Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Page at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

          The M.G.M. Studios property was established in Culver City, California in 1915 as Triangle Studios by Harry and Roy Aitken, with producer partners D.W. Griffith, Thomas H. Ince, and Mack Sennett. Sam Goldwyn bought the property in 1918. Theater tycoon Marcus Loew founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924 by merging Metro Pictures [est. 1916], Goldwyn Pictures [est. 1917], and Mayer Pictures [est. 1918], with Louis B. Mayer as studio head; included in the merger were Goldwyn's studio properties and his lion mascot.
          Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the top studio for a quarter century, under heads of production Harry Rapf, 'boy wonder' Irving Thalberg, Mayer, David O. Selznick, and Dore Schary. As a result of the infamous 'consent decree', Loew's Corp. gave up control of M.G.M. in 1954; Seagram's bought M.G.M. in 1967, then sold it to multi-millionaire Kirk Kerkorian in 1969. The studio land (except for the main lot) was sold to developers and the props auctioned off with great fanfare in 1970. M.G.M. purchased failing United Artists in 1981. In a roundelay of high finance in 1985, TV mogul Ted Turner bought M.G.M./U.A., sold the studio lot to Lorimar TV [1968-93], kept the film library, and sold the rest back to Kerkorian - the amazing thing is that each party made money on the deals!
          Italian promoter Giancarlo Parretti took over M.G.M./U.A. in a leveraged buyout in 1990, which soon collapsed in criminal lawsuits. Kerkorian bought the studio back in 1991. Sony & Comcast and a group of venture capitalists bought the studio in April 2005; those owners are Providence Equity Partners (29%), Texas Pacific Group Capital (21%), Sony (20%), Comcast (20%), D.L.J. Merchant Banking Partners (7%), and Quadrangle Group (3%).
          The company no longer has studio facilities, and corporate headquarters are now in a Century City, California office tower (ironically, the former backlot of rival Fox).

"The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story" [M.G.M. March 1951]
Documentary featuring Lionel Barrymore & exec Dore Schary; credits at IMDb

"The Lion's Share: The Story of An Entertainment Empire" [1957]
by Bosley Crowther ISBN 0404200710 ISBN 978-0404200718

	"M-G-M's Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit" [1996] by Hugh Fordin Da Capo Press 9x6 pb [9/96] for $24.00 Movie Musicals Film Festival Pages
	"The Lion's Roar: Classic M-G-M Film Scores, 1935-1965" [1999] Rhino Records/W.E.A. music CD set [5/99] 37 tracks on 2 disks for $31.98 more, similar music recordings on Magic Lantern's Film Music Page
	M.G.M. Classic Musicals Collection [2007] M.G.M. widescreen color DVD [9/2007] 6 disks for $32.99 includes "Guys and Dolls" [1955] starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons & Frank Sinatra; "West Side Story" [1961] starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn & Rita Moreno {won 10 Oscars}; "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" [1966] directed by Richard Lester; starring Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, Michael Crawford & Jack Gilford; "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" [1967] starring Robert Morse, Michele Lee & Rudy Vallee; "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" [1968] starring Dick Van Dyke; and "Fiddler On The Roof" [1971] (won 3 Oscars)
	"The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection" [2007] Warner Home Video DVD set [9/2007] 5 disks for $28.99 includes "Babes In Arms" [1939] directed by Busby Berkeley; "Strike Up The Band" [1940] directed by Busby Berkeley, with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra; "Babes On Broadway" [1941] directed by Busby Berkeley; "Girl Crazy" [1943] co-directed by Busby Berkeley; "Private Screenings with Mickey Rooney" [1996 T.C.M. special]; "The Judy Garland Songbook" [2007] (21 complete, magical Judy Garland musical numbers spanning her many films from 1936-1954) – plus bonus cartoons, shorts, newsreels, trailers & radio shows

