My Review of Kenneth Turan's "Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation"

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.