The Moguls!
Louis B. Mayer
1885 – 1957 |
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Lazar Mayer was born on an unknown date in an unknown town…but as Louis B. Mayer he became known everywhere in the world where movies were shown. All he remembered about his childhood was the hunger. He later adopted a birthplace and even a birthday but the hunger never left him. When food was no longer a problem he hungered for money, fame and recognition…no matter what the cost. When he died, his eulogy was read by Spencer Tracy to mourners who had come from all over the world….but it was written by others because even a great actor like Tracy couldn’t find the right words.
Part V.... Mayer and MGM 1935 – 1940
1935
Post-depression movie attendance continued to build. Paramount emerged from bankruptcy with a $3 million profit while MGM trumped them all by grossing a cool $7 million. The British landed with the first foreign film company (Gaumont British) that had a nationwide sales organization. They opened business with Alfred Hitchcock's “The 39 Steps” starring Robert Donat. Twentieth Century Films joined Fox Film Corporation to become 20th Century Fox with a hefty investment from no other than L.B. Mayer to insure a vice presidency for his son-in-law William Goetz. The new company was under the stewardship of Darryl Zanuck and Joseph Schenck ( brother of Loew's/MGM Nicholas Schenck ). With Mayer and the Schencks involved, it really sounded like a family deal.
 Darryl Zanuck |
 Joseph Schenck |
 “Naughty Marietta'” |
. “Naughty Marietta” with Jeanette MacDonald and newcomer Nelson Eddy wrapped up for January release. Hunt Stromberg was in charge of production with W.S. “Woody” Van Dyke directing. Mayer had chosen the 1910 operetta to showcase MacDonald but his infatuation with the star meant a fast shuffle for her current romantic interest, personal manager Bob Ritchie. Before production started, Mayer sent Ritchie off to Europe on a bogus talent junket. On the set, “One Take” Van Dyke found himself with a soprano in diva mode, a concert baritone with very little film experience, and an ancient operetta. What he gave back to Mayer was a smash hit musical and the screen's most beloved and successful singing team of all time.
 David O.Selznick |
. Bob Ritchie did come up with something of value for Mayer on his world tour. Her name was Luise Rainer, a Viennese actress, and she would eventually give Mayer three great films (two Oscar winners) but a “thumbs down” when he tried to seduce her. He reciprocated by putting her in low-budget films that ruined her career. She left MGM in 1938.
. W.C. Fields replaced Charles Laughton as Micawber in David O. Selznick's “David Copperfield” and gave one of the best performances of his life. But Selznick left MGM to form his own independent film company Selznick International. Mayer gave him no financial support and warned him it was a grave mistake. But backed by John Hay “Jock” Whitney, Selznick immediately set out to prove Mayer wrong. The Hollywood Reporter called it “The Son-in-Law Also Rises”!
. On February 27th, 1935 “It Happened One Night” swept through the Academy Awards like a tornado. Mayer's attempt to “punish” Clark Gable by loaning him out to a “poverty row” studio backfired, thanks to Frank Capra.
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. Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin both signed their names on the dotted line but MGM accidentally let Deanna's option lapse after she starred in the short “Every Sunday” with Judy. Mayer hit the ceiling. Deanna immediately went to Universal and won stardom in “Three Smart Girls”. Meanwhile, Jimmy Stewart was working his way through his second credited role at MGM. He was on location in the wilds of Lake Tahoe with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy for “Rose Marie”, their second film together.
. Peter Lorre was signed to do “Crime and Punishment” but stepped into “Mad Love” first...and came out looking like a peeled egg.
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. On May 4th, 1935 Junior Durkin, who played Huckleberry Finn in the 1930 film “Tom Sawyer” was killed with three others in an automobile accident that also badly injured Jackie Coogan. Jackie Coogan, Sr. who was driving also died in the crash along with writer/director Richard Horner and Charles Jones, Coogan ranch foreman.
. Irving Thalberg, still smarting under the division of authority at MGM imposed during his sick leave, began putting everyone involved in his current productions under personal contract even though technically he was tied to MGM until the end of 1938. He sent the Marx Brothers, his newest acquisition from Paramount, on tour to test their material in front of a live audience while at least six scriptwriters developed a script for them. The result was“A Night at the Opera”, a box office bonanza.
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. With Thalberg occupied with the nuts and bolts of filming “Mutiny on the Bounty”, Mayer was left with a lot of the heavy lifting. Creating a replica of the HMS Bounty took months. It had to be tested in all kinds of weather and water conditions off Catalina Island. But it would take both Thalberg and Eddie Mannix to convince Clark Gable to play a pony-tailed, clean-shaven British sailor in short pants!
