On Oct. 28, 1957, Louis B. Mayer, who had been vice president and general manager of Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer for 27 years, quietly slipped into a coma at UCLA Medical Center and 35 minutes after midnight died at with his wife Lorena at his side.
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Historic moment when the MGM sign was taken down. Photo: Los Angeles Times.
From 1924 until 1951, Mayer presided over the what was to become the General Motors of motion picture studios. Variety, the international bible of the entertainment industry, carried the following comment about Mayer's reign at MGM: “Placed in his proper perspective, he was probably the greatest single force in developing the motion picture industry to the heights of prosperity and influence it finally attained.”
Ironically, the year that Mayer died, was the first in its 34-year history that the studio lost money. Dore Schary, the man who had replaced Mayer in 1951, was fired.
Mayer's memorial service was at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple with Rabbi Edgar Magnin presiding. Spencer Tracy delivered the eulogy.
“The merchandise he handled was completely intangible,” Tracy said. “He couldn't weigh it with a scale or measure it with a yardstick. For it was a magical merchandise of laughter and tears, of enlightenment and education…
“The story he wanted to tell was the story of America, the land for which he had an almost furious love — born of gratitude — and of contrast with the hatred in the dark land across the sea…..”
The history of MGM after Mayer's death is one of a long slide down. The destruction of MGM in Culver City was a preview of what would happen in Detroit a decade later.
In 1969, Las Vegas millionaire Kirk Kerkorian bought MGM. The son of a Culver City saloonkeeper, he was a brother to prizefighter Mish Kerkorian.
Uninterested in making Movies, he downsized the studio, selling off the backlots that were paved over and turned into real estate developments. The glamour associated with the name MGM was now attached to Kerkorian's Las Vegas hotel and resort empire.
Change Starts to Gallop
Kerkorian hired former CBS television President James T. Aubrey Jr. to preside over the Culver City studio. Aubrey is remembered at CBS for greenlighting of “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Gilligan's Island.” Heralded as a genius at programming, Aubrey displayed contempt for his audience. “The American public is something I fly over,” he said. Producer John Houseman dubbed Aubrey, “the Smiling Cobra.” Under Aubrey's supervision, MGM churned out low budget-conscious shlock like “Cool Breeze,” “Skyjacked” and “Black Belly of the Tarantula.”
In 1973, Aubrey announced his resignation and Kerkorian became his replacement three years after announcing MGM primarily was a hotel company. In 1986, he changed the name to MGM Entertainment Co. By 1986, Lorimar had moved onto the now dilapidated lot. Whatever was left of MGM had been shifted across the street to what was unkindly called the Arab Building, probably because it resembles a pyramid with glass windows.
In 1989, Coca Cola fired their marketing company and ended their disastrous ownership of Columbia Pictures. Columbia had been housed on the Burbank lot with Warner Bros. Coca Cola sold Columbia to the Sony Corp., and Sony purchased the historic MGM lot, restored it to its former splendor and renamed the company Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Only eight hundred yards down the street stands the Culver Studios, where some of the world’s greatest producers worked. Harry Culver built the studio for Thomas Ince in 1919. After Ince's death in 1924, it was taken over by Cecil B. De Mille, then sold to Pathe, which became RKO. David O. Selznick moved his offices to the Mount Vernon-esque building built for Ince. The colonial-style structure became the Selznick company trademark.
It was here that Selznick produced “Gone With The Wind,” “Rebecca,” “Since You Went Away” and “Duel In The Sun.”
In 1941, Selznick helped to found SIMMP, the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. The organization was kept secret until 1942. Founding members included Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Samuel Goldwyn, Alexander Korda, Mary Pickford, Walter Wanger and Orson Welles. The group was formed to oppose the monopoly by the major studios.
SIMPP aided the government in its anti-trust suit against MGM, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount, which resulted in the major studios being forced to sell their theatre chains.
When the false front that was Tara (Scarlett O'Hara's home in “Gone With The Wind”) was disassembled to be shipped back to Atlanta in 1959, Selznick wryly observed, “it's only a false front; there's nothing inside. That's what Hollywood Is, a false front.”
In 1976, the backlot of the Culver Studios, where King Kong had ruled, Atlanta had been burnt, and where Andy Griffith kept the peace in Mayberry ,was razed and converted into an industrial park. In 1964, Hal Roach Studios, home of Laurel and Hardy and the Little Rascals, met a similar fate when the entire studio was bulldozed to make way for an automobile dealership.
A Motion Picture Museum?
A huge one-acre parcel, now an empty lot, sits across from the iconic Culver Hotel and alongside the historic Culver Studios. The City Council has selected four developers to submit bids to develop the property. The Culver City Democratic Club, led by Darryl Cherness, proposed a motion picture and television museum for the property. One hundred and fifty registered voters signed a petition requesting a museum be built there, including seven restaurant owners who are opposed to using their tax dollars to build more restaurants to compete with them.
A large theatre, 800 to 1,000 seats, could be built on the ground floor of the museum where events, live theatre and motion picture premieres could be held. Soon, the only motion picture theatre in the area will be the Pacific Theatre Multiplex across from the Culver Hotel. The Warner Theatre multiplex on Washington Boulevard is due to be torn down this year. Sony Pictures could hold its premieres here in Culver City instead of Hollywood. A large theatre in the museum could help pay for the project.
A major motion picture and television museum would attract thousands of tourists to Culver City, where they would eat at local restaurants, visit or stay at the Culver Hotel, and take on the Sony Studio Walking Tour, generating revenue for Culver City.
Finally, the museum could be a major educational tool for school children today and for future generations.
Mr. Hawkins may be contacted at rjhculvercity@aol.com
