There might have been five major studios during Hollywood’s Golden era, but only one stood on top- MGM. Run with an iron fist by Louis B. Mayer, MGM was the king of Hollywood. Nobody else came close to wielding the same power in Hollywood. If Louis B. Mayer wanted it, chances are he’d get it for MGM. Hollywood’s top talent flocked to MGM and it had the freedom to be choosy and select just the best and brightest.
MGM had turned the art of filmmaking into an assembly line process. Louis B. Mayer assembled the best scripts, actors, directors and artists on one lot and often pieced together something that was very special. Nobody could really touch MGM when it came to the big spectacles. MGM had the biggest and best lot, the biggest and best stars and the biggest and best scripts. When the rights to L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz came up for grabs, Walt Disney was extremely interested. Of course, the books also caught Louis B. Mayer’s eye as well. At that point, it was a foregone conclusion; there was no way that MGM wouldn’t get the rights. (Louis B. Mayer later sold the rights to Walt Disney after Wizard of Oz failed at the box office.) If MGM didn’t get it, quite possibly it was because Louis B. Mayer didn’t want it.
So how did MGM get to the very top? Louis B. Mayer’s amazing ability to arrange some of the most talented people in the world on his lot, mixed with a proven system for cranking out films quickly made the studio possibly the greatest that ever existed in the world. Sadly, these very same attributes mixed with a reluctance to adjust to the changing entertainment environment in the 1950’s led to the studio’s eventual fall from grace.