 Will Rogers and Wiley Post |
. On August 15th, 1935 the world lost beloved actor-humorist Will Rogers who died in a plane crash in Alaska along with his friend, one-eyed aviator Wiley Post.
. In October, 1935 Mayer heard there was trouble on the set of “Rose Marie”. Something was brewing between costars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and it wasn't coffee. Then he heard from MacDonald herself. Not only was she romantically involved with Eddy, she was pregnant! Furious, Mayer reminded her of the morality clause in her contract and told her to “take care of the problem” as soon as possible. Jeanette understood and assured Nelson they could have other children later. Nature intervened to take care of the “problem” but the romance now seemed doomed. However, Nelson Eddy had just made the top of Mayer's hit list.
1936
The US now had 18,192 movie theaters, second only to Russia with 34,900. They were all doing well in the new post-depression era. In Hollywood, the Big 5 film studios (MGM, Paramount, Warner, 20th Century Fox and RKO) were all showing big profits. Columbia climbed out of “poverty row” leaving Republic and Monogram behind and joined Universal and United Artists in the #2 position. Claudette Colbert beat out Warner Baxter as the highest paid American with earnings of $302, 000. Paramount made the first 3-strip Technicolor feature film shot entirely on location ...”The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” with Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray and Sylvia Sidney and Charles Chaplin rang the curtain down on silent movies with “Modern Times”.
 Spencer Tracy in “Fury” |
. “Fury” became the little movie that could, with ample but reluctant help from L.B. Mayer. The story about a lynching and starring Spencer Tracy, was scripted by Norman Krasna and Joe Mankiewicz but Mayer hated it. However, he made a small wager with Mankiewicz that he would spend as much to promote it as Thalberg did for “Romeo and Juliet” but that, according to Mayer, “it will get great reviews then go on its ass”. The movie cleared $248,000, more than Selznick's “A Tale of Two Cities”.
. Two of the biggest films of the year were awaiting release.
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. “San Francisco” with Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald nosed out “The Great Ziegfeld” as the most popular film of the year but the great pairing of Gable and MacDonald was almost upstaged by the most realistic earthquake scene in cinema history.
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.“The Great Ziegfeld” garnered Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actress (Luise Rainer) and was MGM's most expensive production since “Ben Hur”. There were superb performances by William Powell, Rainer, Myrna Loy and Billie Burke (once married to the legendary Ziegfeld)and an all-star cast. However, there was one jarring note....when tenor Dennis Morgan opened his mouth to sing “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” (the song Irving Berlin wrote for the 1919 Follies), out came the voice of Allan Jones!
. On August 20,1936 actress Jeanette MacDonald announced her engagement to actor Gene Raymond. They say L.B. Mayer couldn't stop smiling.
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. Fate struck MGM a giant blow on September 14, 1936 when Irving Thalberg died suddenly of lobar pneumonia, leaving some of his best work unfinished. “The Good Earth”, in production for over 3 years and already touched with tragedy (the suicide of director George Hill) had not yet been released. Mayer made a formal condolence call to the Thalberg home the afternoon of his death, but a prominent director observed him later that night dancing at the Trocadero. The funeral on September 16 was private but the MGM elite were all there and Wallace Beery scattered flowers from his private plane.
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. In the aftermath of Thalberg's death, Mayer began dismantling his production unit and reassigning work that had already started. Bernard Hyman was assigned to put the finishing touches on “Camille” with Robert Taylor and Greta Garbo and “The Good Earth” already in post-production. Edmund Goulding was pulled off “Maytime”, a musical costarring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and replaced by Hunt Stromberg and Robert Z. Leonard. The script and $800,000 of color footage already shot were scrapped. Mayer demanded a new script more in keeping with “ family morals” and filming in less expensive black and white. “A Day at the Races” with the Marx Brothers was put in the hands of producer Lawrence Weingarten and director Sam Woods. “Marie Antoinette” was eventually taken away from Sidney Franklin and put in the hands of “Woody” Van Dyke. But it would be another four months before a frail Norma Shearer returned to finish it. She, too, had contracted pneumonia and almost died.
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. Busby Berkeley was found not guilty of murder after three trials (two ending in hung juries). Berkeley, considered one of the greatest choreographers of his time, was returning home from a party when his car went out of control and smashed into another car, killing all three people inside.
