MGM to celebrate 80th anniversary this weekend with a Hollywood Bowl fete

03-Sep-2004 • Bond News

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., whose storied history includes "Gone With the Wind," celebrates its 80th year this Sunday with a Hollywood Bowl fete highlighting its legends and its recent turnaround, reports Reuters.

The gala comes as MGM -- whose make-over since 1999 is something even this town's plastic surgeons might envy -- considers selling itself to Time Warner Inc. or an investor group led by Sony Corp, according to sources familiar with MGM's plans. The show could mark a final curtain call for it and sister studio, United Artists.

The MGM and UA legacy includes Charlie Chaplin's 1931 classic "City Lights," musicals "The Wizard of Oz," and "An American in Paris," as well as James Bond and Pink Panther pictures.

MGM fell on hard times in the 1980s and early 1990s, but current managers led by Chairman Alex Yemenidjian, right-hand man to billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian who controls MGM, and Vice Chairman Chris McGurk have made MGM's famed symbol of Leo the Lion roar again.

But the pair have long said the company needs to merge with another, bigger rival to compete in this era of mega-media conglomerates. After a failed bid to acquire Universal Studios last year, MGM is now pursuing the sale.

"MGM and UA possessed great fundamental assets. What the company needed was to be jump-started and re-energized," McGurk said of the turnaround since he and Yemenidjian took charge in 1999.

McGurk said a major accomplishment had been to breathe new life into the Bond movies. The most recent, "Die Another Day," was the top box office grosser of the series' 40-year history with $425 million worldwide.

Silent era stars Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Chaplin and legendary director D.W. Griffith started UA in 1919 to give them more control over their careers and the types of films being made.

It prompted Metro Pictures president Richard Rowland to remark: "The lunatics have taken charge of the asylum."

Five years later Metro owner Marcus Loew, who ran the New York-based Loews theater chain, approached Goldwyn Pictures about a merger. They brought in Louis B. Mayer and production chief Irving Thalberg to run the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Legendary film producer Samuel Goldwyn had been ousted at Goldwyn Pictures two years before, so he never worked at the company that bears his name.

Mayer is often credited with launching Hollywood's old "studio system" of signing top actors to exclusive contracts. At one time, MGM's roster had Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Clark Gable and the Marx Brothers.

Thanks to `Mathewww` for the alert.