Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 "Be smart, but never show it." "I want to make beautiful pictures about beautiful people."
"Of the many artists who help to make up the finished film none is more important than the director. He can always improve a story... He is largely responsible for the acting of his cast and there are hundreds of little details of picture making that are entirely within his hands." -- March 1925 issue of `The Motion Picture Director`
"The sign of a clever auteur is to achieve the illusion that there is a sole individual responsible for magnificent creations that require thousands of people to accomplish."
"When a picture is screened it is largely a reflection of the mind that directed it. If it is a failure the cause of that failure can often be traced directly to the man with the megaphone. I will also state that many screen successes are almost entirely due to directorial ability." -- March 1925 issue of `The Motion Picture Director`
Trivia
A self-made man who rose from his apprenticeship at his father`s scrap metal business in Canada to become the highest paid corporate executive in the U.S., Mayer was not above changing the particulars of his biography. Born in Imperial Russia in Vilna (in what is now Lithuania), Mayer later claimed his birthplace was Minsk (in what is now Belarus), or a village located between the two cities. He changed the year of his birth from 1882 to 1885 (the latter being the date on his tomb), and after being naturalized as an American citizen, he decided that he would celebrate his birthday on the Fourth of July (the exact date of his birth was uncertain, though he knew he had been born in the summer). He added a "B." as his middle initial to give his name more "dignity", and said that it stood for "Burt" or "Burton."
Appears as a character in the musical play, "In Hell With Harlow".
He was a master manipulator, and it was generally acknowledged that of all the great actors on the lot - the Barrymores, Spencer Tracy, Lon Chaney, Greta Garbo - Mayer was the best. He was not above-- or below-- crying, begging, threatening, charming or cussing (often within the same conversation) anyone out on the lot if it meant getting his way. When Robert Taylor tried to hit him up for a raise, Mayer advised the young man to work hard, respect his elders, and in due time he`d get everything he deserved. He hugged Taylor, cried a little and walked him to the door. Asked if he got his raise, the now tearful Taylor is said to have answered, "No, but I found a father." Taylor, remained a good company man--- and one of the most underpaid top actors on the lot, enjoyed a 25-year career with the studio.
In his will, excluded daughter Edith and her husband.
Inducted into the Haverhill [Massachusetts] Citizens Hall of Fame.
Last words (spoken to Howard Strickling on Oct. 28, 1957): "Nothing matters! Don`t let them worry you. Nothing matters!" L.B. was hallucinating under a morphine drip.
Mayer, according to Peter Hays` 1991 book "When the Lion Roars," idealized his mother. He was her favorite son, and she was the main influence on his life. She died in 1913, and Mayer kept a picture of her over his bed the rest of his life. With his mother an icon in his eyes, Mayer revered the concept of motherhood. When director Erich von Stroheim expressed the opinion to Mayer that all women were whores, Mayer asked him if he thought of his own mother that way, and then punched him in the face. Mayer told screenwriter Frances Marion, at their first meeting, that she should never write anything that would embarrass Mayer`s own wife and two daughters. He told her, "I worship good women, honorable men and saintly mothers."
One of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
Was highest paid American business executive throughout the 1930s.
Was lampooned by author/MGM writer Aldous Huxley in "Ape and Essence," in which Huxley`s character Lou is purported to have denied Jesus Christ a pay raise.
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