Louis B. Mayer

Born Eliezer Meir to a Jewish family in Minsk, Russian Empire (now Belarus), his family immigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada when he was still very young and Mayer attended school there. His father started a scrap metal business and Louis worked with his father in the business until he was in his late teens, when he went to Boston.

On November 28, 1907 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theater. Within a few years he had the largest theater chain in New England and in 1916 Mayer partnered with Richard A. Rowland to create Metro Pictures Corporation based in New York City. A Hollywood facility was set up in late 1918. Mayer then left the partnership to start his own production company, Louis B. Mayer Pictures, and later became a partner with B.P. Schulberg in the Mayer-Schulberg Studio. In 1924 Marcus Loew bought Louis B. Mayer Pictures and as part of the deal made Mayer head of the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

As a studio boss, Louis B. Mayer built MGM into the most financially successful motion picture studio in the world and the only one to pay dividends throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s. However he frequently clashed with production chief Irving Thalberg who preferred literary works over the crowd-pleasers Mayer wanted. He ousted Thalberg as production chief in 1932 while Thalberg was recovering from a heart attack and replaced him with independent producers until 1936 when he became head of production as well as studio chief. This made Mayer the first executive in America to earn a million-dollar salary. Under Mayer, MGM produced many successful films with high earning stars including Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Judy Garland and many others. Although he had a reputation for ruthless expediency and allegedly narrow views about what subjects were suitable topics for motion pictures, Katharine Hepburn referred to him as a "nice man" (she personally negotiated many of her contracts with him). Some blame Mayer for Judy Garland's drug addictions, but historical support for this is not clear.

By 1948, due to the introduction of television and changing public tastes, MGM suffered a considerable dropoff in its success. Three years without an Oscar award provoked further conflict between Mayer and Nicholas Schenck, president of MGM's parent, Loews, Inc. (Mayer is said to have frequently referred to Schenck as Mr. Skunk). Mayer ultimately sold his collection of thoroughbred horses (among which was Your Host, sire of Kelso, which he supposedly paid more attention to than his MGM responsibilities), worked to control costs and searched for a "new Thalberg", hiring writer and producer Dore Schary as production chief. Schary (who was 20 years Mayer's junior) preferred message pictures in contrast with Mayer's taste for "wholesome" films. Three years later, Mayer reportedly called Loews headquarters in New York with an ultimatum, "It's either him, or me" and Schenck fired Mayer from the post he'd held for 24 years. Mayer tried to stage a boardroom coup but failed and largely retired from public life.

Mayer had two daughters from his first marriage to Margaret Shenberg. Daughter Irene Gladys Mayer, married producer David O. Selznick and second daughter Edith (Edie) Mayer married to producer William Goetz (who became President of Universal Pictures).

Active in Republican Party politics, Mayer served as the vice chairman of the Republican Party of California from 1931 to 1932 and as its state chairman between 1932 and 1933. He and Thalberg played a role in discrediting muckraker and reformist Upton Sinclair's 1934 California gubernatorial bid.

Louis B. Mayer died on October 29, 1957 and was interred in the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. His last words (reportedly) were, "Nothing matters."

Mayer was the most famous of the studio moguls of the Golden Age of Hollywood. By modern standards, their control over the industry was disturbingly dictatorial, but they enjoyed phenomenal success. He was parodied as "Jack Lipnick of Capitol Pictures" in Barton Fink. Like the moguls as a group, Mayer left a legacy that will always be controversial.

See also: Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood