The Mogul and the Genius
Former Los Angeles Times
film critic Kenneth Turan has written a dual biography of Louis B. Mayer and
Irving Thalberg and how their partnership built the most profitable motion
picture studio from the 1920’s into the early 1940’s. Mayer, the mogul, a Russian/Jewish
immigrant from Russia and former scrap dealer in Canada became a theater owner in
Boston and eventually ended up in Hollywood. He knew the business end of the business
and he knew how to spot talent. Thalberg came from an upper-middle class Jewish
family from Brooklyn who through his family connections became an assistant to
Carl Laemmle, the boss of Universal studios.
Thalberg, through his genius
and instinct, knew how to make great movies and by 1924 he was in charge of
production at Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) studios. Loew’s Theaters orchestrated
the merger of Metro, Mayer and Goldwyn Studios thereby creating a vertically
integrated behemoth that controlled production, distribution, and the exhibition
of motion pictures. That model was rendered illegal as a violation of the
antitrust laws by the famous 1948 case of United States v. Paramount. Interestingly,
the model of production, distribution and exhibition has been successfully
reincarnated by Netflix and its streaming competitors.
With stars like Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow, Dick Powell, Myrna Loy, Judy Garland, the Marx Brothers and Mickey Rooney’ MGM couldn’t miss, especially under guidance of Irving Thalberg and his crew of directors and writers.
Despite his congenital heart
condition, which would kill him at the age of 37, Thalberg was a workaholic.
One scene in the book has him lying in hospital bed looking at the rushes from
the 1925 production of Ben Hur on the ceiling. Along the way, Thalberg found
love and married Norma Shearer, one of his stars, and had two children with
her. Shearer converted to Judaism prior to the marriage.
Between Mayer’s business sense and Thalberg’s creative talents, MGM, in the words of Turan, had the whole equation. Although MGM prospered for awhile after Thalberg’s death, Mayer lost his touch, and the studio entered into a long- term decline and was recently acquired by Amazon. Nevertheless, for a dozen years MGM stood astride of Hollywood like no other.
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