Let's be contract era M-G-M Studios

I'm the pills in the ashtray in Judy's dressing room.

I'm all the great movies that were made. 🎬

[quote] I'm the pills in the ashtray in Judy's dressing room.

Ha ha ha. I’ll say.

I'm the commissary menu.

I’m the homemade head cheese from R4’s menu.

I'm the constant bitching of Bette Davis.

I’m Tom Drake’s jock strap.

I'm the pass given to Miss Davis to visit the M-G-M backlot while on break at Warner's.

Era. ERA

I'm the cum dripping down the leg of some starlet following "contract discussions" with the top brass.

I'm that fat fuck L.B., who raped more children than the Catholic Church.

Braised ox joints.

I'm the wartime musicals and the new male stars because the old ones were at war.

I'm the morals clause

I'm Gabrielle Carteris

I'm Joan Crawford's Ice Follies script.

I'm someone walking in on Elizabeth Taylor giving Mickey Rooney a blow job.

I'm jungle red.

I'm a young Ted Turner, already planning to buy up all these movies.

I'm Jackie Cooper being forced to play smell my finger. 🖕

I'm contract stars Nancy Davis and Ralph Meeker

R19 I'm young Lana Turner, no relation.

[quote]I'm a young Ted Turner, already planning to buy up all these movies.

If the man wants to colorize movies, let him colorize movies.

It's show business, for God's sake.

I'm Billy Haines, refusing to live a lie and deny my love for Jimmie Shields.

I'm Scotty Bowers. You can fuck me or one of my other boys for cash.

Look at the future Mrs. Reagan's face. Did Ralph have a boner?

I must say RKO are OK 👌

I'm celluloid.

I'm box office poison.

I'm Fatty Arbuckle crushing a whore.

I'm Pancakes Barbara, an actual favorite at the MGM commissary! (The line about me in THE WOMEN is a reference to that.)

I'm Van Johnson, Golden Age Queen.

pancakes Barbara are blackberry pancakes served with brandy sauce and named for silent screen star Barbara La Marr. The dessert was on the menu at the MGM commissary in the 1930s and was a favorite of studio boss Louis B. Mayer.

I'm the Santa Monica beach house

I'm the constant fetishization of small-town WASP family life.

I'M Rex Harrison, driving the ladies mad with passion and, on occasion, to suicide.

I'm Gene Tierney losing my mind.

I'm Montgomery Clift, getting sauced in the closet.

I'm John Gavin, the last of the studio-system dreamboats.

I'm 15-year-old Natalie Wood being raped bloody by.....

I just vant to be left alone....

I'm John Gilbert after my fistfight with L.B.

I'm Clark Gable, fucking everything that moved inside the studio gates.

I'm Irving Thalberg and you guys are fucked without me!

R37 R40 I'm the security guard telling you bitches to get off the lot

[quote]I'm Clark Gable, fucking everything that moved inside the studio gates.

Including Lassie.

Too many posters here are not sticking to the MGM brief. Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney were Fox stars.

r47 is the MGM schoolmarm

I'm Lucille Bal's seventh abortion.

^^^Ball

Well who the fuck can recall of the top of their head who was an M-G-M "player"? Just enjoy the thread.

Please will you elaborate on some of these? Liz and Rooney? Ball had abortions? Clark was a manwhore (more than others?)

I’d like details!

I'm Alexis Smith on loan to make Any Number Can Play, sneaking into the 25th anniversary luncheon.

I'm the Max Factor pancake covering Kate Hepburn's pock marks.

I'm a female Cairn Terrier named Terry who scissored Clara Blandick between scenes.

I'm Deanna Durbin. I'm not here only because somebody misunderstood LB's order to "dump the fat one" after watching a musical short featuring both me and Judy Garland.

I become a huge star for a few years, then marry and retire, eventually moving to France to lead a long and happy life. While Judy... well.

I'm the trousers that housed Gene Kelly's perfect ass.

I’m Norma’s lazy eye and overactive vagina. Both of these will be the topic of dinner discussions, dirty jokes, among cast and crew, and future articles for Confidential Magazine for many years to come.

I'm the very busy in-house pharmacy.

Besides Clark Gable’s diseased dick, I’m the only thing that has been in every starlets pussy at least once…..

I'm the tube of lipstick, depleted after two or three heavy applications.

I'm a contract player. My contract ran seven years with suspension time (for refusing a part) added to it until Olivia de Havilland sued Warner Bros from 1942-44 to end it . I was a 'privileged slave'. My studio 'built me up'. They gave me parts in lesser films until I caught on. Any kind of lessons I needed for my work were there in a snap. Novels and plays were bought for me to be adapted as films. I had to be there 14 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. Also had to show up at places like the Coconut Grove to keep my face in the papers and newsreels. Although the studios owned the media, gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper could ruin my career. When my films were no longer 'box-office', I began to be cast in lesser films or sent to England because it was cheaper to produce a film there. Also the studio cocoon insulted me so far from real life I got married and divorced 8 times like Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor.

I'm Mickey Gubitosi, aka Bobby Blake. It was a hell of a life.

I'm the only male star on the lot that Joan Crawford never slept with.

I'm Roddy McDowell's stories, sealed until 100 years after his death.

Reply 61 here. "insulted" should be "insulated".

R47, I'm the rogue poster - you're right, but I believe both Rex Harrison and Tierney did at least MGM picture.

I'm Luise Rainer wanting to get out of her MGM contract after winning two Academy Awards. Lous B Mayer's reply was "Rainer. We made ya and now we're gonna kill ya!"

I'm Leo the Lion.

I'm Lena Horne. Of course it took a while for me to get my moment.

I'm the MGM tattoo on Joan Crawford's ass.

I'm Errol Flynn, making That Forsyte Woman on loan, also allowing him to sneak into the 25th anniversary luncheon.

Did Roddy really write down all he knew, R65, or is that just wishful thinking?

Most of us will never know, R73. Because of the whole "not until 100 years after his death" thing.

I'm one of those starlets out to give the big shots a nice night in town.

I'm the talented black actress who only plays maids.

Don't believe a single thing that conniving BITCH tells you, She came on to ME!

I'm the fucked up, drugged out look on Margaret O'Brien's that ruined "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas".

I'm a coveted Great Lady part that was recently rejected by Norma Shearer. I'll probably be offered to that new girl, Greer Garson, even though Joan Crawford desperately wants me.

I'm the silver Tin Man makeup that put Buddy Ebsen in the hospital and out of The Wizard of Oz.

I'm the best screen musicals ever made.

I'm the pretty girl who's like a melody.

I'm Andre Previn

I'm the gels.

I'm Kathryn Grayson

I'm Liz Taylor in National Velvet, walking into the family living room. She says "Who's been in my box"? and brings down the house.

I'm Norma Shearer, I am the MGM slut.

I'm all the older-aged roles that Angela Lansbury got cast in.

Hold my beer.

I ruined MGM.

I'm Butch Jenkins and Margaret O'Brien.

I'm the name for you ladies, but it isn’t used in high society outside of a kennel.

I'm a tiger

I'm Mario Lanza!

I'm self loathing Lazar Meir (aka Louis B. Mayer) who wanted the ideal cinematic female to be as non-Jewy as possible.

I’m Ann Miller, full of glamour and mystique.

I'm Ann Miller's bunyioned feet and Nancy Reagan's wrecked knees.

I’m June Allyson - Hear me CROAK!

We’re the starlets (and chorus boys) signed and waiting months in between publicity, radio program, or picture assignments — but under our contracts we’re still regularly getting paid! 😃

I'm Rory Calhoun's giant cock.

I'm the incredibly talented gay men in the Freed Unit (Roger Edens, Charles Walters, etc.) who gave those movies class.

I'm Henry Wilson Finding the heartthrobs that will be just right for your picture show.

I never think of Rory C. as MGM, though he probably made a film or two there. He was at Fox and Universal.

We've indicated that we don't care.

[quote]R33 pancakes Barbara are blackberry pancakes served with brandy sauce and named for silent screen star Barbara La Marr.

When she joined MGM, Hedy Kiesler’s last name was changed to Lamarr after that star, who’d died young and wasn’t around to use it anymore.

I’m Doug Shearer, Norma’s older brother and I have 7 oscars.

I'm so sick of the DL obsession with Pancakes Barbara (probably two or three people but they bring it up constantly).

PS They sound horrible.

Nobody outside of the DL knows what the hell Pancakes Barbara are.

That's why I'm here.

I kept thinking they were Streisand's tits. Than I saw the extra 'A' and knew I was wrong.

[quote]I’m Ann Miller, full of glamour and mystique.

glamour & mystique - Ann mMiller's sex toys

R109 If they didn't before, they will before they leave.

R111 Those were the names of her two rescue cats.

PLEASE, Pancakes Barbara, PLEASE!

I'm the seemingly constant pairing of Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas.

I'm the one person in the annual picture that nobody recognizes.

I'm Hedy Lamarr trying to explain Bluetooth to Alice Faye.

I'm Leslie Caron, last gal standing.

Robert Taylor, last male star still under contract to Metro.

I'm Cedric Gibbons and my name appears in the credits of just about every MGM picture you have ever seen.

Yes, I think Gibbons had it in his contract as dept. head. The name listed under him was the actual art director on the film (unless it's a very early one). Gibbons also directed a film (a Tarzan one). Married Dolores Del Rio.

R6, if Bette Davis constantly bitched, it wasn't anywhere near MGM.

She made precisely one movie for MGM, and it was in 1956, after most of the "contract era" had passed.

Try, at least, not to be lazy and ignorant.

Or you get the axe.

I'm the inventory left over from Danny Thomas' brief time at the studio.

He took it with him.

R6 is also the "oh look another Trump thread" troll.

I'm Mrs. Flores in payroll.

I'm size queen Lana Turner trolling the lot for monster cock.

Esther Williams liked guys with big cocks as well. Her second husband Ben Gage had one and so did one of the men she cheated on him with, Victor Mature. In her memoir, Esther talked about how satisfying it was to bang him in her dressing room after shooting “Million Dollar Mermaid.”

So I ‘ll be Esther Williams’ Dressing Room.

I believe it was decorated in red, white and blue in contrast to Greer Garson’s which had been in shades of green and yellow. MGM took Esther on a tour of Garson’s dressing room when Greer was traveling, to convince Esther to give up her job at Bullock’s and sign with them. The dressing room was like a small, well-appointed apartment. She signed.

[quote]I'm size queen Lana Turner trolling the lot for monster cock.