United Artists Pictures

Founded in 1919 by screen stars Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin & Douglas Fairbanks, director D.W. Griffith [1875-1948] and lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo; the early years were a struggle, from the advent of sound and constant rotation of 'producing partners' and the Great Depression; by 1951, U.A. was barely active, so an offer by New York producers Arthur Krim & Robert Benjamin was accepted; their timing was apt, because the studios had stopped renewing talent contracts; deals were signed with Sam Spiegel, John Huston, Stanley Kramer, Otto Preminger & Hecht-Hill-Lancaster; the studio was making good money by 1955, when Pickford sold out at top dollar; U.A. went public in 1956; successes like the James Bond series, the Pink Panther series, and 'spaghetti' Westerns added value, and Krim & Benjamin sold to insurance company Transamerica in 1967; new deals were made with Woody Allen, Robert Altman [1925-2006], Sylvester Stallone, Saul Zaentz, Miloš Forman & Brian De Palma; Transamerica was nervous with Hollywood economics, and fought the execs, who walked out in 1978 and formed Orion Pictures; the new management let "Heaven's Gate" set budget-overage records,and the movie then bombed at the box office; Kerkorian's M.G.M. made an offer; producer Harry Saltzman sold U.A. his half-interest in Danjaq LLC (owner of the James Bond film franchise) in 1975; M.G.M. absorbed U.A. from 1981-85, moving everything to Culver City; U.A. was inactive while M.G.M. suffered the turmoil of the Turner sale & buyback and the Paretti fiasco, with ownership of M.G.M./U.A. back to Kerkorian in 1997; a consortium purchased M.G.M./- U.A. in April 2005; when actor Tom Cruise & producer Paula Wagner's 14-year deal with Paramount expired, they offered to revive U.A., and their management deal began in November 2006 (with a tiny ownership stake).

United Artists official website
United Artists entry at Wikipedia

"United Artists 90th Anniversary Prestige Collection 30-Film Set" [2007]
M.G.M./U.A. Home Video color/b&w DVD set [12/2007] 46 disks for $260.99
the movies include {all widescreen except 2 coded P&S for 'panned & scanned'}: 2-disk "A Bridge Too Far" [1977]; "The Alamo" [1960]; Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" P&S [1977]; Billy Wilder's "The Apartment" [1960]; 2-disk "The Battle of Britain" [1969]; "The Birdcage" [1996]; "Birdman of Alcatraz" [1962]; Michael Moore's documentary "Bowling For Columbine" [2002]; 2-disk "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" [1968]; 2-disk James Bond "Dr. No" [1962];

2-disk "Fiddler On The Roof" [1971]; 2-disk James Bond "GoldenEye" [1995]; 2-disk "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" [1966]; 2-disk "The Great Escape" [1963]; 2-disk "The Greatest Story Ever Told" [1965]; "Hotel Rwanda" [2004]; "Judgment At Nuremberg"
[1961]; 2-disk "The Magnificent Seven" [1960]; "The Manchurian Candidate" [1962]; "Marty" P&S [1955]; 2-disk "Midnight Cowboy"
[1969]; "The Pink Panther" [1963]; 2-disk "Raging Bull" [1980]; "Rain Man" [1988]; 2-disk "Rocky" [1976]; 2-disk "Some Like It Hot"
[1959]; 2-disk James Bond "The Spy Who Loved Me" [1977]; "Thomas Crown Affair" [1968]; "12 Angry Men" [1957]; and 2-disk "Westside Story" [1961]

"United Artists 90th Anniversary Prestige Collection 90-Film Set" [2007]
M.G.M./U.A. Home Video color/b&w DVD set [11/2007] 110 disks for $609.99
the movies include {all widescreen except 12 coded P&S for 'panned & scanned'}: all 30 films in the above box set, plus 2-disk "A Fistful of Dollars" [1964]; Capra's "A Hole In The Head" [1959]; "Baby Boom" [1987]; "The Barefoot Contessa" P&S [1954]; "The Big Country" [1958]; "Carrie" [1976]; "Child's Play" [1988]; "Coming Home" [1978]; "Dance With Me Henry" P&S [1956]; "Dark Blue" [2002]; "The Defiant Ones" [1958]; "Elmer Gantry" [1960]; "Equus" [1977]; Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask"

