Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1884 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer’s management, MGM became the film industry’s most prestigious movie studio, accumulating the largest incorporation of leading writers, directors, and stars in Hollywood.
Mayer was born in the Russian Empire and grew up destitute in Saint John, New Brunswick. He quit researcher at 12 to sustain his family and forward-thinking moved to Boston and purchased a small vaudeville theater in Haverhill, Massachusetts, called the “Garlic Box” because it catered to poorer Italian immigrants.[not verified in body] He renovated and expanded several extra theaters in the Boston area catering to audiences of innovative social classes. After expanding and disturbing to Los Angeles, he teamed when film producer Irving Thalberg and they developed hundreds of high-quality story-based films, noted for their wholesome and lush entertainment. Mayer handled the event of direction the studio, such as setting budgets and approving further productions, while Thalberg, still in his twenties, supervised whatever MGM productions.
During his long reign at MGM, Mayer acquired many enemies as capably as admirers. Some stars did not appreciate his attempts to direct their private lives, while others saying him as a solicitous dad figure. He believed in wholesome entertainment and went to great lengths to discover extra actors and fabricate them into major stars.
Mayer was annoyed to give up as MGM’s vice president in 1951, when the studio’s parent company, Loew’s, Inc., wanted to total declining profits. Mayer was a staunch conservative, at one period the chairman of California’s Republican party. In 1927 he was one of the founders of AMPAS, famous for its annual Academy Awards.
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