I'm Van Johnson, following Lana around and picking up her leftovers and discards.

I'm Mary Frances Reynolds from Burbank. You can call me Debbie. But don't any of you bitches even try to get between me and the camera!

I'm George Cukor, giver of exquisite blowjobs.

I'm the guy who has to feed the MGM Lion before every picture to get him to roar. Not an easy job but much easier than working for Joan Crawford as a nanny .

I'm Garbo's salary.

Thanks to streaming TV, the last two years I've grown to adore Ralph Meeker. He never gives a bad performance.

I love reliable actors. I love character actors.

Totally agree about Ralph Meeker. And when young, he was sexy.

I felt the same way about Ralph Meeker until I watched Food Of The Gods yesterday.....but then again even Ida Lupino was bad in that movie.

Last year I saw Ralph Meeker in an old episode of Hitchcock presents and wished he'd present his cock, right into my mouth!

I'm Eddie Mannix., one of the fixers. The less important you are to the studio the more likely you'll take the fall when one of the money makers gets in trouble and we need to keep it quiet. I'll leave no diaries, papers, autobiographies or any evidence of the skeletons left behind those Culver City gates.

I'm Ken Hollywood, the man at the gate.

I'm the garden hose all the executives claimed Nancy Davis could suck a basketball out of.

I’m sound job advice from Grace Kelly, summing up her departure:

[italic]”I'll tell you one of the reasons I'm ready to leave. When I first came to Hollywood five years ago, my makeup call was at eight in the morning. On this movie, it's been put back to seven-thirty. Every day, I see Joan Crawford, who's been in makeup since five, and Loretta Young, who's been there since four in the morning. I'll be goddamned if I'm going to stay in a business where I have to get up earlier and earlier and it takes longer and longer for me to get in front of a camera.”

I'm the "all persons" disclaimer that originated when a real person sued MGM for portraying them inaccurately in Rasputin and the Empress (1932) -that movie with all the Barrymores.

I'm the music of Herbert Stothart, that didn't always do a lot for the MGM product compared to the music of composers at other studios.

I'm the lavender relationship.

I'm Lela Simone, the child piano prodigy, who handled the music audio of all the great MGM films, including the first ever soundtrack ("Til the Clouds Roll By"), until, exhausted by Vincente Minnelli's endless pursuit of perfection, quit after "Gigi."

R141 he nailed it for Oz.

Didn’t work out so well for Grace…how much prep time did all of her elaborate hairstyles, etc. as princess take?

[quote]Last year I saw Ralph Meeker in an old episode of Hitchcock presents and wished he'd present his cock, right into my mouth!

Omg, R137, that's exactly why I started following Ralph Meeker--I saw that same episode... I think. Was it the one where he worked at a factory of some kind? And he was married to that cute blonde actress who later killed herself? Inger Stevens, maybe?

Anyway, ITA about our Ralph.

God, R32, how I've always HAAAATED Van Johnson.

For me he's in that category I call The Glenn Ford Effect, otherwise known as the "Unless they're in a minor role, they always ruin any film they're in" Syndrome.

I'm Max Factor's "Light Egyptian."

I'm Eddie Mannix's wife Toni - George Reeves is all man and I'm the dame who can prove it!

BANG!

I'm John Garfield, don't even pretend that I'm not your type.

on loan from Warners for Postman Always Rings Twice.

I'm Eleanor Powell, the genius of dance. I'm such a brilliant, assertive, confident dancer Astaire and Kelly essentially REFUSED to work with me onscreen. And like Astaire and Kelly, I choreographed almost all my dance routines. And as you will see in the clip, the MGM cameramen and set designers had to be very creative when filming my scenes.

I worked with, learned from, and was friends with two of the greatest Black dancers, Bill Robinson and John Sublett Bubbles. Unfortunately the racist system in place precluded my dancing onscreen with Robinson, even though he and I were a very popular night club and private party duo.

Can you imagine how amazing we'd have been dancing together on the big screen?

Fred Astaire danced with Eleanor in Broadway Melody of 1940.

R144 Yeah, that was good, but he didn't compose a lot of the music.

Gene Kelly and Eleanor Powell were supposed to be in the next Broadway Melody film after Astaire-Powell, but it was cancelled. Maybe because Gene was too short for her.

He adored her but once said she wasn't really right for romantic leads, the way Ginger Rogers was with Fred Astaire. I think that's true. She didn't have much success being that romantic partner type of dancer, and actually she wasn't a very good actress, which was usually hidden by her being given the least amount of dialogue possible.

Even in low heels she overpowers Gene.

I'm June Lockhart, still kickin'.

I'm Mickey Rooney. I banged all them broads--Norma, Joan, Greer, Hedy, Judy, Lana, Ava, Ann, Esther, Lucy, Donna, Arlene, etc. They didn't call me 'Andy Hard-on' for nothing!

Lana denied Mickey's claim that he screwed her.

I'm Glenn Ford(ON LOAN TO MGM...OK?) putting everyone to sleep.

I'm baby Liza on the set of Meet Me in St. Louis.

R160 Glenn worked at MGM for years. From the early to mid '50s to the mid to late '60s. Not sure what kind of deal he had with them, probably nothing like a standard contract.

R161 Her mom and dad weren't married yet

I'm baby Liza on the set of The Pirate. I fixed it for you.

I'm baby Liza APPEARING in the final scene of "In the Good Old Summertime."

Does anyone else remember the spectacular montage that was done in That's Entertainment III, which begins with the "You Stepped Out of a Dream" sequence from Ziegfeld Girl, sung by Tony Martin and featuring Hedy, Lana and Judy ad then proceeds to collage together brief stunning closeups of every MGM leading lady of the Golden Age under the song?

Gorgeous moment of film that I've never seen isolated as a linkable clip. If anyone can find it or knows how to link it, I'd be most appreciative and know you'd all love it.

R166 I remember it. Loved it.

I like this, too:

Stanley Donen is dancing with June at around the 3 minute mark. Nancy and June were also in the Broadway show, directed by George Abbott, choreographed by Gene Kelly. Charles Walters choreographed the movie.

Sorry - that was only half the number. This is the whole thing (tho it's blurry).

I'm Lena "Token Credit To Her Race Because She Doesn't Look Too Black But Hold Her Career Down As We All Try To Fuck Her Gorgeous Ass" Horne

MGM was the first major studio to present a black woman as a sex symbol/glamour girl, though. May not seem like much now but it was progressive then.

I'm the original "Gunt With The Wind."

I don't get it.

You’re no Jezebel

I'm Dore Schary, passing on that blonde ingenue who calls herself Marilyn Monroe. We've put her in three pictures and she's not terribly photogenic and lacks star quality. And besides, we've already got our blonde superstar, Lana Turner.

I know Schary was pretty clueless about the studio (trying to turn it iinto another RKO, in a way, where he'd had his big triumph as production head). But iirc the reason the company heads in the East wanted a production head again (there hadn't been one since Thalberg, in the '30s) was because the studio was no longer the leader, no longer winning a lot of Oscars, etc. They apparently asked Hal Wallis and David O. Selznick to be head of production (both had had that experience, at other studios, in the past). But they turned it down.

[quote]R145 Didn’t work out so well for Grace…how much prep time did all of her elaborate hairstyles, etc. as princess take?

But they weren’t at 7:00 in the morning. Princesses can sleep till noon.

I'd be every curious to know which major studio won the most Oscars during the Golden Age, say to 1959? I'd bet MGM isn't the winner.

[quote]R145 how much prep time did all of her elaborate hairstyles, etc. as princess take?

Kelly’s only physical flaw was that she had rather thin, fine hair. That’s one reason she often wore it simply combed back in a twist. It wasn’t truly sparse or scary, it just wasn’t ideal.

The elaborate hairdos she wore in the 60s and 70s had a lot of pinned in braids and wiglets etc. Time wise, at least those could be prepped ahead of time.

That’s the look of an unhappy alcoholic housewife with $…the apple doesn’t fall far from the Main Line.

I’m the creepily elaborate “boat bed” Metro bought from the estate of a dead French soubrette. I went on to appear in many pictures, even on loan out, like for SUNSET BOULEVARD.

I’m 15 year old Elizabeth Taylor telling Louis B. Mayer and his studio to go to hell. (He was shouting and insulting her mother.)

I’m Margaret Sullavan, the only actress who terrified Louis B. Mayer.

r177 You'd be wrong

Oh wait, you didn't specify just best picture, ignore me, apologies

No worries, r184. But it's remarkable to see how rarely MGM won the Best Picture Oscar after Mrs. Miniver in 1942 (maybe just An American in Paris and Gigi?). There were many post-WWII years MGM didn't even get a nomination in that category.

Columbia Pictures has the most Best Picture wins, but that's from "It Happened One Night" (its first BP win) in 1934 to the present. At the height of the studio system, Columbia had some genuine greats.

It Happened One Night (1934)

You Can't Take it With You (1938)

All the King's Men (1949)

From Here to Eternity (1953)

On the Waterfront (1954)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

Oliver! (1968)

Mayer wanted Margaret Sullavan to star as the schoolteacher in the Andy Hardy movie where Andy gets a crush on his teacher. She told him the only Hardy picture she's be willing to appear in would be Death Comes To Andy Hardy.

*she'd

Whereas so many of the MGM Best Pictures are rather sentimental schlock and not very artful, no matter how popular.

I guess, if you consider Grand Hotel, Mutiny On The Bounty, Mrs. Miniver, An American In Paris, Gigi and Ben-Hur sentimental schlock.

Among the non-winning nominees were Smilin' Through, The Champ, Viva Villa!, David Copperfield, A Tale Of Two Cities, The Citadel, The Philadelphia Story, Ninotchka, The Human Comedy, Gaslight, The Yearling, Ivanhoe, Battleground, Julius Caesar...

I'm Louis B. Mayer. I supply the grease that makes this shitty movie business work. There isn't a dirty cover up in this entire business that I don't know about, and my hand is in every one of them.

I’m Betty Hutton, on loan from Paramount, hamming it up on the “Annie Get Your Gun” set and pissing everyone off.

I'm the spies they apparently had that would be planted as makeup people or in some close capacity to a star, who would make friends with the star, then report back to the front office about any dirt or rule-breaking.

I’m begging, BEGGING L.B. for a good script!

I'm The Little Red Schoolhouse waiting for Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland and Virginia Weidler. And I wait and I wait and I wait.....

I'm TCM, who are responsible for saving this era from being completely trashed and fading from memory worse than it already is.

We're Loew's, Inc.

We're in charge.