P&S [1972]; "Fellini Satyricon" [1969]; Billy Wilder's "The Fortune Cookie" [1966]; "The French Lieutenant's Woman" [1981]; "The Fugitive Kind" [1959]; "Hang 'Em High" [1968]; "Heaven's Gate" [1980]; "I Could Go On Singing" [1963]; "I Want To Live!" [1958]; "In The Heat of The Night" [1967]; "Inherit The Wind" [1960]; "Irma La Douce" [1963]; "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" [1963]; "The Killing" P&S [1956]; "La Cage Aux Folles" [1978]; Bertolucci's "Last Tango In Paris" [1972]; Scorsese's rock documentary "The Last Waltz" P&S [1978]; "Leaving Las Vegas" [1995]; "Lenny" [1974]; 2-disk James Bond "The Living Daylights" [1987]; "The Man In The Iron Mask" [1998]; Woody Allen's "Manhattan" [1979]; "The Miracle Worker" [1962]; John Huston's "The Misfits" [1961]; "The Missouri Breaks" [1976]; John Huston's "Moby Dick" P&S [1956]; Scorsese's "New York, New York" [1977]; "The Night of The Hunter" [1955]; "No Man's Land" [2001]; 2-disk James Bond "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" [1969]; "One, Two, Three" [1961]; Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" P&S [1957]; Ingmar Bergman's "Persona" P&S [1966]; "Pieces of April" [2003]; "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" [1976]; Frank Capra's "Pocketful of Miracles" [1961]; 2-disk "Red Dawn" [1984]; "Red River" P&S [1948]; "Richard III"
[1995]; "Road House" [1989]; animated "The Secret of NIMH" [1982]; "Topkapi" [1964]; "WarGames" [1983]; "The Wilby Conspiracy" [1975]; Billy Wilder's "Witness For The Prosecution" [1957]; Fritz Lang's "The Woman In The Window" P&S [1944]; and "Yours, Mine & Ours" P&S [1968]

Roger L. Mayer
Roger Mayer worked at M.G.M. from 1961 to 1986, when Ted Turner took over; his titles included
senior VP of production at M.G.M. and president of the M.G.M. Film Laboratory; Mayer is currently
president & COO of Turner Entertainment and chairman of the National Film Preservation Foundation

Arnold 'Arnie' Shupak
Arnie Shupak was head of operations for the M.G.M. studios lot in the 1980s, and was retained
thru the unstable years; he is now president of Sony Pictures Studios (2009)

	"The M.G.M. Stock Company: The Golden Era" [1974] by James Robert Parish & Ronald L. Bowers Outlet 9x6 hardcover [10/77] out of print/used Allan hardcover [1974] out of print/used
	"The M.G.M. Story: The Complete History of 57 Roaring Years - All 1,738 Films of M.G.M., Described and Illustrated In Color and Black & White" [1977] by John Douglas Eames Crown pb [12/88] out of print/used Hamlyn pb [11/93] out of print/used Random House hardcover [8/85] out of print/many used
	"M.G.M. Posters: The Golden Years" [1994] by Frank Miller Turner Publng 12¼x9½ hardcover [11/94] out of print/many used World Publns 12x9½ hardcover [3/99] out of print/used more on Magic Lantern's Movie Posters & Books Page
	"The Golden Girls of M-G-M: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly & Others" [2002] by Jane Ellen Wayne sixteen portraits of M.G.M.'s female stars, including June Allyson, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Ava Gardner, Judy Garland, Jean Harlow, Katherine Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Hedy Lamarr, Jeanette MacDonald, Norma Shearer, Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner & Esther Williams (2 more?); online reviewers describe the book as tasteless & dull, mere repetition of unfounded gossip Da Capo Press 8½x5½ pb [12/2003] for $14.00 Carroll & Graf 9½x6½ hardcover [11/2002] out of print/used
	"The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling & The M.G.M. Publicity Machine" [2004] by E.J. Fleming McFarland & Co. 8¾x6 pb [11/2004] for $31.50

	"That's Entertainment! The Complete Collection" [2004] Warner Home Video widescreen color DVD [10/2004] 4 disks for $25.99 includes the three feature films: "That's Entertainment!: 50 Years of MGM" [1974]; "That's Entertainment! Part II" [1976]; and "That's Entertainment! Part III" [1994]; plus a 'musical outtakes jukebox' of sixteen excised numbers, two "Making of ..." docufilms: "That's Entertainment: The Masters Behind The Musicals" [37 minutes, 2004] and "That's Entertainment! III: Behind the Screen" [53 minutes, 1994], and many other treats
	"That's Dancing!" [M.G.M. Jan 1985] Co-produced, written & directed by Jack Haley, Jr.; co-produced & hosted by Gene Kelly; also hosted by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ray Bolger, Sammy Davis Jr. & Liza Minnelli Warner Home Video widescreen color DVD [7/2007] for $17.99 full credits from IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia
	"M.G.M.: When The Lion Roars" TV miniseries [TNT March 1992] Written & directed by Frank Martin; narrated by Patrick Stewart; episode titles: "The Lion's Roar, 1924-36", "The Lion Reigns Supreme, 1936-46" & "The Lion In Winter, 1946-69"; won Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series Warner Home Video color/b&w DVD box set [1/2009] 2 disks for $19.99 M.G.M./Warner color/b&w VHS gift set [9/98] 3 tapes - out of prodn/used full credits at IMDb
	"M.G.M.: When The Lion Roars" companion book [1991] by Peter Hay Turner Publng hardcover [11/91] out of print/used

