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100 Hollywood Rajah
ing of a new race track that had already gone broke. The implication got a laugh from everybody, including both the mayor and Mayer.
More serious activities included the reading of telegrams from President Coolidge and the Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, a Californian whom Mayer had recently met at a civic luncheon and by whom he was solemnly impressed.
Abe Lehr, who was marked for dismissal, then handed over to Mayer a floral piece in the shape of a giant key as a token of transfer of control of the studio. Mayer accepted it firmly, with tears in the corners of his eyes.
"I hope," he said, "that it is given me to live up to this great trust. It has been my argument and practice that each picture should teach a lesson, should have a reason for existence. With seventeen of the great directors in the industry calling this great institution their home, I feel that this aim will be carried out. . . .
"This is a great moment for me. I accept this solemn trust, and pledge the best I have to give."
He meant it, as sincerely and profoundly as if he were taking the oath to serve as President of the United States.
He did not grab all the glory. Proudly, he introduced Thalberg and Harry Rapf, who he said would serve as his "associates" and help him get a flow of pictures from the studio — many of which were already on the way to production, he proclaimed.
The one ominous incident of the occasion came when Marshall Neilan disturbed the attention of the gathering by making a considerable show of walking out and taking several people with him, right in the middle of Mayer's speech. He was then in the final stages of shooting a production of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and his pulling his crew and the people of his company away from the gathering brought disturbing snickers and guffaws.
Neilan later explained he did it because the ceremony was "taking too goddamn long" and he couldn't afford to