I’m Judy’s pills hidden in the lining of her Pirate gowns.

We’re the bankers hired by Schenck.

WE ARE in charge. R198

I'm the VHS copies of the movies your grandma recorded off cable.

I never got the joke about Judy's pill problems. She was treated badly, overworked and fed pills to sleep and wake up, as a kid, and it screwed up her sleep rhythms and her she had lifelong insomnia. Then people mock her because she couldn't beat it. Shit for brains.

I'm Van Johnson squealing like Margaret O'Brien when Mickey Rooney sticks his dick in my hole.

I'm the "one foot on the floor" rule, implemented to keep actors from looking too horizontal while filming an intimate scene.

I’m Vincent Minnelli, personally supervising Gene Kelly’s pirate shorts costume fitting for The Pirate.

Vincente with an E

I'm Culver City!

I’m Twelve Oaks, a matte shot based on the Selznick building right next door at RKO.

I’m Judy Garland’s mother, the real wicked witch of the west.

[quote]r202 I never got the joke about Judy's pill problems. She was treated badly, overworked and fed pills to sleep and wake up, as a kid, and it screwed up her sleep rhythms and her she had lifelong insomnia.

Judy was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

I’m Marsha Hunt, and I have droopy eyelids. I learned how to diminish their appearance with an eyeshadow technique I perfected as a model in NY.

I’m the only actress on the lot allowed to do my own makeup.

shut up!

I'm Veronica Lake. I only worked at MGM briefly before my name change and iconic hairstyle made me a star at Paramount.

R213 I never knew that.

I'm Van Johnson beating off after squeezing the ruby slippers onto my feet. I'll giggle when I'm done.

I'm David O Selznick, who married Irene Mayer and resented the son-in-law also rises joke.

Shirley Temple's mother Gertrude was such a major pain in the ass that Freed and Mayer cut Shirley loose after one flop film "Kathleen". They'd offered Shirley role in "Babes on Broadway" and other films which Gertrude didn't find substantial enough. She didn't understand her now tween daughter needed to be re-established and that the old Fox formula was no longer working.

That's where the rumors about Freed started. I doubt there's an ounce of truth to them.

I'm Bette Davis still bitching. I'm from New England don'tchaknow.

[quote]I'm a coveted Great Lady part that was recently rejected by Norma Shearer. I'll probably be offered to that new girl, Greer Garson, even though Joan Crawford desperately wants me.

If it's that egghead scientist lady who discovered radium, tell that phony Limey to keep her paws off of it! That part's got MY name written all over it!

I'm the red carpet that led from a star's dressing room to the stage. Bette Davis famously bitched that Warners never had red carpets for their stars.

[quote] That's where the rumors about Freed started. I doubt there's an ounce of truth to them.

It seems strange Shirley would have made that claim if there's not an ounce of truth to it.

The rumors are straight from the horse’s mouth R217

I'm the ruby slippers.

[quote] The rumors are straight from the horse’s mouth [R217]

That Sarah Jessica Parker will say anything to get attention!

[quote]Well who the fuck can recall of the top of their head who was an M-G-M "player"?

Uhm, most of Datalounge can!

Are you new here?

Wiki knows

Judy hiding her pills in her costumes apparently did happen, though. It was depicted in the Judy Davis miniseries.

I'm Loretta Young. Still picking out the little pieces of rust, from the hanger, out of my lady parts.

I am Joan Crawford. Don’t believe the story in Variety-I didn’t quit Metro, LB fired me.

He fired me because Bette Davis told him I went to the Hollywood Canteen and provided sexual release to an entire platoon being shipped out to the South Pacific.

These boys are giving their lives for us, and they deserve more as a thank you than rum punch served by a vinegary , sexless New England schoolmarm.

I’m the specialty performers MGM hired for FREAKS, forced to eat in a separate cafeteria so “people could get to eat in the commissary without throwing up."

I’m also the look of horror on uptight Louis B. Mayer’s face when he returns from vacation and discovers this has been filmed in his absence.

I’m rear projection.

I’m Lucille Bremer shooting Arthur Freed.

I'm Wallace Beery the most unlikely of movie stars.

[quote]I'm Wallace Beery the most unlikely of movie stars.

THE most unlikely? I think not.

It's amazing LB didn't have Freaks destroyed or Browning fired. I guess they made money. Devil Doll is post code but another bizarre Browning movie and worth seeing.

And White Cliffs of Dover is pretty depressing. Everyman in a large cast ends up dead due to both world wars. Mrs Miniver has a shocking unexpected death. MGM could be grittier than it is sometimes given credit for. Like the butcher's meat being delivered to the hotel as John Barrymore's cadaver is being taken out. And Garbo's joy at seeing Barrymore again when we know he won't be there. Her maid knows however but keeps it a secret so Garbo won't go into another of her I want to be alone funks.

Interesting too that June Lockhart plays the adult Elizabeth Taylor in Dover. and June is still kicking and Liz is long dead.

I am William Tannen (on the left), Nelson Eddy's longtime lover at MGM. WE met in 1937 when I appeared in a small role in "Rosalie", Here we are in 1940 during the "Stouthearted Men" number in "New Moon". Nelson liked to "bend to my will".

Eddy and Tannen

I'm Jean Harlow but wasn't around too long.

I'm John Garfield on loan from Warner Bros. for Tortilla Flat, opposite Hedy Lamarr, and The Postman Always Rings Twice, opposite Lana Turner.

I'm the lessons. Dance, voice, elocution, piano, fencing. Not only do I help to create highly competent all-around performers, I keep the contract players who aren't currently shooting a film busy all day long working for their salary.

I am Sydney Guilaroff head of the hairstyling department for many years. I am the first person most of the stars see when they arrive in the morning, and they are only too eager to share with me the stories of their private lives.

Sydney Guilaroff works his magic!

Didn't Guilaroff adopt one of his young boyfriends, who decided to get married? Or was that Cukor?

Anyway, I'm amazed how long he worked and how many credits over the decades you see his name in.

Guilaroff started at MGM in 1933 through the insistence of Joan Crawford who met him in New York City. He didn't receive his first on-screen credit until 1939 ("The Women") despite working on more than 150 films between 1933 and 1939. Thereafter, he received credit on half of the films he worked on because Jack Dawn, head of make-up and Sydney's boss in the beginning, resented Sydney and the affection that many of the stars had for him and his work.

Sydney adopted 2 sons in the 1940's from the same place that Joan had adopted. In the early 1990's he "adopted" a "grandson" who was actually anything butt!

He also appeared on-screen in "Sweet Bird of Youth", "Goodbye Charlie" and "New York New York"

MGM loved Sydney so much they even named the hair salon in THE WOMEN (where Mrs. Stephen Haines first hears of Jungle Red nail polish) "Mr. Sydney's."

Guilaroff seems like a nice guy from the TCM interviews I've seen.

R245 You mean the first Mrs. Stephen Haines...

I'm Darryl Hickman. No Dobie Gillis was my brother Dwayne.

Darryl was no Dwayne!

Well, she didn't mean The Second Mrs. Howard Fowler, r246.

I make Howard pay for what he DOES want.

I am a saint among men.

After a death in the family they had a lunch at a restaurant on the Merrimac River in Haverhill MA. Later that day I looked up the location and found it had once been where Louis B. Mayer's house stood (when he owned the main theater in Haverhill - his first venture in show business after having been a junkman). It was eventually how he got into the movie business. The future Irene Mayer Selznick and her sister, Edie Goetz (also married to a producer) grew up there.

Of all the stars LB Mayer literally created out of nothing. there was no bigger creation than what he made of himself. Can you imagine? A destitute Jewish immigrant from Russia, a boy who never got past grade school and began his career selling junk metal in New England in 1900?

Can you imagine?

Sure—of course I can.

I'm the expensive, limited number of gigantic three-strip Technicolor cameras rented from Technicolor. Of course we contractually arrive with a mandatory consultant to appease, Natalie Kalmus.

I am the TRUE First Lady of M-G-M!

I'm Ida Koverman, Louis Mayer's executive assistant from the 1920's, to his "departure" in the early 1950's. I'm a divorcee since 1924, but I kept my husband's last name. I'm well connected in conservative Republican circles. I live and breathe MGM, and I will fight hard for you if I believe in you. Just ask little Frances Gumm. If you need to see Mr. Mayer, you go through me. And just like my boss, I'll be dead within a few years of leaving the studio.

I'm Robert Montgomery. I was a star in the 1930s and 1940s but people now only remember my daughter.

I’m Ava Gardner and my thick southern accent, so beautiful at 18 that after seeing my screen test, a deciding executive swooned, “She can’t speak, she can’t act…[italic] she’s fantastic!”

We're Van Johnson, Hurd Hatfield, and Grady Sutton; otherwise known as the Plastic Dicks.

Our movies don't suck, but we will.

In Walter Pidgeon, closet Daddy homo.

I’m Dore Schary shelving Ricky Ricardo’s Don Juan.

I’m also some woman claiming to be his agent.

R54 - Hepburn did not have pock marks. she had freckles.

I'm the lowly minority worker tasked with cleaning that fucking lion's shit up off the floor. Oh, and Norma Shearer's too.

I'm Garbo's size 10 brogues, safely hidden from the camera under Adrian's numerous voluminous petticoats.

We're Tom & Jerry. We were never much of a threat to Disney or Warner Brothers.

I'm Kirk Kerkorian and I don't give a fuck about anything in this thread

I'm Samuel Goldwyn, oy, and I can only pray that one day my future grandson doesn't wind up some shlemiel actor in this fakakta business in this meshuga town!

And that that other one doesn’t marry a Playboy model, have a kid and then end up a feygele.

I'm Betty Asher, sister of Bewitched producer William Asher, befriending and spying on Judy Garland, while sleeping with studio fixer Eddie Mannix.

I think Betty Asher later committed suicide, is that right?

I'm Adrian, MGM's premier resident costume designer, retiring in 1942 with Greta Garbo , declaring glamour is now dead, only to be told by Miss Garbo as she exited the studio for the final time: "You know, I never really liked those clothes you made me wear."

I’m all the talented actors, screenwriters and directors whose careers were cut short due to being blacklisted.

r217 is correct. It was easier for the adult Shirley to chain that Freed and Mayer wiggled their dicks her and her mother (!) that admit that her mother's meddlesome behavior screwed her out of a possible career at MGM.

I'm landfill near the San Diego freeway. I contain music scores, screen tests, outtakes and corporate records that James "The Smiling Cobra" Aubrey thought were worthless and just taking up valuable office space.

