What an inspired idea: a dual biography of the two men who made Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer the wealthiest, and most respected, film studio during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Louis B. Mayer’s talent for business, and Irving Thalberg’s instincts for storytelling and working with actors, made them an unbeatable team.
Louis B. Mayer settled in Boston after leaving Ukraine in 1904. It was there that he noticed the growing popularity of storefront movie theaters, or nickelodeons. He borrowed money to buy one and, a decade later, he cofounded a film distributor called Metro Pictures. In 1916, he earned fees of perhaps two hundred thousand dollars, comparable to millions of dollars today. Mayer then created his own production company and moved to California.
He knew how to make a profit, and he didn’t stint on expenses. Mayer’s strategy was to set Metro apart from its competitors by offering a “great star, great director, great play, great cast” in every film. To make that a reality, he hired Universal’s head of production, twenty-three-year-old Irving Thalberg, to be vice president of the Louis B. Mayer Studio. Mayer and Thalberg immediately formed a close personal bond. And despite his age, Thalberg was no neophyte. He had already shown his mettle at Universal, where he fired star actor Erich von Stroheim for ignoring the budget and management.
Thalberg intuitively grasped what makes a film succeed. One director said, “You would make a date with Irving, talk to him for thirty minutes, and you’d come away from the office with the best scene in the picture.” Actress Myrna Loy credited him with pointing out that her shyness was hurting her performances. Greta Garbo made all of her American films at MGM because she trusted Thalberg’s guidance. Colleagues at other studios, like directors Frank Capra and Mervyn LeRoy, called him a “genius.” And Mayer’s extraordinary skills in bargaining, and cajoling actors, were just as crucial to the studio’s success as Thalberg’s understanding of actors, plot, and movie audiences.
The sheer range of the sixty-one films produced under Thalberg’s supervision is astonishing: from literary adaptations like The Scarlet Letter, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Anna Christie to the gritty realism of The Big House; from star vehicles like Grand Hotel to action pictures like Ben-Hur; from the drama of Mutiny on the Bounty to the wacky comedy of the Marx Brothers in A Day at the Races and A Night at the Opera. Tragically, Thalberg’s story is also a chronicle of a death foretold. He was diagnosed shortly after birth with a congenital heart defect, and he was not expected to live past thirty. In the end, he lived to be thirty-seven. MGM did produce a few historic films after his passing, including The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Philadelphia Story, The Shop Around the Corner, and Singin’ in the Rain. But the studio’s best days were over.
Kenneth Turan, who was the film critic of the Los Angeles Times for three decades, is the ideal guide to this chapter of film and Jewish culture. His deep knowledge and love of film, his eye for a great anecdote, and his easygoing, conversational tone make this book a delight from start to finish. Turan is also a generous author, citing many other books as he tells the story, and listing them in twenty-two pages of sources. It’s altogether an outstanding achievement.
