More Info
What did Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery, James Stewart, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and Lassie the Dog have in common? All of them were under contract to MGM.
During Hollywood’s Golden Age, when going to the movies was a weekly habit for about 65% of the American population, MGM was the most prestigious of the eight major studios that dominated the American film industry. At its peak, during the 1930s, the company had four thousand employees, 23 sound stages, the world’s largest film laboratory, the most recognizable logo (Leo the Lion), and a variety of exterior sets (a jungle, a park, a lake, a harbor, urban and small-town streets) that extended over 120 acres. With 61 stars, 17 directors, and 51 writers under contract, the studio produced 50 movies per year (one every nine days). Louis B. Mayer was the most powerful of the film industry’s executives (“moguls”), and Irving Thalberg the greatest producer. This lecture will examine MGM’s history from its founding in 1924 to its decline during the 1960s, putting the spotlight on its roster of iconic stars (“more stars than there are in heaven”) and its best films. It’s the first in a series of lectures that will include Warner Bros. and RKO later this year.
PRESENTER:
Bruce Thompson, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Departments of History and Literature and the Associate Director of Jewish Studies at U.C.-Santa Cruz and also teaches at the Institute. He received his Ph.D. in History from Stanford; his areas of scholarly research include European intellectual and cultural history, French history, British Isles history, American Jewish intellectual and cultural history, the history of cinema, and the history of espionage.