I'm the ghost of "London After Midnight" of which the last known copy was destroyed in the MGM vault fire of 1965.

I’m in the back seat of the car headed north on the San Diego Frwy where I can easily spot the MGM sign still on the roof…after passing the Jewish and Catholic cemeteries where so many movie folk are buried.

We're Tom Drake and Farley Granger. We're the REAL Queens of the MGM Lot.

I'm Helen Rose. I took over the costume department after that little queen Adrian left.. I rule there for twenty years.

I'm Jane Powell. I was born about 10 years too late.

I'm Betty Hutton on loan from Paramount to take over from druggie Judy Garland on "Annie Get Your Gun." My performance clearly demonstrated that amphetamines can work in your favor.

Or not!

Rs 269 & 270: Betty Asher also reportedly had an affair with Judy Garland while acting as her assistant and reporting back to the head office, and yes, Betty committed suicide.

And while not a pretty boy by any means, her brother, director William Asher was one hot, bald daddy (and was married to both Elizabeth Montogomery and Joyce Bulifant).

I'm the discovery and creation of the once very popular "Esther Williams swimming musical"!

I have to be explained to people who can't believe I ever existed!

Rs 269 & 270 — Betty Asher also reportedly had an affair with Judy while acting as her assistant and secretly reporting to the front office about her, so the betrayal hit Garland very hard. And yes, Betty Asher later committed suicide.

Meanwhile, Asjer’s brother William Asher, who became a very successful producer/director on TV, was no pretty boy but was one hot, bald Daddy. And he was married to both Elizabeth Montgomery and Joyce Bulifant.

Sorry for the double post.

I'm the middle part of Hedy Lamarr's hair. For a while everyone had me.

Katharine Hepburn who did not suffer fools gladly(with the exception of Tracy the drunken queen) liked Mayer. She claimed he was always honest with her. And claimed he cared about and truly tried to help Garland.

On his way to Thalberg's funeral he said in his car, 'God is good to me.'

Edith his cut off daughter became richer than Mayer or his other daughter Irene. She became an astute art collector at the right time and amassed a fortune.

I believe it was Dore Schary who fired Garland and I don't believe many people at MGM cared. She became impossible to work with and her greatest admirers at the studio couldn't defender her.

Mayer was out before wide screen was commercial so he might not have liked it(I don't know) but it doesn't mean he wouldn't have used it. He became a power house because he used his amassed junk metal money and bought the New England rights to Birth of a Nation.

Also when he bought his first theater a star of the time made a personal appearance during the run of a film she was in. I believe because of her appearance it was a full house when theaters had big audiences and she stayed after signing every single last autograph for everyone who came. Mayer never forgot this and after she became an unknown he hired her at MGM and as long as he was there she always had a job.

A very sentimental and ruthless man. Today they're just ruthless.

Get me a re-write! ^

[quote] For a while everyone had me.

I know the feeling.

R273 I don't think she suggested Mayer "wiggled his dick" at her mother, just that he came on to her.

R278 Helen Rose was "bereft of taste" according to George Cukor (he wasn't wrong).

Tom and Jerry out-grossed Looney Toons for a few years. They also won 7 Oscars.

Sidney how did you get out from under that tractor you idiot?

Wasn't LB Mayer still the head of MGM when Summer Stock was shot (1949-50)? And so then wouldn't he and not Dore Schary have been responsible for firing Judy?

Who did Edith Mayer marry who made her so rich?

Though her films are all but forgotten now, Olympic ice skating champ Sonja Henie was a HUGE star at Fox in the mid-1930s and were a kind of prototype for Esther Williams' musical swimming spectaculars for MGM a decade later.

Don't just lay there, honey, swim something.

No one's gonna post those MGM anniversary group photos with "more stars than there are in heaven" for discussion and dissection?

Edith Mayer married producer William Goetz.

Who Mayer ended up hating which is why he cut her off. It was her impressive art collecting that made her very rich. He was just a well paid Hollywood executive and producer. Billy Wilder made his fortune by using the profits from his films to collect art again when it was affordable for wealthy people.

I'm the foaming at the mouth Mayer reportedly did when angry at a star.

I'm Freddie Bartholomew who was a famous child star but did not transition into an adult one.

No trans for Freddie

R294 - I think Judy got through Summer Stock but it was Royal Wedding that was what got her fired.

I'm Walt Disney. MGM hired me to include Mickey Mouse and a Technicolor reel with a meh song by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown in HOLLYWOOD PARTY (1934). It bombed.

When I was between distributors, Irving Thalberg wanted me to sign with MGM, but he died - and L.B. Mayer did not like my stipulation that I maintained full rights to my characters and films, so I went with RKO.

Mayer was very unhappy when SNOW WHITE became the highest grossing sound film (for a year). It did force him to look for other fantasy properties to develop.....

[quote]Though her films are all but forgotten now, Olympic ice skating champ Sonja Henie was a HUGE star at Fox

Sigh. The one that got away.

This seems to be the20th Anniversary photo from 1944.

LB must have been furious that Judy, Lana, Myrna and Clark were not in that photo, WWII or not. Nor were Eleanor Powell, Nelson and Jeanette nor even Tarzan and Jane.

Here's a film version of the 25th Anniversary Celebration in 1949.

^ look for Alexis Smith and Errol Flynn sneaking in, both on loan at the time.

You can't help but notice in the luncheon footage at r308 an ornery Judy Garland purposely turning her back on the camera as it pans over the stars at their places, even though both Fred Astaire and Red Skelton are urging her to acknowledge and smile at the camera.

I think this moment speaks volumes about her last years at MGM.

And then there's also that awkward non-event between Katharine Hepburn and Lena Horne.

[quote]R291 Helen Rose was "bereft of taste" according to George Cukor (he wasn't wrong).

Well, she designed Grace Kelly’s famous wedding gown. And all the clothes in DESIGNING WOMAN (which she conceived and titled) are beautiful.

[Italic]”Her style was elegant and understated but still innovative and natural looking. She was an expert at working with chiffon, a difficult fabric for some. It was said she favored the fabric because of the way it moved and picked up the light.”

R310 - i think Judy is talking to Alexis.

R183, YOU'RE wrong, to make a bad assumption.

The question is Oscars, not Best Picture Oscars.

I don’t have the energy to look it up, but in David Shipman’s biography it says Mayer wasn’t really that harsh in letting Garland go. The studio paid for an extended psychiatric stay in Boston. But she’d fucked up The Barkleys of Broadway and Annie Get Your Gun - requiring last minute replacements - and her unprofessional behavior put Summer Stock exorbitantly over budget.

It’s understandable that when she then wouldn’t appear to shoot Royal Wedding a business decision had to be made by MGM. What were they supposed to do? (Still, she had made $36,000,000 for the studio over the years.)

R303 She was supposed to be on a 3 month or a 6 month vacation, something like that, which she totally needed. And they called her back to replace June Allyson, who was pregnant. And she went back. (She was golfing at Pebble Beach, I think, at the time.) Judy wasn't a diva, she didn't even object to going back.

By the way, while I like Jane Powell, Judy or June, either one, would have nailed the "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You..." number with Astaire. Jane was good in that but not great.

Just in case anyone doesn't know, after being let go by Metro (which I think Judy didn't object to, realizing she was not making it), Judy made an amazing comeback at the Palace in NY and the London Palladium, basically reliable and performing show after show. And she won a Tony.

Charles Walters who dances with her in Embraceable You in Girl Crazy(looking like the father of one of the students rather than one of the students. It's one of her best numbers ever.) was supposed to direct Royal Wedding with Judy after Summer Stock. He declined saying he didn't want a nervous breakdown. Well Donen grabbed it with Powell. I think Powell is terrific in How Could You Believe Me. It's a classic movie musical number.

R311 No they aren't.

I can't picture Walter Plunkett or Edith Head designing junk like this.

I'm Arthur Freed's unit. Ask Lucille Bremer about me.

This is also terrible.

Hitchcock threw out the wardrobe Helen Rose designed for Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest and bought he clothes at Bergdorf Goodman.

*her

Sorry, wrong link!

Four unused Helen Rose designs for North By Northwest, modeled by Saint.

(Each one worse that the last.)

Lucille Bremer made a few of the greatest dance numbers on film. Her two numbers with Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies and Coffee Time from Yolanda. She also was incredibly beautiful with that mane of red hair. At least if she was Freed's mistress she had great talent. Though she didn't make it with the public. The bizarre Yolanda with Minnelli at his most drug induced baroque killed her career. I'm not saying Minnelli took drugs but the film makes it look like he did. It's all the more strange when he started making sitcoms like the father of the bride films and Courtship of Eddie's Father.

I think TCM interviewed Lucille Bremer for one of those "Word Of Mouth" shorts. I think she married a rich Mexican and also had a dress boutique (or something) in someplace like Encinitas CA.

[quote]R320 I can't picture Walter Plunkett or Edith Head designing junk like this.

Isn’t it a plot point that the Dolores Gray character wants her stage costumes redesigned? There had to be a contrast for when Lauren Bacall put her in this:

I'm Lucille Ball, practicing a little S&M.

Most exceptionally, Irene Sharaff got scene title-card credit for her spectacular Chinoiserie costumes the "Limehouse Blues" number with Astaire and Bremer in ZIEGFELD FOLLIES: "Costumes Designed by SHARAFF"

Tony Duquette (who designed the fabulous chinoiserie set) didn't get nothin'.

R332 Because people are interested in fashion, not set design.

One of the most skilled designer on the MGM lot was Irene. The stars loved her because she made them look great, but Mayer considered her “very expensive.”

Supposedly her suicide had something to do with a failed romance with Gary Cooper, who’d recently died. She was also an alcoholic with an ailing husband, and “suffered facial paralysis after falling asleep with her face under an electric blanket.”

Dear me.

Limehouse Blues looks like Sharaff's dress rehearsal for The Small House of Uncle Thomas.

So, were Irene (not Sharaff) and Helen Rose both at MGM designing costumes after Adrian left in 1941?

Here's a message from Paramount's Edith Head to Irene & Helen.

Just to be clear, Irene Sharaff and Irene (Lenz) (who committed suicide, as stated above) were two different Irenes.

Other MGM designers (or designers who worked at MGM) included Erté (in the 1920s), Dolly Tree (1930s), Walter Plunkett, Kalloch (Robert Kalloch). Men's costumes were designed by Gile Steele and Valles.

