Biography - Louis B. Mayer (2005)

The movie mogul Louis B. Mayer emigrated as a child with his parents from Russia. He began his road to success when he purchased a house, refurbished it as a nickelodeon, and opened one of the earliest custom-designed cinemas. He established theaters throughout New England, which led him to Metro Films and the formation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924. He helped create the Hollywood star system and hatched the idea for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and his successes included The Big Parade, Ben-Hur, Grand Hotel, Dinner at Eight, the Andy Hardy series, and countless others.

One of Hollywood's founders.

Here was a man who knew and understood just what people wanted to seee on the screen. They wanted to be taken from the problems of their lives and lifted into another world. A world of fantasy and make believe where the guy always gets the girl and the good guy always wins. He was also a hard businessman but pretended not to be. Perhaps one of the saddest things in his life was that he didn't stand up to the "anti communist purges" and support people like the those who were blacklisted just because they might not have agreed with the main line politics of the time, or who were perhaps just searching. He will always remain one of the most important founders of the Hollywood studio system. June 26, 2007

Behind an Old Hollywood Boss

Whether in works about Judy Garland or Liz Taylor (and even in a song by the Pet Shop Boys), I've usually heard of Louis B. Mayer tangentially. Finally, there is a work that focuses upon him. This may be an important work for those fans of Old Hollywood to see. The narrator spoke quickly here. I wonder if this was a 60 minute work that they were forced to chop down to 50 minutes.

Because most of Mayer's peers are dead, mostly biographers spoke in this documentary. The exception was Mickey Rooney who was just a child at the time. I usually don't find it enlightening when the ancestors of famous people are interviewed. I could not speak thoroughly or articulately on my grandfather's life, but Mayer's grandson is interviewed and he does a great job of it. Not only does he mentions things that he probably read, but he could back up anecdotes with things he witnessed firsthand.

On the one hand, this work did a great job in showing Mayer's bad side. He was a Jew who did nothing to protest German actions before WWII. He was a womanizer. His politics were in stark contrast to the usually leanings of Hollywood stars today. Still, they note that Mayer played a big role in bringing about or showing "Birth of a Nation." Instead of mentioning that the NAACP protested the film or that it was Klan propaganda, the narrator just called it "controversial." Again, I think that A&E waters down topics to make them palatable for modern, often conservative, audiences.

One interviewee called Hearst the Murdoch of his day. But it felt like Mayer was the Trump, P. Diddy, or Skilling of his day. He was a shrewd businessman who dipped his fingers in many pots. This film will be great for business leaders, but it will also be great for famous men who end on a low note. When the work says that Mayer was fired from his film company, I immediately thought of Winston Churchill, Mike Ditka, Napoleon Bonaparte, and others. April 23, 2006

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