movies for the studio from The Wizard of Oz in 1939 to Easter Parade and Meet Me in St Louis in the 1940s. Her first MGM movies were Broadway Melody of 1938 and Thoroughbreds Don't Cry.
Debbie Reynolds made her MGM debut in 1950 in Three Little Words and went on to success in Singin' in the Rain opposite Gene Kelly.
She remembered: "Everything about the studio was enormous. You walked through the gates of iron and it was palatial looking. The first day, I was introduced to Clark Gable. He said 'Hello kid.
Welcome to MGM. I'm just leaving'."
Gable himself starred as Rhett Butler in 1939 Hollywood blockbuster Gone with the Wind with British actress Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara. It proved a big money-spinner for MGM and won eight Oscars.
Based in Beverly Hills, MGM chose a roaring lion as its trademark at the start of pictures. There were several lions over the decades, but they were all affectionately nicknamed Leo.
Louis B Mayer used to say: "I want to make beautiful pictures about beautiful people." He was often described as the best actor at MGM for his ability to cry, beg, charm and even faint to persuade his stars to do what he wanted.
Katharine Hepburn wrote in her autobiography, "L B Mayer was a shrewd man with enormous under- standing of an artist. He was not stupid, not crude. He was a sensible fellow, and extremely honest. In all my dealings with Mayer, I can say that he was the most honest person I ever dealt with in my life."
Dame Elizabeth Taylor began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and became one of MGM's most bankable stars, working at the studio for 18 years and appearing in movies like National Velvet. She said: "I, along with the critics, have never taken myself very seriously."
MGM was one of the big...
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