I just re-read my comment and realized I had misquoted George Cukor. Now that I think of it. what he actually said was "Helen Rose is bereft of talent." (not "taste" as I said)

Stanley Donen wasn't thrilled having to work with Judy on "Royal Wedding". He gave the word to Doré Schary that one missed call and he'd fire her. Some say he scheduled a one-hour rehearsal for a Saturday, and Judy called saying she wasn't coming in, and that was all it took, she was suspended. I think that was in late June or July in 1950, and by the end of her suspension in mid-September it was mutually agreed to end Judy's contract. I believe she was relieved, but ultimately terrified and hurt.

I wish Judy had bee able to shoot "The Barkleys of Broadway", it would have been a bigger hit and far better film with her in it. If she was well enough and had remained to the end of her contract it is very likely she would have appeared in "Showboat", "The Belle of New York", and I like to think "The Band Wagon" would have been tailored for her to star in with Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan, Cyd Charisse and Oscar Levant.

*been

[quote]R340 I just re-read my comment and realized I had misquoted George Cukor. Now that I think of it. what he actually said was "Helen Rose is bereft of talent."

You know how bitchy fags can be.

After Judy was no longer under contract, from what I remember reading they still wanted to hire her for Kiss Me Kate (George Sidney) and for Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen). I also remember seeing Donen interviewed where he said that, after Walters declined to do Royal Wedding with Judy, Donen was asked to do the film with her and he responded, "I'd love to."

Royal Wedding was Donen's first solo directorial assignment, I think.

The thing I find weird about the movie is that, even though it's about a brother and sister act, whenever they perform onstage, they're playing a couple - the first number has him chasing her around the throne room. How Could You Believe Me...also has them as a couple, as does I Left My Hat in Haiti, more or less. Brothers and sisters are rarely cast that way.

A wardrobe test photo with Fred and Judy - and her birthday on the set, with Vincente, Arthur Freed, Gene Kelly (without a hairpiece), and makeup artist Dottie Ponedel (was she the one who was spying on Judy? I forget).

I’m Marion Davies 11 room bungalow on the MGM lot being cut in half and loaded onto trucks when she flounced over to Warner Bros. in 1934.

(This dressing room had “4 bathrooms, a master kitchen, sitting room, walk-in fireplace, serving pantry, and dining room”… though that still leaves some rooms missing.)

r315 As I acknowledged in the very next post, but I guess you were really desperate to be a tedious little cunt

Odd that neither Schary nor Mayer are mentioned in that long article at r345 about the circumstances of her departure from MGM. Which gent was running the studio in 1950?

Mary Ann Nyberg designed the fab costumes for THE BAND WAGON. I don't know where she came from or where she went but she doesn't have a lot of other credits.

r333: Yes. Isn't that clip heaven? 1940s Technicolor at its most luscious.

r336: Yes.

r349: Judy's A STAR IS BORN! ❤️

r351: Well, Judy's A STAR IS BORN seems to have employed a few costume designers, including Jean Louis, who I believe designed most of Judy's contemporary wardrobe, and Irene Sharaff, who designed the entire "Born in a Trunk" sequence. So I'm not sure what Mary Ann Nyberg designed there. And I'm not sure who of them, if any of them, got a title credit.

IMDb lists the movie under Nyberg;s credits but doesn't list her under the movie's credits.

I'm Cyd Charisse's legs, insured for $5 million and worth every penny.

A little background on Mary Ann Nyberg

I’m impressed. You bitches delivered on this thread.

I'm A. Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, head of MGM's special effects department.

I'm matte shots. The CGI of their day.

r352: Thank you. I just checked the title credits.

Everyone you mentioned gets credit; Sharaff gets credit fir "Art Direction and Costumes" for "Born in a Trunk" while "Costumes designed by Jean Louis & Mary Ann Nyberg"

(IMDb misses a lot of credits for a lot of people)

I love how one of the official posters for "That's Entertainment" (1974) features Judy's iconic "Now here comes a big fat close-up" pose from A STAR IS BORN.

Nyberg designed two of Judy's The Man That Got Away costumes (two earlier versions of the number) before Jean Louis was hired for the final version - the dark blue dress with a white collar and dotted ribbon. (For ex.)

Nyberg first had her in a pink casual blouse and gray skirt, then in a brown dress. Judy performed/shot this number over and over - from 1953 to '54, until everyone was satisfied with the changes in set, lighting, angles, costume, etc. Got to give her credit for professionalism.

R349 - Mary Ann Nyberg? Am I related to her?

I'm Libeled Lady (1936) starring Harlow, Tracy, Powell and Loy remade just 10 years later as the musical Easy to Wed (1946) starring Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Keenan Wynn and Lucille Ball. Both big hits for MGM.

I think I'm the poster who first brought up Mary Ann Nyberg's name. Thanks to everyone who contributed so much info about her. Sad that such a talented designer didn't have a bigger career.

She married some rich guy and lived out the years giving parties in Malibu.

Don’t cry for her, Mary Ann Nyberg.

I'm the backlot.

I'm Debbie Reynolds at the back lot liquidation sale, grabbing as many dresses as I can.

I'm also Todd Fisher, shamelessly selling Debbie's personal items on a Facebook group.

R394 I think in that book on the A Star Is Born reconstruction - Mary Ann said that one of the costumes she designed was the dress Esther wore to the Oscar presentation......

I'm George Hurrell, photographer, who was hired after taking sexy shots of Norma Shearer.

I really liked reading this book about the MGM backlot, but now when I an old MGM movie, I can't help noticing a set I I saw in the book, and it makes the setting seem less real or unique to the film.

Book

The St Louis neighborhood street built for the film is obvious in a number of films. There is a youtube video showing all the films the Auntie Mame staircase was used in.

I highly recommend the 4k of Singin in the Rain. I don't know how they got it looking so good when the original camera negative was destroyed in a fire in the late 70s. I thought I was so sick of that fucking film. I never wanted to see it again as long as I lived but the ecstatic reviews got the best of me. This 4k gives it new life. But I still hate Gene Kelly singing the title number.

[R141]: Of the major studio composers, Stothart is the least admired today, on the grounds that he mostly arranged the themes of others in his scores. But he was actually a genius at this, creating arrangements of subtlety that resulted in what is still referred to as the “M.G.M. Sound,” a perfect accompaniment to the mostly sentimental output of that studio.

Yet he is still much underrated, with only a few of his scores ever released commercially. Among his unreleased masterpieces are his music for “The Good Earth,” “Marie Antoinette,” and “David Copperfield.”

And remember: in 1939 it was Herbert Stothart who won the Oscar for his score for “The Wizard of Oz.” NOT Max Steiner for GWTW.

(R374) Beautifully stated and so true.

R373 - We're Carol Haney and Gwen Verdon dubbing Gene's dance steps in post.

Oscars aren't always given to the right people.

I forget which critic said Herbert Stothart's "treacly" scores "meandered through" countless MGM films, but it seemed like an apt description. There are a few I like - The Yearling (adapted from Delius) - even if it really isn't totally appropriate to a simple story set in Central Florida scrub country.

Oscars are rarely given to the right people.

When I first saw Camille, I noticed that the theme played when Marguerite and Armand are in the country sounded a lot like the song, "Makin' Whoopie" and recently I saw a review from 1937 that mentioned it.

There's also a part of the score of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo that sounds exactly like the Rodgers & Hammerstein song, "Oklahoma."

We're the headless mannequins kept in wardrobe that had the star's measurements.

I'm the rarely seen "March of the Dogies" production number cut from "The Harvey Girls". I feature Judy Garland atop a bonfire like Joan of Arc of Culver City, with hundreds of dancers and extras.

I am so over-the-top "Peak Judy Garland Musical" I can literally turn you gay for life!

I love Stothart’s adaptation of Auld Lang Syne in Waterloo Bridge. The original theme he wrote for the film is lovely, too.

I'm Eleanor Powell in the MGM screening viewing a rough cut of BROADWAY MELODY of 1938 with clenched teeth. I'm usually affable and easy to work with , but when the following number appears right before my big dance finale, I turn to L.B. Mayer and snarl "Cut that little bitch's number. She's stealing all MY thunder right before MY big finale as the STAR of this goddamned movie." Mayer acquiesces, and the footage is lost.

(I was unable to destroy the soundtrack or production photos)

I'm Lillian Burns, head drama coach. I speak in an outrageously pretentious way and I teach my students to do the same.

I'm Jean Hagen, and I CAAAAAN'T STAAAAAAND IT!

I'm Bette Davis making the rounds at MGM and declaring, "What -- a -- DUMP!"

I'm Robert Taylor's never asking for a raise!

I'm Deep In My Heart, ostensibly a biography of Sigmund Romberg but more of a chance to see a lot of MGM stars in big musical numbers (and I think the only MGM musical produced by Roger Edens.) Jose Ferrer played Romberg and sang with his wife.

I never miss a Jose Ferrer musical.

I'm the musical with the bodybuilders

I'm all of the recycled costumes seen in Deep In My Heart from older MGM musicals!

I'm the realistic scenery

I’m the various stains on the stars’ dressing room carpets.

Don’t even ask.

No one could top that post, apparently :/

R393 - And that post was just about the only thing at MGM that couldn't be topped.

I'm Travel Talks!

I'm rheumatoid arthritis-afflicted, morphine-addicted Lionel Barrymore's lifetime contract for $3,000/wk.

I'm Jean Harlow's sore kidneys.

R 332: That “Limehouse Blues” fantasia is simply fantastic. Superb craft and artistry from everyone.

I'm Robert Montgomery

I’m underage Liz Taylor’s perky and upthrust breasts, pimped into service by the front office when someone’s needed to play 40-year-old Robert Taylor’s wife.

I’m Lassie, waiting to get some of that famous Crawford Cunt. Bette Davis says I’m the last bitch in Hollywood to take a dive in Lake Joan, but I don’t mind sloppy seconds. After all, I have also been known to eat my own shit.

Don't give up your day job.

I'm Norma Shearer practicing my annoying fake laugh that I use at least once in every one of my movies.

I'm eating Hugh O'Brian's ass

Hugh O'Brien...MGM star?

I'm Jack Warner telling everyone MGM stands for Marys, Gays, and 'mos.

R37 wasn’t she with Fox Studios?

R407 Yes.

I'm a Smith named Pete

....

I'm Vincente Minnelli, Richard Thorpe, Clarence Brown, George Cukor, George Sidney, Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, Charles Walters, Jack Conway, Mervyn LeRoy, Tay Garnett, Fred Zinnemann

I'm the broken camera someone hid in the back of the broom closet.