1937
With another year of prosperity, Hollywood produced 778 feature films, the most since 1928. MGM won all the chips again with a profit of $14 ½ million. Exhibitors put out their list of Hollywood's top stars with Shirley Temple in the lead followed by Clark Gable, Robert Taylor, Sonja Henie, Bing Crosby, William Powell, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gary Cooper and Myrna Loy. Louis B. Mayer became the highest paid American with earnings of $1.3 million.
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The young began taking over the studio.
In February, 15-year-old Judy Garland sang a parody of “You Made Me Love You” called “Dear Mr. Gable” to Clark Gable on his birthday. The studio reprised it in a sequence of “Broadway Melody of 1938”. Judy and seasoned young actor Mickey Rooney, 17, were paired for the first time in “Thoroughbreds Don't Cry” and they began a series of what was popularly known as “backyard musicals”. Lana Turner, 17, made her debut in “The Sweater Girl” and was murdered in the first few scenes.
. Clark Gable and Myrna Loy were crowned “King and Queen of Hollywood”. Clark kept his title of “King” until the day he died. Then, years later, it went to Elvis Presley.
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. Despite Mayer's protests and predictions that the film would fail, Robert Montgomery insisted on making “Night Must Fall”.Tired of the same sophisticated playboy roles and fearing his fans were getting tired of them too, Bob wanted to do something radically different and this was it. Montgomery played a psychotic killer in this adaptation of Emlyn William's sinister play with Dame May Whitty making her film debut at 72 and Rosalind Russell as the girl who was taken in by the killer. Both Mongomery and Whitty were nominated for Oscars.
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. Tragedy struck the studio again on June 17,1937 when Jean Harlow died suddenly at 26. Jean had become ill on the set of “Saratoga” where she was co-starring with Clark Gable and Frank Morgan. She was sent home after a fainting spell but her mother refused to call a doctor. Gable and Morgan finally went to her house and convinced her mother that Jean needed medical attention. But by the time she went to the hospital her condition was grave and she died of kidney failure.
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. On June 16,1937 in true Hollywood fashion, Jeanette MacDonald married Gene Raymond and MGM paid the bill estimated at $25,000. In a “command performance”, Nelson Eddy sang “I Love You, Truly” and “Oh, Perfect Love”.The bride looked beautiful and the groom looked relieved but not quite as relieved as L.B. Mayer. It was the biggest Hollywood wedding since the nuptials of Rod La Roque and Vilma Banky in 1927.
. The summer of 1937 was very profitable for Mayer. He managed to snatch producer/director Mervyn LeRoy from under the nose of Warner Bros. With an offer he couldn't refuse. The reported salary was $150,000 but it was actually $300,000 kept under wraps to save peace at the home studio. Then, on a trip to Europe, he scooped up Greer Garson, Ilona Massey and Hedy Lamarr!
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. By the end of the year many film critics were commenting on the changes in MGM films. There was a certain 'sameness” about them despite their “staggering opulence” and size. They lacked fresh, daring ideas and unpredictable endings. In other words, they were beginning to look a lot like Mayer himself. One example they gave was “Rosalie” filmed as a showcase for Mayer's new dancing star Eleanor Powell. The big production number had a set that covered 60 acres of the MGM lot, required 27v cameras to film more than 2,000 people who were singing, dancing or just standing there. Mayer even reluctantly added current hearthrob Nelson Eddy and a marvelous Cole Porter song “In the Still of the Night”. But as one reviewer put it “The peanut of a story got lost under all the spectacle”.
1938
This was not a good year in Hollywood. The studios were reporting less than half of the profits recorded in the previous year. MGM was still on top with a $10 million gain . The US government began an anti-trust suit against the film companies to separate theaters themselves from studios and sales. On the bright side Disney released “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, William Holden did “Golden Boy”, and 20th Century Fox had a winning trio in Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche in “Alexander's Ragtime Band” and “In Old Chicago”. Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy moved into the Top Ten while Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gary Cooper moved out.
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. Mayer's influence grew by leaps and bounds. It now extended to the other studios by default. By virtue of his power to control the use of all the MGM stars, producers and even writers and his ability to extend that power when negotiating with the rest of the industry, he could literally open or close studio doors everywhere to anyone. He crucified Francis X. Bushman and virtually ended his career because an inexperienced valet once denied him entry to the actor's dressing room.
. However, sometimes Mayer's attempts at manipulation at his own studio met with very different results. They even sparked physical combat (Walter Pidgeon, Walter Wanger and Nelson Eddy are just a few). On other occasions it was downright expensive. Robert Montgomery,early in his career, reminded Mayer that he had been promised a sizable raise as soon as he got a few good films under his belt. Mayer called him “a goddam liar”. Montgomery made him a promise on the spot. “If you were a younger man, Mr. Mayer, I would give you a beating. But since you are not, I just want to tell you, you are going to pay a quarter of a million dollars for that remark.” At contract time Montgomery, now an established actor, added $25,000 a year for ten years to the salary he demanded..and got it.
