Media History Digital Library (1944)

Mayer Productions had originated when Louis B. Mayer leased the old Selig Studio on Mission Road, Los Angeles, and exploited stars including Norma Shearer, Renee Adoree, Anita Stewart and Mildred Harris Chaplin. Necessity Brought Merger Back of the merger was a motivating pur¬ pose. Loew's Theatres, grown from nickleodeon to dominancy in the entertainment field, needed a continuous supply of high guality pictures. To overcome this lack, Marcus Loew had purchased the Metro Film Company. But even this new source was not sufficient to supply entertainment for the growing Loew chain of theaters. Louis B. Mayer, meanwhile, after taking over the Selig Studio, had solidly entrenched himself as an outstanding producer, with such hits as The Dangerous Age, The Child Thou Gavest Me and others — released through Metro and First National. He had brought the youthful, but brilliantly promising Irving G. Thalberg into his organization. When Loew, Nicholas M. Schenck and David Berstein (Loew organization executives) decided to ex¬ pand their producing facilities, Mayer was ready. Mayer Takes Charge So it was that in May, 1924, there came into being the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer corporation for the production of motion pictures. Louis B. Mayer, with Thalberg and Harry Rapf, former stage producer and successful film pro¬ ducer, as associates, took charge of produc¬ tion. He has been at the helm since. The original plant covered 40 acres. Today it is distributed over 175 acres. Mayer and Thal¬ berg were in firm agreement that the impor¬ tant thing in the production of pictures is "star power." They had the nucleus of a magnificent list of directors: Hobart Henley, Fred Niblo, King Vidor, John M. Stahl, Robert Z. Leonard, Tod Browning, Edmund Goulding, Marcel de Sano, Christy Cabanne, Benjamin Christianson and Jack Conway. Cavalcade ot Hits Starting with the never-to-be-forgotten The Big Parade, completed in the first year of the company's existence, M-G-M immediately be¬ came the acknowledged leader of the indus¬ try. This picture started a long list of top hits from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer year after year — The Merry Widow, Flesh and the Devil, Ben Hut, Tell It to the Marines, Broadway Melody, Min and Bill, Trader Horn, Grand Hotel, Tug¬ boat Annie, Dinner at Eight, Mutiny on the Bounty, San Francisco, The Good Earth, Boys Town, Wizard of Oz, Boom Town, Honky Tonk, Mrs. Miniver, Random Harvest. And, highlighting 1944, the Anniversary Year, was The White Cliffs of Dover, starring Irene Dunne; Dragon Seed, starring Katharine Hepburn and Walter Huston, and An Ameri¬ can Romance, starring Brian Donlevy. Sound had not been introduced when MetroGoldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924. Some of the company's best remembered produc¬ tions of the silent screen era were He Who Gets Slapped, in which Norma Shearer ap¬ peared with Lon Chaney; Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The Great Divide, Sally, Irene and Mary, and The Scarlet Letter, to list but a few. Early Sound Successes In 1928, sound came. Metro-GoldwynMayer’s first partial talking picture was Alias Jimmy Valentine. Norma Shearer starred in M-G-M's first 100 percent sound picture, The Trial of Mary Dugan. Garbo was first heard on the screen in Anna Christie, and other notable sound pictures which followed from 1929 to 1934, included the original Broadway Melody, The Last of Mrs. Cheney, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Trader Horn (filmed in Africa), Susan Len¬ nox, A Free Soul, The Sin of Madelon Claudet, Emma, Mata Hari, The Guardsman, Red Headed Woman, Strange Interlude, Rasputin and the Empress, Treasure Island, Viva Villa, and the first Thin Man picture. The year 1935 was a record year for out¬ standing production by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the list including David Copperfield, Naughty Marietta, in which Nelson Eddy became an overnight star; Forsaking All Others, Mutiny On the Bounty, A Tale of Two Cities, A Night at the Opera and China Seas. Incubator of Stars Star after star began to emerge under the trademark of Leo as M-G-M's great record — a portent of today's huge output of hits — con¬ tinued to mount. Clark Gable and the late Jean Harlow were teamed in Saratoga; Garbo and Charles Boyer charmed in Conquest; Rob¬ ert Montgomery gave his eerie star perform¬ ance in Night Must Fall. In 1937, Spencer Tracy won the Academy Award in Captains Courageous, and Louise Rainer took the Oscar for best actress' per¬ formance in The Good Earth. The next year saw Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power teamed in Marie Antoinette; Robert Taylor in A Yank at Oxford introduced Vivien Leigh to Ameri¬ can audiences. Jeanette MacDonald and Nel¬ son Eddy starred in The Girl of the Golden West, and Shopworn Angel starred Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Walter Pidgeon. Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan and Franchot Tone were in Three Comrades, and Tay-r lor scored in The Crowd Roars. [ 200 ]