25th Anniversary banquet in 1949 (full version) Stars introduced by fellow MGM star George Murphy.

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT CAMERA BELONGED TO MGM?

R413 This was on the set of the final number from the Esther Williams movie, Neptune's Daughter (1949) (not sure what happened to the pool). Speech by Louis B. Mayer at the end.

I'm Lena Horne's dismay at being misused by M-G-M.

Claude Jarman, Jr. talking about the 25th Anniversary photo:

Alexis Smith and Errol Flynn sneaked into the photo too.

R407 Gene Tierney did make a movie with MGM, Plymouth Adventure (1952). She played Dorothy Bradford, wife of the future governor of the colony. June Allyson was originally cast in the film but Spencer Tracy had a romantic interest in Tierney and she was borrowed from Fox to make him happy.

R418 Because they were working at MGM at the time. Alexis in Any Number Can Play, with Gable, Frank Morgan and Audrey Totter - and Flynn in That Forsyte Woman, with Garson, Pidgeon, Janet Leigh and Robert Young.

R417 - Jennifer Jones was making Madame Bovary.

The timing of the anniversary lunch seems funny to me in regards to Judy Garland. Wasn't she making Annie Get Your Gun? She was said to be not well but still attended the lunch.

Christopher Kent (Alf Kjellin) - one of Jones's costars in Bovary - is in the K's, the Howard Keel - Gene Kelly - Deborah Kerr row. I think he was under contract to David O. Selznick. So was Louis Jordan, at least I think he still was. As was Jennifer.

R422 She looks heavier than in Annie. She was fired from Annie but a couple of pictures at MGM were still to come - In The Good Old Summertime, and Summer Stock. So - not sure exactly when this was.

I cannot picture Liza in a red wig playing Annie.

Try to get along.

The shun'all come out tomorrow.......

Oh wait.......

I can shing anything better than you.....

Judy Garland and Howard Keel singing They Say It's Wonderful, from the Annie Get Your Gun soundtrack recordings before she left the film.

Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) (Judy Garland and Howard Keel)

[quote]I'm Vincente Minnelli, Richard Thorpe, Clarence Brown, George Cukor, George Sidney, Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, Charles Walters, Jack Conway, Mervyn LeRoy, Tay Garnett, Fred Zinnemann

You need to see someone about your Multiple Personality Disorder.

According to Judy Garland: the day-by-day chronicle of a legend:

Judy finished production of In The Good Old Summertime on January 27, 1949. The MGM lunch was in February. Annie Get Your Gun began production on March 7.

I've lately decided that the warm, funny and charming "In The Good Old Summertime" is perhaps the best Judy Garland musical, after "Meet Me in St. Louis". The others are all trying so hard and lack Summertime's ease and fun. Judy is really excellent in it.

[quote] I've lately decided that the warm, funny and charming "In The Good Old Summertime" is perhaps the best Judy Garland musical, after "Meet Me in St. Louis".

Excuse me?

In The Good Old Summertime is pleasant but (I guess because it was a Joe Pasternak musical) it takes all the guts out of The Shop Around The Corner (which it's a remake of - set years earlier). Also it's a very small musical in the sense that it just has Judy singing all the songs, no dance numbers to speak of, and most of the songs are from the period, not written for the movie - the exception being the song, Merry Christmas. Overall it's a little light but I enjoy it. I like Summer Stock much better, though.

Marcia Van Dyke, incidentally, who appears in the movie as a violinist (which she was in real life - with the San Francisco Symphony) was later in the Broadway musical, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, and introduced the song Make The Man Love Me.

*The other singer is Johnny Johnston - who was in at least one MGM movie (with Esther Williams - the one set on Mackinac Island). He was married to Kathryn Grayson at one time.

He was physically abusive to Kathryn

We're Marge and Gower Champion. After two back-to-back flops, it's back to second banana roles for us!

I'm the smell of burnt popcorn coming from the break room.

I'm Harry Rapf. I was in charge of MGM's "B" division. Most of the films I produced have been completely forgotten ("Burn 'Em Up OI'Connor", anyone?) but they made money.

The only reason I am remembered id because I made "Everybody Sing" and "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry". with that new kid who sings a bit.

Please forget "Ice Follies of 1939".

Wasn't Harry Rapf called "The Anteater"?

[quote]I've lately decided that the warm, funny and charming "In The Good Old Summertime" is perhaps the best Judy Garland musical, after "Meet Me in St. Louis".

Clearly she worked best when her love interest was played by a homosexual.

[quote]Wasn't Harry Rapf called "The Anteater"?

Why? Was he uncut?

His long nose.

I'm Joe Pasternak and I love a soprano.

r444: Tell me about it.

I'm "Father of the Bride", the product of very talented people all at the very top of their game.

I'm still superbly entertaining.

[quote] Spencer Tracy had a romantic interest in Tierney

He only saw the name Gene, and thought "Oh, whatta man he must be."

Easter Parade another great gem from this era -naturally gets rerun this weekend.

There's people who still think Spencer Tracy wasn't into cock?

^ Mrs. Tracy

R449 Are we supposed to take the word of a hustler and procurer? I'm sure his integrity was above reproach.

I’m Jennifer Jones, visiting on loan out to do MADAM BOVARY. (Director Vincent Minnelli opined that contract player Lana Turner did NOT have the necessary acting skill to embody the role.)

I secretly wish I wasn’t under contract to my increasingly sad sack, neurotically controlling husband, who’s seriously downgrading my career.

She got what she deserved.

R453 - Who? Madame Bovary or Jennifer Jones?

Her daughter jumped off a high rise on Mothers Day.

That says a lot.

Christina was all talk. Sadly.

R455, and Jones herself attempted suicide on more than one occasion, so what it seems to say a lot is that mental illness is hereditary...

Or what a devastating drain it was to live with (or be raised by) amphetimine addict David O. Selznick

[quote] Her daughter jumped off a high rise on Mothers Day.

Was she inspired by seeing momma in The Towering Inferno?

R457 One of her sons by Robert Walker was loony - so was Walker.

Later Jennifer was a lay therapist and I think one of the people in her group therapy (and also a friend) was Sally Kellerman.

Jennifer made another MGM picture (though nobody remembers it) - the remake of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957). One of her best performances, actually.

Jennifer was a therapist? Fucking hell. Truly the blind leading the blind

That footage of the MGM anniversary banquet - shocking, though not surprising, to see row upon row of execs and not a single woman among them.

At the actors' tables, I find it amusing to see the occasional placement exchange where the actors are not sitting in strict alphabetical order and imagine the conversations that took place.

Judy clearly didn't want to be there and wouldn't turn around to smile at the camera as it went by. Spencer Tracy also seemed to resent being put on display like that.

And fun watching Spring Byington and Ethel Barrymore chatting with Gladys Cooper.

Judy does look at the camera and smile in one take. In another she is busy chatting with Alexis Smith behind her.

Even in the shot where she's acknowledging the camera she looks uncomfortable, her elbows on the table leaning over like a little hunchback.

R466 - For Christ's sake! The woman was strung out! LEAVE JUDY ALONE!!!

[quote]R109 Nobody outside of the DL knows what the hell Pancakes Barbara are. That's why I'm here.

Oh! Not to hasten your death or anything, but I’d love to arrange a memorial service for you some day, and serve them at the end!

[italic]”We all know that if r109 truly loved one thing, it was Pancakes Barbara. Let’s all raise a forkful now to his blessed ideal!”

What was served at the luncheon? Ham?

The MGM Pancakes Barbara beloved by Louis B. Mayer are very different from the Elsie de Wolfe Pancakes Barbara, and Mayer's sound better. I wonder if they were served for dessert at the big luncheon?

Is that Dore Schary next to Mayer? He was rather a usurper in the end.

Where was Lana Turner at that luncheon??

She missed the 1944 20th anniversary photo and then also the missed the 1949 25th anniversary, phot and luncheon, too. But no worries, Ava Gardner was very pleased to take her place.

Also, noticeably absent: Elizabeth Taylor, June Allyson, Margaret O'Brien and Jane Powell. Were Jimmy Stewart, Mickey Rooney, William Powell, and Hedy Lamarr no longer under contract? They're not there either.

Jimmy Stewart as no longer under contract but did make a 1949 film for MGM, with June Allyson - the Stratton Story. I think Liz Taylor was making Quo Vadis in Rome with Gregory Peck (this would be shut down when Peck got a bad eye infection, then re-cast and started up again with Deborah Kerr and Robert Taylor). Lamarr also made a 1949 film for MGM but wasn't under contract there any more, to my knowledge. Margaret O'Brien's final MGM film was Little Women, which was made in 1948 but held back for release in '49. I don't think Van Johnson was at the luncheon, either, was he?

No Van Johnson and no Keenan Wynn! Hmmmmmmm................

[quote]Van Johnson was at the luncheon, either, was he?

Van had an appointment in the Men's Room.

And where the hell was Peter Lawford?

I'm Helen Wood. My career has progressed from "Give a Girl a Break" dancing and co-starring with Debbie Reynolds, Bob Fosse and Marge & Gower Champion to having my twat munched on in "Deep Throat".

June Allyson is in the group photo for the 25th anniversary, just not at the lunch.

June Allyson also put a salt and pepper shaker set in her purse...

[quote] June Allyson is in the group photo for the 25th anniversary, just not at the lunch.

She seldom ate out in those dark days before Depends were available.

[quote] June Allyson is in the group photo for the 25th anniversary, just not at the lunch.

R477 Must have been taken at a different time because some people seem to be in different clothes (Judy Garland, Clark Gable, for example). I always notice how simply or plainly, but with great taste Ava Gardner usually dressed, when she wasn't wearing movie or publicity costumes. It looked good on her.

After introducing her at the banquet, I notice that George Murphy (hosting) says to Angela Lansbury, "Hi, Lovey." Wonder if that was a nickname other people called her, as well. (The two of them played a couple in the Margaret O'Brien movie, Tenth Avenue Angel.)

(There's an older English woman I know who calls me - and a lot of other people - Lovey. It's just not an American expression and GM was not English.)

Lovey is very much an upperclass British term, there used to be references in the 1980s and 1990s about how Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh had become a bit part of the whole "lovey" London theatre crowd.

R319 Actually I'm almost certain I saw an interview with Donen where he said he was asked, "How would you like to work with Judy Garland?" (or something like that) and he said, "I'd love to." Then at some point Powell replaced Judy.

It's nice to see Frank Morgan introduced at the luncheon, he'd be dead in six months at age fifty-nine.

