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Louis B. Mayer

Louis B. Mayer

Louis B. Mayer was an American film producer.

Born Eliezer Meir in Minsk, Russia, (now Belarus), his family immigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada when he was still very young and Mayer attended school there.

On November 28, 1907 in Haverville, Massachusetts, Mayer, then a scrap-metal dealer, opened his first movie theater. Within a few years he had the largest theater chain in New England, and in 1917 he founded his own production company, Louis B. Mayer Pictures, which eventually became part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

As head of production for the new MGM, Louis B. Mayer made it the most successful motion picture studio in the world, and was the only one to pay dividends throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s. Under Mayer, MGM produced a litany of successful films and the greatest stars, including Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Judy Garland and many others.

Mayer's daughter, Irene Gladys Mayer, married film director David O. Selznick.

Active in Republican Party politics, Mayer served as the vice-chair of the California Republican Party from 1931 to 1932 and its state chair between 1932 and 1933.

Louis B. Mayer died on October 29, 1957 and was interred in the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2004.

Louis B. Mayer Facts

Birth NameEliezer Meir
OccupationProducer
BirthdayJuly 4, 1885
SignCancer
BirthplaceMinsk, Russia
Date of deathOctober 29, 1957 (age 72)

Selected Filmography

Louis B. Mayer
Biography
Musicals Great Musicals: Freed Unit at Mgm
Actors and Sin
Two Family House
BEN-HUR : A Tale of the Christ
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