27.10.2024
Louis B. Mayer has been called “the man who brought more stars to the movies than there are in heaven.” He has been called “the ridiculous little Jew” who did much to make Hollywood what it is today – a powerful studio conglomerate that sets the tone for cinematic art throughout the world.
He was the first to come to Los Angeles to create a studio from scratch that would not only and not so much bring in income, but where it would be possible to shoot real masterpieces. One of the components of the success of MGM films was the happy ending, which was also invented by Mayer – he did not want viewers who had lived through the hard times of World War I and the Great Depression to leave the cinema with tears in their eyes.
Another brainchild of this film emperor was the American Film Academy and its award – the golden Oscar statuette. One can only guess how the son of a junkman, who did not receive a specialized education, was able to reach such professional heights.
Lazar Meir from Dymer
In many sources, you can read that Louis Bart Meyer, who was then called Lazar Yakovlevich Meir, was born in Belarus. In fact, his birthplace was the village of Dymer in the Vyshgorod district of the Kyiv region, and only a few months later the Meir family – due to the ban on Jews living in rural areas – moved to Minsk. From there they moved to Warsaw, and then to Hamburg, from where ships sailed to America. True, in order to buy tickets, they even saved on food and put money aside for several years – the family ended up in the United States only in 1886. They lived in America for some time, then moved to Canada – there the father, who, in addition to Lazar, had two more sons, born in the New World, founded the recycling company “Meyer and Sons”. But Lazarus had no intention of staying in Canada, collecting scrap metal and rags all his life – at the first opportunity he left for the United States. How much he loved his adopted homeland is shown by the fact that when he received his passport, he “appointed” his own birthday – July 4, the US Independence Day. His parents did not remember his real date of birth, they only knew the year – 1884.
From a career as a junk dealer to the creation of the first film company
In 1904, Lazarus, now Louis Mayer, was already living in the United States in a small town in Massachusetts, where he began working as a junkman, just like in Canada. One day, Louis found a wad of money tied with an elastic band in a pair of discarded trousers, and instead of keeping it, he took it to the owners. They were so impressed by the honesty of the young man that they decided to help him – the banker, who had previously worn the trousers that had become lucky for Louis, helped him get a job as a cashier at a movie theater. Every time after the start of a show, Mayer closed the box office and made his way into the hall to watch a movie: looking at the screen, he understood what he wanted to do – of course, cinematography should be his life’s work.
Having saved some money, Louis rented an abandoned building, which he restored at his own expense, and opened a movie theater in it. A year later, he was already its owner, and in 1907, he became the owner of all the movie theaters in the city. In 1914, together with Nathan Gordon, Mayer created the company “Louis Mayer Pictures” in Boston.
Meyer’s Three Rules
By this time, Louis not only understood that he needed to make films because this business could bring in solid profits, he knew exactly how to do it. Here we can talk about Mayer’s three rules that allowed him to achieve his goal.
Firstly, he believed that only top-notch stars should be cast in films – viewers will definitely go to see them.
Secondly, all the creators of the film – from the director and cameraman to the editor, must be high-level professionals – you can’t skimp on them, just like on the actors, otherwise the hackwork will “pop up” in the most unexpected place and ruin everything.
And thirdly, films need to be made for a family audience – so that parents come to the cinema with their children. All that was left was to find the means to bring the idea to life, and here Mayer was lucky again: he earned his first million from the distribution of the film “Birth of a Nation”, which he bought from the copyright holders for a small amount of money with his usual flair.
Dream Factory in Southern California
Having received the money, Mayer began looking for a location where he could build a film studio – there had to be enough space to accommodate several film sets. On the East Coast, where Louis lived with his family at the time, there were no wealthy people who could invest in creating a film factory. While Mayer was pondering this task, an epidemic of deadly flu – the “Spanish flu” – began, and in order to save his family from it, Louis decided to move to the West Coast of the USA – to Southern California. And he was surprised to discover that this was exactly the place he was looking for: a large number of sunny days a year and a diverse landscape that allowed him to shoot not only earthly but also alien landscapes. In December 1918, the first film of the new Metro-Goldwin-Mayer film studio was released, shot by Louis Mayer himself. Today, there is no person in the world who does not know its intro – a roaring lion in a ring of film.
“Oscar”
During the Golden Age of Hollywood, Metro-Goldwin-Mayer produced such films as the musical Singin’ in the Rain, the universally acclaimed masterpiece Gone with the Wind, the fairytale fantasy The Wizard of Oz, the drama Ben-Hur and many others. They starred John Gilbert, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Greta Garbo. But Mayer could find an approach to everyone, even the most venerable and therefore arrogant stars, although he is remembered as a strict and demanding leader.
So, when Clark Gable refused to play Rhett Butler, Louis asked him only one question: “Aren’t you afraid of becoming a pauper?” Gable did not act up anymore. The studio’s name – MGM – was a kind of quality mark, guaranteeing the interest of viewers, box office receipts and prestigious film awards. First of all, we are talking about the “Oscar”, to the creation of which Louis Mayer also had a hand.
It was he who founded the American Film Academy in 1927, which he spoke of as a means of influencing actors in his own interests. “By handing them ‘medals,'” he said, “I will make them do what I need in the cinema – good, quality cinema.” Since then, its award – the world-famous golden statuette – has been the ultimate dream of filmmakers around the world. Mayer received his Oscar in 1951 – this is how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences assessed his 27-year leadership of MGM, and it is largely thanks to him that three films made at this studio are in the top ten of the 100 best American films.
Louis B. Mayer passed away on October 29, 1957. The film studio he founded changed hands several times until it was acquired in 2005 by Sony Pictures, the studio under whose banner the James Bond films are released.
As a 15 year old in England, there were two evocative sounds in the cinema: the Pearl and Dean jingle; “Asteroid”, which was heard before the ads and the roaring Lion of MGM before the main feature. Which for me was the sound of bliss, as I would have up to two hours of fondling the delicious firm thighs of my girlfriend while I watched the movie.
Disgraceful behaviour!
We never did that in my day!
Hhhhrrrumph!
When we took a young Lady to the Cinema we expected to be able to watch the film!
2/6 was a lot of money in those days!
From which Mason I deduce that you are in the autumn of your years and are proud of it!
I hope that your autumn will produce an extended Indian summer for you!
Something makes me think we are about the same age?
As you say, Autumn.
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