Founders
Episode 173 #173 Louis B. Mayer (Movie mogul)
Founders

Episode 173: #173 Louis B. Mayer (Movie mogul)

Founders

Episode 173

#173 Louis B. Mayer (Movie mogul)

David Senra is the host of Founders, where he studies history's greatest entrepreneurs. This is what he learned from reading Hollywood Rajah: The Life and Times of Louis B. Mayer by Bosley Crowther.

What I learned from reading Hollywood Rajah: The Life and Times of Louis B. Mayer by Bosley Crowther. 

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The reason so many people showed up at his funeral was because they wanted to make sure he was dead. [0:50]

He is in that phalanx of men of aggressive bent who seized on the opportunities that an expanding civilization exposed. With them, he ascended to high places along an upwardly spiraling route that was there to be ascended by those who had the necessary stamina and drive. And, with some of them , he was unsettled and rendered dizzy by the heights, so that he could not control his footing when the road itself began to narrow and fall. [2:07] 

His own recollections of his early childhood were mercifully meager and dim. They were mainly recollections of being hungry. That was the only memory Mayer had of himself as a little boy. [7:01] 

How powerful and violent were the urges in the depths of the growing boy to break out of his immigrant encasement. [10:27] 

One of his favorite maxims had to do with behavior in adversity. “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." [11:55] 

He wanted to be a film producer. He wanted to get into that realm of fabrication and creation where glamour and excitement were. [27:00] 

My unchanging policy will be great star, great director, great play, great cast. You are authorized to get these without stint or limit. Spare nothing, neither expense, time, nor effort. Results only are what I am after. [33:00]

It was not all sunshine and profits with Mayer’s company during these embryonic days. Mayer was far from being one of the top producers of Hollywood. He was a small, enterprising operator. There were many others like him, clawing to get minor stars and unattached directors to make their pictures and help them to get ahead. On some films they picked up profits, on others they definitely did not. The business was always a gamble for them, as it was for Mayer. [39:13] 

The radical and profound transition (sound in movies) was spread over two or three years. Compulsion more than planning impelled it, against resistance within the industry. [49:57] 

The system (sound) was not regarded as anything more than a novelty by the remainder of the industry. [54:45] 

Mayer was no doubt a brilliant man, with vision and understanding in the business of manufacturing films as well as a fervor for investing in talent in every phase of production, to the point of extravagance, he was also a careless manager, a favorer with stubborn likes and dislikes, and a braggart who wasted his time and the time of others telling them what a great man he was. [1:01:33] 

 Mayer had a psychopathic need for power. [1:07:40] 

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#173 Louis B. Mayer (Movie mogul)

Introduction

"Mayer was dead now. His body wasted by the violent disease that had come upon him in the last bruising clash of his career. And so it has come to this funeral. The last ritual of the long and stormy career of Hollywood's most dynamic and momentous film producer, Louis B. Mayer. But how many in the solemn gathering new the departed man? Who had seen beneath his surface? Did they know that he had often struggled through sleepless and terrifying nights, lashing himself with anxieties and piercing himself with doubts and fears?"

"Did they know that he went into tantrums that were something quite different and apart from the bursts of anger that he often put on to make a point? Did they know that in the silence of his bedroom, he would sweat and grovel and moan? Samuel Goldwyn who never loved Mayer remarked at the end. 'The reason so many people showed up at his funeral was because they wanted to make sure he was dead.'"

"It is no wonder that Mayer, with his concentration of power and his unassailable position from which to throw weight in the community, was one whose attentions and favors were sought and whose councils on matters largely swayed the movie industry. Those whom he favored regarded him as a demigod. Those whom he did not, thought of him as a monster. Studios and stars, individuals and companies, waxed and waned."

"Mayer held strong for three decades. David Selznick proclaimed that Louis B. Mayer was the greatest single figure in the history of the motion picture industry. It is my hope that this observation of the life and times of Louis B. Mayer will help serve to illuminate more than a Hollywood type, more than the monolithic figure of Mayer."

"For I find that this man is characteristic of a large group of magnates and tycoons who have marched across the landscape of industrial America. With them, he is in the phalanx of men of aggressive bent who seized on the opportunities that an expanding civilization exposed. With them, he ascended to high places along an upwardly spiraling route that was there to be ascended by those who had the necessary stamina and drive. And with some of them, he was unsettled and rendered dizzy by the heights, so much so that he could not control his footing when the road itself began to narrow and fall. I wish to offer this volume as an inspection of one of those giants. It embraces a long and lusty drama, and it ends in tragedy."

That was an excerpt from a very old book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is, Hollywood Rajah: The Life and Times of Louis B. Mayer and was written by Bosley Crowther. So this book actually came out in 1960. And the way I found this; I was actually reading -- I constantly reread through my highlights of past books that we're studying on Founders so I can remind myself of the lessons that we're all learning. And on Founders #111, I covered the biography of David Geffen.

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