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Louis Burt Mayer (; born ''Lazar Meir''; July 12, 1884〔 – October 29, 1957) () was an American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Mayer was skilled at developing star actors, including child actors, then placing them in consistently slick productions, such as musicals or comedies, for which MGM became famous. Under Mayer's management, MGM accumulated the largest concentration of leading writers, directors and stars in Hollywood. Growing up poor and quitting school at 12 to support his family, he later moved to Boston and purchased a small vaudeville theater. After expanding and moving to Los Angeles, he teamed up with Irving Thalberg, and they developed hundreds of high quality story-based films, noted for their wholesome and lush entertainment. Mayer liked his stars to portray an idealized vision of men and women, family life, virtue, and patriotism, all presented in the present world they lived in. He believed that movies should not be a reflection of life, but be an entertaining escape from life. Mayer handled the business part of running the studio, such as setting budgets and approving new productions, while Thalberg, still in his twenties, ran all MGM productions. During his reign at MGM, after Thalberg's early death in 1936, he had enemies as well as admirers. Some stars did not appreciate his control over their lives, while others saw him as a father figure, important in their lives. Joan Crawford said "Mayer was my father, my father confessor, the best friend I ever had," while Ricardo Montalban recalled that "he really thought of the people under contract as his boys and girls." Nevertheless, he believed in wholesome entertainment and went to great lengths so that MGM had "more stars than there are in the heavens".〔McLean, Adrienne L. (ed.), ''Glamour in a Golden Age: Movie Stars of the Nineteen Hundred and Thirties''. Rutgers University Press, 2011, p. 6.〕 He was forced to resign MGM as its vice president in 1951, when the studio's parent company, Loew's, Inc., wanted to improve MGM's declining profits. Mayer was a staunch conservative, at one time the chairman of California's Republican party. In 1927 he was one of the founders of AMPAS, famous for its annual Academy Awards.〔(Land of Ancestors: Louis Burt Mayer )〕 Biographer Scott Eyman states that Mayer's "supreme gift was his understanding of the nature of stardom and the needs of the audience, bred by his years of being an exhibitor. . . Mayer's view of America became America's view of itself." ==Early life== Born Lazar Meir, possibly on July 12, 1884, to a Jewish family in Minsk, Russian Empire.〔Despite this, Louis B Mayer maintained that he was born in Minsk, Russian Empire, on July 4, 1885. According to Scott Eyman, the reasons were any one of the following: *Mayer's father gave different dates for his birthplace at different times, so Mayer was not comfortable specifying a date; *It was part of Mayer's sense of showmanship and, being born on July 4, seemed to stand for patriotism and had a certain ring to it; *"He needed to believe in a myth of self-creation which, in his case, was not far off the mark;" :) *When Lazar was young, his family moved to Minsk and constantly moved around in the general area of Vilnius/Minsk/Kiev; *As Jews, they felt insecure and therefore were reluctant to be specific.〕〔Eyman (2005) p.18-19〕 His parents were Jacob Meir and Sarah Meltzer and he had two sisters—Yetta, born in 1878, and Ida, born in 1883. Mayer first moved with his family to Rhode Island, where they lived from 1887 to 1892 and where his two brothers were born—Rubin, in April 1888,〔According to Scott Eyman the year is 1889, but according to the (Saint John District Census 1901 Index ) the year is 1888〕 and Jeremiah, in April 1891.〔Eyman (2005) p.19〕 Then, they moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada where Mayer attended school.〔Eyman (2005) p.22〕 His father started a scrap metal business, J. Mayer & Son. An immigrant unskilled in any trade, he struggled to earn a living. Young Louis quit school at age twelve to work with his father and help support his family.〔Eyman, p. 22〕 He roamed the streets with a cart that said "Junk Dealer," and collected any scrap metal he came across. When the owner of a tin business, John Wilson, saw him with his cart, he began giving him copper trimmings which were of no use. "Mr Wilson was my best friend," Mayer would later say, "my first partner." Wilson remembered that he was impressed with the boy's good manners and bright personality.〔Eyman, p. 23〕 Whenever he visited Saint John in later years, he placed flowers on Wilson's grave, just as he did on his mother's.〔 "It was a crappy childhood," said Mayer's nephew Gerald. "They were poor. My grandfather barely spoke English, and he hadn't been trained to do anything at all." It was Louis's ambition and drive that supported the family.〔Eyman, p. 25〕 With his family speaking mostly Yiddish at home, it made his goal of self-education when he quit school more difficult.〔 In his spare time, he hung around the York theatre, sometimes paying to watch the live vaudeville shows. "All he wants to do is hang around that new Opera House every chance he gets," said his father. He became enamoured of the entertainment business. Actress Ann Rutherford, also from Canada, would later reflect on Mayer's childhood and the studio he built: "I had been to his hometown. I knew from whence he sprang. He taught himself grammar. He taught himself manners. If anybody on earth ever created himself, Louis B. Mayer did." 〔Eyman, p. 322〕 In 1904, the 19-year-old Mayer left Saint John for Boston, where he continued for a time in the scrap metal business, married, and took a variety of odd jobs to support his family when his junk business lagged. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Louis B. Mayer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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