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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.430232092
EAN: 9780743204811
ISBN: 0743204816
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 608
Publication Date: April 19, 2005
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Sales Rank: 127958
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Lion of Hollywood is the definitive biography of Louis B. Mayer, the chief of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer -- MGM -- the biggest and most successful film studio of Hollywood's Golden Age.
An immigrant from tsarist Russia, Mayer began in the film business as an exhibitor but soon migrated to where the action and the power were -- Hollywood. Through sheer force of energy and foresight, he turned his own modest studio into MGM, where he became the most powerful man in Hollywood, bending the film business to his will. He made great films, including the fabulous MGM musicals, and he made great stars: Garbo, Gable, Garland, and dozens of others. Through the enormously successful Andy Hardy series, Mayer purveyed family values to America. At the same time, he used his influence to place a federal judge on the bench, pay off local officials, cover up his stars' indiscretions, and, on occasion, arrange marriages for gay stars. Mayer rose from his impoverished childhood to become at one time the highest-paid executive in America.
Despite his power and money, Mayer suffered some significant losses. He had two daughters: Irene, who married David O. Selznick, and Edie, who married producer William Goetz. He would eventually fall out with Edie and divorce his wife, Margaret, ending his life alienated from most of his family. His chief assistant, Irving Thalberg, was his closest business partner, but they quarreled frequently, and Thalberg's early death left Mayer without his most trusted associate. As Mayer grew older, his politics became increasingly reactionary, and he found himself politically isolated within Hollywood's small conservative community.
Lion of Hollywood is a three-dimensional biography of a figure often caricatured and vilified as the paragon of the studio system. Mayer could be arrogant and tyrannical, but under his leadership MGM made such unforgettable films as The Big Parade, Ninotchka, The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, and An American in Paris.
Film historian Scott Eyman interviewed more than 150 people and researched some previously unavailable archives to write this major new biography of a man who defined an industry and an era.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
How and when did so many great Americans get thrown into the dust bin of history? We really need hero courses in our schools to provide kids with information on these grand, legendary figures. Instead, we work to undermine what little hero worship there is. John D. Rockefeller is one such figure, Teddy Roosevelt another. No doubt, one could come up with a dozen such creators of new worlds, but instead they are belittled and destroyed by neglect. Louis b. Mayer has his detractors and no doubt deserves ... Read More
Rating:  -
A VERY INFORMATIVE BIOGRAPHY NOT ONLY ON LOUIS B. MAYER, BUT ON MANY OF THE MGM STARS OF THE GOLDEN ERA.......THE DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE TRANSITION FROM SILENT PICTURES TO SOUND WAS EXTREMELY INTERESTING...ESPECIALLY THE REASONS FOR HOW AND WHY SOME SILENT STARS MADE THE TRANSITION AND WHY SOME DID NOT.....THIS IS A GREAT BOOK FOR MOVIE BUFFS OF THE 20'S...30'S...AND 40'S......
Rating: -
The legendary boss of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gets a surprisingly "fair and balanced" treatment from Eyman, whose previous credits include an excellent biography of John Ford. I say "surprisingly" because posterity has not treated Mayer well at all - he has usually been caricatured as a reactionary tyrant who lived to harass and exploit creative talent. Eyman himself admits that, while he has "never begun a book with more misgivings," he has "never been more pleasantly surprised" about what he found. While ... Read More
Rating: -
I'll have to remember from now on that MGM never gave any diet pills or sleeping pills to Judy Garland, a liar and drug addict who brought all her problems on her own shoulders and whom MGM only tried to help. Even firing her from ANNIE GET YOUR GUN was them helping her. This is one of literally hundreds of revisionist lessons that Scott Eyman reveals in his new biography of studio mogul Louis B. Mayer, in LION OF HOLLYWOOD (2005).
Did you know that Mayer was so progressive he hired Lena Horne ... Read More
Rating: -
What distinguishes this book about Louis B. Mayer, the fearsome and legendary Hollywood mogul of the classic MGM era, is that it's far more than a biography. I was tempted into reading not by a fascination with Mayer (though I came to be fascinated once I began reading) but by the author's, Scott Eyman, previous books about Hollywood and the studio system. His knowledge and understanding of movie-making back in the Golden Age of Hollywood are outstanding, nuanced and multi-faceted. "Lion of Hollywood" is so much ... Read More
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