	"Hollywood Rajah: The Life and Times of Louis B. Mayer" [1960] by Bosley Crowther Dell mass pb [1961] out of print/used Henry Holt & Co. hardcover [1960] out of print/used
	"All The Stars In Heaven: The Story of Louis B. Mayer and M-G-M" [1981] by Gary Carey Dutton 9½x6 hardcover [9/81] out of print/used
	"Hollywood East: Louis B. Mayer & The Origins of The Studio System" [1992] by Diana Altman Carol Publng 9½x6¼ hardcover [10/92] out of print/many used
	"Merchant of Dreams: Louis B. Mayer, M.G.M. & The Secret Hollywood" [1993] by Charles Higham Laurel mass pb [11/94] out of print/used Dutton hardcover [2/93] out of print/many used
	"Biography: Louis B. Mayer" [A&E 2004] A&E Home Video color DVD [7/2005] for $22.49 episode credits at IMDb
	"Lion of Hollywood: The Life & Legend of Louis B. Mayer" [2005] by Scott Eyman S&S 9¼x6½ hardcover [4/2005] for $22.05 Chrysalis Books hardcover [5/2005] out of print/used

	"The Love of The Last Tycoon: A Western" [1941 classic] by F. Scott Fitzgerald [1896-1940]; edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli The classic unfinished novel about Hollywood. The version edited in 1993 by Fitzgerald scholar Bruccoli restores the author's original intent. Said to be based on M.G.M. exec Irving Thalberg. Scribner 8x5¼ pb [4/95] for $8.80 Cambridge Univ Press 8¾x5¾ hardcover [12/93] out of print/used
	"Thalberg: Life and Legend" [1969] by Bob Thomas New Millennium Ent. 8x5 pb [9/2000] out of print/used Doubleday hardcover [1969] out of print/used
	movie "The Last Tycoon" [Paramount 1976] Directed by Elia Kazan; script by Harold Pinter; starring Robert De Niro, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Nicholson, Donald Pleasence & Ray Milland Paramount wudescreen color DVD [11/2003] for $9.98 Paramount color VHS [4/95] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb 11"x17" movie poster available at AllPosters.com
	"Thalberg: The Last Tycoon & The World of M-G-M" [1994] by Roland Flamini Crown 9½x6½ hardcover [2/94] out of print/used
	"Irving Thalberg: Prince of Hollywood" TV movie [Turner Feb 2005] Co-produced, written & directed by Robert Trachtenberg; narrated by Stanley Tucci video/DVD not available; full credits at IMDb
	"Hollywood Dreams Made Real: Irving Thalberg and The Rise of M-G-M" [2008] by Mark A. Vieira Abrams 11x9½ hardcover [11/2008] for $31.50

	"The United Artists Story" [1988] by Ronald Bergen Random House Value hardcover [4/92] out of print/used Random House Value hardcover [5/88] out of print/used
	"United Artists: The Company That Changed The Film Industry" [1987] by Tino Balio The modern era rebirth, with Krim & Benjamin Univ WI Press 9x6 pb [1/2008] for $26.95 Univ WI Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [12/87] for $21.95 "United Artists: The Company Built By The Stars" [1976] by Tino Balio Covers the silent-era founding, with Fairbanks, Pickford, Griffith & Chaplin Univ WI Press 8½x5½ pb [6/79] out of print/used Univ WI Press 9x5¾ hardcover [6/76] out of print/used
	"Final Cut: Dreams & Disaster In The Making of Heaven's Gate, The Film That Sank United Artists" [1985] by Steven Bach WmMorrow 9¼x6 pb [1/94] out of print/used Plume mass pb [6/86] out of print/used WmMorrow hardcover [6/85] out of print/used

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