[quote]Totally agree about Ralph Meeker. And when young, he was sexy.

This is perhaps the only footage of the original Broadway cast of William Inge's "Picnic". In addition to hot young Meeker, there's Janice Rule, Kim Stanley, and Eileen Heckart. Paul Newman was also in the cast as Rule's suitor (ultimately rejected in favor of Meeker), but he's not in this clip.

Fast-forward to the 2-minute mark, as Ed Sullivan won't shut up:

I'm "Ziegfeld Girl", an A-list yet still shot in black + white musical.

I'm Douglas Shearer. My younger sister Norma was under contact at MGM when I visited her in 1924. Through her I got a job on the lot, working as an assistant in the camera and sound departments. It was the development of sound on film that interested me, and I ultimately won 7 Academy Awards for my sound and special effects work. You'll see my name in the credits on nearly 1,000 MGM pictures. I retired in the late 60's, and died in 1971.

[quote]r488 I'm "Ziegfeld Girl"

I’m its lapse in taste.

R490 I’m Judy Garland and it’s a miracle I was ever able to close my eyelids again after holding them wide open for so long while filming that number for that bastard Busby Berkeley.

I'm Mary Frances Reynolds, until I ended up here I wanted to be a gym teacher!

I'm Joan McCracken, literally the best thing about Good News. At least I can pass for an actual college student!

I hope my great dance number doesn't get "cancelled"!

r488: MGM used Technicolor for only three films in 1941: "Smilin' Through" with Jeanette MacDonald and Brian Ahearne , :"Blossoms in the Dust" with Queen Bee Greer Garson, and "Billy the Kid" with Robert Taylor.

"Ziegfeld Girl" made $3.1 million, more than any of these.

Even if it had been the budget had been higher for the use of Technicolor it STILL would have made more .

All the Technicolor film stock’s needed for me.

Thank you, move it along.

The best Micky & Judy musical "Girl Crazy" was two years later in 1943, and was also in black & white. It's a really entertaining musical and might have been fun in color.

^ Not to be confused with Judy's later one-woman show, "Crazy Girl"

R487 wow Kim Stanley really is lousy. She plays the teenage girl as if she is retarded.

Billy the Kid needed Technicolor to show off the splendour of Robert Taylor’s icy blue eyes

Ralph Meeker’s dancing is goofy

I'm Wallace Beery. Nobody likes me because I'm an asshole.

Also because I killed Ted Healy, but nobody liked him either.

I’m Carroll Baker, hot off my Oscar nom, offered a two picture deal at MGM to do Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Brothers Karamazov.

My home studio Warner Bros. is pissy about me turning down the trash THEY want me to do, though, and refuses to loan me out.

Soon I’ll buy my way out of that contract in a fit of pique.

I was surprised when I found out Powell had one of Garland's numbers cut as the poster said she was known to be easy going and affable. I thought that was pretty shitty of her. But after hearing it no wonder she had that number cut before her big finale. It's a shit song no matter how good Garland's voice. It would bring the audience down listening to that dreck and that finale would have to be fighting the audience's lousy mood.

And Mayer knew it because he could have fought her on it. She had a contract.

Remember Kelly was huge after On the Town, a monster of a hit for MGM, and he was finishing the super production American in Paris. He did not want Debbie Reynolds in Singin' in the Rain. It was Mayer who said you have no choice. Reynolds will be in SITR.

And speaking of Powell watch her with Gene Krupa in the drum number I'll Take Tallulah from Ship Ahoy. I didn't know Krupa was such a confident cutie beyond his drum skills. On youtube. It is astonishing.

r503: I think "Your Broadway and Mine" is a pretty terrific song and I think Powell (whom I also love) was unnerved that Garland would have wiped her off the screen. But I agree with you that Judy could make even a truly lousy song thrilling.

This is one of Garlands worst songs - (Berlin put it into CALL ME MADAM but would be cut from there too). But it's one of her greatest film numbers.

That woman knew better than anybody how to sell a song and make it sizzle.

Thank you for bringing that insufficiently known number to attention, r506! It's astonishing indeed. And that drumstick finish!

I disagree with you on Mr Monotony. I think it's a terrific song. I first heard it in Jerome Robbin's Broadway. But I admit a lot of people agree with you.

Eleanor Powell makes Ann Miller look like an amateur.

[quote]I first heard it in Jerome Robbin's Broadway.

Oh, dear.

r506 That's Buddy Rich, not Gene Krupa.

Sorry!

Don't worry about it, R513. Mrs. Krupa often made the same mistake.

I'm Ethel Gumm. Six months before my daughter Judy turned twenty-one in 1943, I was banned from the lot, never to return.

My crime? Mayer had grown tired of me vociferously complaining about him overworking my daughter who suffered a nervous collapse on the Busby Berkeley shoot of "I Got Rhythm" for the film "Girl Crazy". Since Judy would soon be a legal adult what influence I had would vanish.

Hi y'all. I'm Scotty Bowers and on permanent payroll!

I'm Leni Lynn. I'm MGM's first try at getting a Durbin replacement.

In my first film there in 1939, I was supposed to sing some silly number about 'Opera vs. Swing' with that Garland girl, but that bitch Betty Jaynes must have given someone a blowjob so she got the spot. Didn't help her much. Heh.

Then I was tossed in a B-musical in 1940. Then I was dropped . My next film was at Republic.

I died in 2010 in Croton-on-Hudson NY.

No, bitch - I'M MGM;'s first unsuccessful try at getting a Durbin replacement. I was signed a few weeks after Mayer realized the fucked up bad letting her go when THREE SMART GIRLS became a whopping hit for Universal.

And I lasted until 1945, mostly in bit parts, including a bomb musical with that red-headed broad.

My last role was in 1952 on her hit sitcom.

I'm Kathryn Grayson, the one true Deanna Durbin replacement!

I slid into action like other starlets in an Andy Hardy movie (Andy Hardy's Private Secretary 1941) and never looked back!

I was so popular they had to get another soprano, Jane Powell, to handle the overflow!

You were also stacked, Kathryn.

Girls, GIRLS! You’re ALL second rate Deanna Durbin knockoffs!

I'm the Duchess of Idaho!

I think that means I look like a potato.

I'm Buster Keaton and I rue the day I was Shanghai'd into this joint.

Wait! Is it being said that Eleanor Powell had one of Judy Garland's songs cut in a movie Eleanor starred in? Did Eleanor and Judy make a film together? I can't locate the post where this was seemingly first mentioned. Help!

I'm the incredibly popular long-running series of B movies like the Andy Hardy, Maisie and Dr. Kildare films.

We kept the contract players and newbies busy earning their keep and letting the public get to know us.

Hold our beer, r525!

Iron my loincloth, r526

Yes, but the Thin Man series were A list films, as were the Tarzan movies.

My Own Private Duchess of Idaho

The first Thin Man movie was not an A list film, just a low budget quickie crashed together in a few weeks by One Take Woody Van Dyke.

I’m white teeth and a pair of big tits that catch the eye of former movie queen Norma Shearer at a ski resort. Said Grade A tits and teeth are in a photo on the desk of the resort’s manager, and they belong to his teenage daughter, Jeanette Morrison.

Shearer scurries back to MGM with the photo, where the teen is soon signed and dubbed Janet Leigh.

She will later give birth to a plain faced, intersex child.

No, r530, both William Powell and Myrna Loy were among MGM's top stars. The Thin Man was based on a very popular crime novel, and although perhaps not lavishly budgeted it was indeed considered an A-list film. Producer Hunt Stromberg, director W.S. Van Dyke and cinematographer James Wong How were not B-unit talent working on Andy Hardy movies and bottom half of double bill pictures.

*James Wong Howe

Well, r532, Mickey Rooney and Lewis Stone (and Lionel Barrymore who starred in the first Andy Hardy) were also among MGM's biggest stars as was Lew Ayres. They all starred in those MGM series.

And look at James Wong Howe's credits. The impressive ones that made his reputation all happened after The Thin Man. I never said any of those films weren't A list. Just that they were parts of popular series.

Although Grayson was under contact, MGM wanted Durbin for SHOW BOAT. She would have been a big 'get' for the studio and as Magnolia she would sing the score much better than Grayson ever could. Deannas old producer friend Joe Pasternack went to see the freshly-retired star in her new home in Paris to make the proposal, but unfortunately Durbin could not be convinced to return. Pasternack also wanted Garland for the role of Julie, but she had left MGM shortly before SHOW BOAT went into production.

With Garland and Durbin, SHOW BOAT would have been a far more musically exciting film than it was.

I'm Walter Pidgeon, and I was a kept woman for 21 years!

'I'm the incredibly popular long-running series of B movies like the Andy Hardy, Maisie and Dr. Kildare films.'

And I made the real money not like that prestige shit that got the crowds at Radio City for the Rockettes but that nobody else in the country wanted to see.

I am Jeanette MacDonald's sister, Blossom (Marie Blake) and years before I played Grandmama on "The Addam's Family", I played Sally the switchboard operator in all those Kildare films.

And I'm Lew (Dr. Kildare) Ayres, whose enormous popularity vanished when I declared myself a conscientious objector at the outset of WWII. Even though I eventually enlisted as an ambulance driver, my career never really recovered.

I'm "The Pirate", and I resent r537's remarks!

Datalounger's of an older vintage will remember Lew (Dr. Kildare) Ayres for his terrifying scenes as the man trapped under the ice at the beginning of Damien: Omen II!

Hey Pirate do you know you have Cole Porter's worst score except for Be a Clown which was a highlight of Singin in the Rain despite it pointedly having a score by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown?

Was Lionel Barrymore a cripple?

Or was that one of the Dr. Kildares?

[quote]Datalounger's of an older vintage

Oh, dear.

529- Show Boat was never a Pasternak film, not was Durbin ever in play for that film. Judy was wanted early on but it was clear that wouldn’t going to work out.

I guess Bea Arthur was too young to play Joe.

R524 Broadway Melody of 1938 has Eleanor Powell and Judy Garland.

Deleted after previews were a reprise of "Yours and Mine" (sung by Judy Garland and a boys choir), and the beginning of the "Your Broadway and Mine" finale (sung by Garland and the MGM chorus).

(r 545) The confusion might have been due to the fact that producer Jack Cummings, when preparing "Kiss Me Kate", asked Pasternak to see whether or not Durbin might be interested in the lead role. She was Cummings first choice.

Pasternak did ask and was told that she was not interested in returning to Hollywood and the role went to Grayson.

