Louis Burt Mayer was an American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industry's most prestigious movie studio, accumulating the largest concentration of leading writers, directors and stars in Hollywood.
Mayer was born in the Russian Empire and grew up poor in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. He quit school at 12 to support his family and later moved to Boston and purchased a small vaudeville theater in Haverhill, Massachusetts called the "Garlic Box" as it catered to poorer Italian immigrants. He renovated and expanded several other theaters in the Boston area catering to higher end audiences. After expanding and moving to Los Angeles, he teamed with film producer Irving Thalberg, and they developed hundreds of high quality story-based films, noted for their wholesome and lush entertainment. Mayer handled the business of running the studio, such as setting budgets and approving new productions, while Thalberg, still in his twenties, supervised all MGM productions.
During his long reign at MGM, Mayer acquired many enemies as well as admirers. Some stars did not appreciate his attempts to control their private lives, while others saw him as a solicitous father figure. He believed in wholesome entertainment and went to great lengths to discover new actors and develop them into major stars. Actors working under Mayer would generally portray an idealized vision of men and women, family life, virtue, and patriotism, all presented in the current world in which they lived. He believed that movies should not be a mere reflection of life, but be an entertaining escape from life. Because of his gift for understanding the nature of stardom and the needs of the audience, it was claimed that "Mayer's view of America became America's view of itself."Mayer was forced to resign as MGM's vice president in 1951, when the studio's parent company, Loew's, Inc., wanted to improve declining profits. Mayer was a staunch conservative, at one time the chairman of California's Republican party. In 1927 he was one of the founders of AMPAS, famous for its annual Academy Awards.
“The number one book of the ages was written by a committee, and it was called The Bible.”
To a writer who complained that his work was being changed.
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 ed)
“You know how I'm smart? I got people around me who know more than I do.”
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 ed)
“Don't make these pictures any better. Just keep them the way they are.”
Of the successful Andy Hardy films.
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 ed)
“I will only make pictures that I won't be ashamed to have my children see.”
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 ed)