. MGM released “Three Comrades”, based on the controversial novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The book had been banned in Hitler's Germany. Mayer, ever vigilant to controversy and with an eye on profits from the German export market, made it perfectly that any hint of anti-Nazi inferences or innuendo be deleted from the film.
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. Pleased with the continued success of the Hardy films, Mayer asked that same unit to come up with another series with a different setting. They did and Mayer approved the idea of a story about hospital doctors. Lionel Barrymore afflicted with a crippling hip injury and severe arthitis, was given the role of wheel-chair bound Dr. Gillespie while Lew Ayres won the lead in “Young Dr. Kildare” the first of the series.
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. Two big productions were being readied for 1939 release. …
After an exhaustive search for the right actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in Margaret Mitchell's epic novel “Gone With The Wind”, British import Vivien Leigh won the role. Clark Gable was given the role of Rhett Butler but Selznick was forced to make a deal with his father-in-law and distribute the picture through Loews/MGM. All of the film locations were in California with only two scenes filmed outside the state, one in Georgia (title page) and one in Arkansas (the mill in the title scenes).
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The other was “The Wizard of Oz” with Judy Garland. With Mervyn LeRoy, now chief of production, the first job at hand was to convince Nicholas Schenck that the film had great possibilities and the second, to round up the Munchkins. He assigned the little people search to the New York talent office and soon twenty-eight prospective Munchkins were on their way west by bus to hopefully became movie stars. But filming had hardly begun when Buddy Ebsen was hospitalized with a near-fatal allergic reaction to the aluminum powder they were using for the Tin Man costume. Both he and the powder were replaced and Jack Haley was given the Tin Man role.
. Mayer moved into the new Thalberg building nicknamed the “Iron Lung” by the MGM insiders. His office was enormous with a large, raised half-moon white desk surrounded by deep, white wall-to-wall carpeting. Visitors were always below eye level at an immediate disadvantage. Now that is the way you talk contracts.
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1939
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This was the golden year that would always be remembered for its bounty of great classic films. “Gone With the Wind”, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”, “Ninotchka”, “Stagecoach”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Wuthering Heights”, “Beau Geste”, “Dark Victory”, “Destry Rides Again”, “Love Affair”, “Only Angels have Wings”, “Gunga Din”, “Midnight”, “Of Mice and Men”, “The Women”, “Young Mr. Lincoln” and many more.
. Television was about to rear its head and threaten the film industry. NBC began regular public transmissions but the BBC had beaten them to the punch by 3 years. RCA unveiled their first TV sets at the World's Fair in New York but WWII put the brakes on any real commercial broadcasting until 1948.
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. After working three weeks to create snow for the film “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” at the MGM/Denham Studio in England, the picture finally wrapped. Then, just as work ceased, one of the worst blizzards in years came down outside the sound stages.
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. Ingrid Bergman made her debut in Selznick's “Intermezzo: A Love Story” a remake of the Swedish film by Selznick International. Her co-star was Leslie Howard.
. “The Women” directed by George Cukor, co-starred every MGM female star except Myrna Loy and Greta Garbo.
. “The Wizard of Oz” was a financial flop when it was released. When his next movie “At the Circus” with the Marx Brothers came in only slightly over its cost, Mervyn LeRoy demoted himself, volunteered to took a pay cut and went back to just directing.
. There was more and more pressure on Mayer to take a stand against the predatory powers that were marching across Europe. Greta Garbo was one of the loudest voices. She personally involved herself in the mass rescue of Jews in Denmark. Finally, in the fall of 1939, after Germany had invaded Poland and both France and England had declared war on Germany stopping foreign trade, Mayer approved MGM's first anti-Nazi film. It was “Escape” written by Ethel Vance, a pseudonym used by American author Grace Zaring Stone to protect her daughter traveling in Germany.
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. Following that, Mayer optioned a novel by Phyllis Forbes Dennis called “The Mortal Storm” to star Frank Morgan, James Stewart, Robert Young and Margaret Sullavan. He wanted Reinhold Schunzel to direct after his success with the MGM musical “Balalaika” but Schunzel refused. He had family in Germany that could suffer reprisals. Mayer called him out as a Nazi sympathizer and kicked him to the curb. He may be remembered by classic film fans in the role of Dr. Anderson in RKO's “Notorious” with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.
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