Thanks, r547. Is it documented somewhere that Eleanor Powell demanded or requested that Judy's 2 numbers were cut from their film? I would have never thought Powell had that sort of diva behavior in her, nor for that matter, that kind of power or control at MGM.

(r549) No, but there is a memo from producer, Jack Cummings requesting the numbers be cut because the film was overlong, and the finale needed to be shortened.

Eleanor's "Got a Pair of New Shoes" was also cut.

Here it is.

I’m the shorts Gene Kelly wore in The Pirate that turned scores of boys gay.

And Van Johnson stole me from the Wardrobe Dept. and took me home afterwards.....but he couldn't get me on over his big fat ass.

Van Johnson worshiped Kelly's pants that clung to him when they were doing Pal Joey together at the Ethel Barrymore. And then slyly threw shade at him during a Charlie Rose interview with other MGM stars. Yet they Did Brigadoon together and if Kelly didn't want him in it at that point he wouldn't have been. Mayer was long gone.

It was common knowledge that Kelly and Johnson had a fling in their pre-MGM days. Keenan Wynn, when he was drinking to excess, loved to share the story.

That's news to me. It's a great image, Van Johnson giving up his mussy to Gene Kelly. Where did you hear that?

R186: Columbia got most of its Oscars in the post-Golden Era. Harry Cohn's use of short-term contracts and independent producers enabled the studio to grow and prosper while the bigger studios were dying in the 50s. The Golden Era really ends with the decline in moviegoers in the late 40s and the loss of studio owned theater chains shortly after. MGM was unique in that the studios were the parent company.

[quote]MGM was unique in that the studios were the parent company.

I always thought Loews Inc theater chain was the parent company of MGM studios, but you are correct.

(r 557) Kathryn Grayson shared that with a great many personal friends including Robert Osborne.

I thought Wynn had a relationship with Van Johnson which is why Mayer forced Wynn to divorce his wife so she could marry Van Johnson to help show he wasn't one of those.

(r561) That was years after his fling with Kelly. By then, Kelly was involved with Stanley Donen - personally and professionally - and that was one of the reasons Mayer was never overly fond of Kelly and Kelly loathed Mayer.

Jeez Gene could have done better than Stanley Donen.

As originally planned, "Summer Stock" was going to be the best and last Mickey & Judy film, with them once more putting on a show in our barn. I guess Mickey Rooney's fortunes and popularity had dipped so far by that point that other decisions were made.

It might have worked fine as a gussied up B movie with A movie resources, but Kelly brings sheer artistry to it, and as troubled a production as it was, the whole thing is buoyant and delightful with both leads at the top of their game, at least in the finished print.

(r563) Donen (below) was attractive enough in his younger days but more than that, they shared an artistic vision and a striving for excellence.

Nelson Eddy, on the right, is another example of someone from MGM being involved with someone very average looking. Although Eddy had a string of male lovers during his MGM years - many of them very attractive - his longest relationship was with his accompanist, Theodore Paxton (on the left). The fact that they traveled together, usually without Mrs. Eddy or Mrs. Paxton, made it easy to continue their decades long relationship, partly based on their passion for music.

(r565) I meant Theodore Paxson not Paxton - oops.

It's amazing Freed was straight.

Mayer hated or at least was very uncomfortable with gays but they were such an important part of the success of his studio.

There's a whole lot of 2024 sexual attitudes and assumptions being projected onto some of these famous personalities of the 1940s.

2004 at best, r569, and it's all over DL.

You're right, r570, we've gotten so much more hostile and regressive toward actual gay and lesbian people while altering reality for the "TQIA+" brigade!

Donen went out with Elizabeth Taylor, was married 5 times (incl. to Yvette Mimieux) and had a long term relationship with Elaine May until his death. Are there many gay men with that kind of record?

Liz did not want to do Ivanhoe because it would require her leaving Donen to film in England. He said to her it was an important picture and she must do it. He then ruefully noted she went to England and forgot all about him.

Liz was originally so bad in IVANHOE all her dialogue had to be re-recorded when she got back to the studio.

For quite a while, acting was beyond her.

She's very good in the two Bride pictures made at about the same time.

Yes. Darling in those : )

R574 She didn't want to do Ivanhoe. But she ended up meeting Michael Wilding when she was in England doing the film. It's hard to believe all her dialogue was redubbed; you can't tell at all.

From the NYT at the time: "Elizabeth Taylor was named to replace Deborah Kerr as Rebecca in "Ivanhoe," with Robert Taylor."

Kerr originally replaced Taylor, then she fell ill and was herself replaced by Taylor.

.....

Actually Deborah Kerr had to drop out of Ivanhoe due to pregnancy.

And Stewart Granger was originally cast as Ivanhoe but turned it down.

[quote]r577 It's hard to believe all her dialogue was redubbed; you can't tell at all.

Maybe the problem was she wasn’t playing a modern character, so she felt a bit at sea?

In the biography I read, as soon as the incoming footage started being screened at MGM in Hollywood, there was concern about Taylor’s performance. She looked divine, of course, but her line readings lacked feeling.

But you know, obviously it wasn’t the end of the world.

Who would have ever believed Deborah Kerr as a Jewess?

I'm "The Merry Widow" and I've been filmed by MGM three times.

There must be something to me!

Elizabeth Taylor was no more Jewish than Kerr.

(She didn't convert to Judaism until around 1959-'60)

But Liz looked more Jewish.

There hasn't been a Merry Widow or Showboat since the early 50s. I think it's overdue for film remakes of both of them since they got 3 each in 25 years time.

I watched the one with Lana Turner and Fernando Lamas a couple years ago. Guess it was great if you wanted to hear Fernando Lamas sing almost the whole score of the show. Which I didn't.

I'm sure Lana's Vilja is glorious. And you get to see Gwen.

Never seen it myself. But the Lubitsch is one of my favorite movies. It looks like MGM said to him you can spend all the money you want. The Von Stroheim is strange as you would expect but was a big hit. It probably was why he got Greed which ended his directing career. The 2 hours they took out of the original 8 hour version is another of my favorite films. The 8 hour version was only seen at a special invitational preview and the 6 hours not used was destroyed. Only stills exist. Irene Selznick was at that preview and writes about it in her autobio.

The silent version is interesting and the 1934 film is a masterpiece of Operetta - possibly the best Operetta ever filmed. Even if you don't like MacDonald in the films with Eddy, she is amazing here. Truly sparkling, sexy and gorgeous looking. You see every cent that was spent on the screen, and it was worth it.

The opening of The Times review of the '34 version world premiere at the Astor Theater where the Marriott Monstrosity now stands.

"The new Ernst Lubitsch confection, a witty and incandescent rendition of "The Merry Widow," had its first public hearing on this earth last night at the Astor, where it was presented amid the tumult and the shouting which befit important cinema openings and perhaps the coronation of emperors. The overhead arc lamps threw a weird blue mist which was visible up and down Broadway. According to Major Bowes, whose first-hand description from the lobby came thundering to the crowds outside through a loud speaker, enough stars were present to outfit a new universe. Mounted policemen clattered up on the sidewalk and gallantly beat back the surging proletariat. Miss MacDonald announced that her heart was full of gratitude. When Franz Lehar's name was flashed on the screen, everybody applauded, and necks were craned in an effort to discover if Mr. Lehar was in the house. Then, or a bit later, the show went on. It is a good show in the excellent Lubitsch manner, heady as the foam on champagne, fragile as mist and as delicately gay as a good-natured censor will permit."

But was the 1934 Merry Widow produced by MGM? I thought I read about how MGM completely de-sexed Jeanette after she signed with the studio.

Yes, "The Merry Widow" was her second film at MGM. The first, "The Cat and the Fiddle" from Jerome Kern's musical, was released several months prior to "Widow". Both "Cat" and "Widow" were more along the lines of her Paramount pictures. In "Cat and the Fiddle" she lives "in sin" with her lover.

It was only because the returns on these two titles were not quite what the studio hoped for. At that time (1934) the popular musicals were the Busby Berkeley epics at Warners, some of Crosby's early works at Paramount and the start of the Astaire-Rogers series.

It was after "The Merry Widow" that MGM put Jeanette into "Naughty Marietta", which received an Oscar nomination as Best Film. From "Marietta's" release in early 1935 until 1940, Operetta was hugely successful for MGM but MacDonald was not permitted to show her spicier side. "Widow" was really the last time "The Lingerie Queen" as she had been dubbed, paraded around in her under garments.

"The Lingerie Queen"

Just checked.

The Code went into effect on July 1, 1934 and "The Merry Widow" was released October 11.

Paramount sought to re-release the pre-code "Love Me Tonight" after MacDonald became a bigger star at MGM, but unfortunately the Code made them chop up many pre-code remarks , scenes and the song "A Woman Needs Something Like That".

MPAA/PCA files at the AMPAS Library reveal that while most of the songs in the film were approved prior to release, the Hays Office objected to the suggestive nature of the song, "A Woman Needs Something Like That," although it was left in the film. Jesse Lasky, Jr. responded in a letter to the MPPDA's concern about the line "Must we sleep tonight all alone?" in the song "Love Me Tonight," by noting that the line had been changed to "Let's drink deep tonight all alone." Concern that French Royalists might take offense to the film prompted the Hays Office to give a copy of the script to the Los Angeles French consul, Henri Didot. Based on Didot's comments, it was determined that only the scene in which the princess strikes a servant should be deleted. In addition, Didot maintained that as long as the duke and princess were not implied to have royal blood, the film should not give offense. The film was rejected in Czechoslovakia, approved without eliminations in Quebec, New York and Kansas, and approved with eliminations in Australia, Britain, Chicago, Ontario, British Columbia, Ohio, Alberta, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Among scenes and dialogue commonly deleted by local censors were references to the "virgin spring"; the scene of the Princess's examination by the physician; and Maurice taking measurements of the princess. In 1937, letters from Joseph I. Breen of the AMPP to Paramount indicate that Breen advised against the re-issue of the film because he felt that the severe editing required to pass the censors would ruin the film. In a 1949 letter, Breen approved a re-release with the following deletions: Any reference to "virgin springs"; the song "A Woman Needs Something Like That"; and the scene of Myrna Loy in a "transparent nightgown." According to a memo in the file, the four-reel re-release was unsuccessful. According to modern sources, the scenes of Myrna Loy singing "Mimi" and "A Woman Needs Something Like That" were retained for European release.

I don't think any "European" prints survive alas

(r597) Thanks for that wealth of fascinating information.

There was an extended period (in the 70s?) when Babs was considering a remake of that.

With Ingmar Bergman as director.