Stardust and Shadows by Charles Foster

Author:Charles Foster
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459720787
Publisher: Dundurn

Louis B. Mayer, with June Allyson and James Stewart, celebrating MGM’s silver anniversary in 1949.

During his career as the “Hollywood Rajah,” as Bosley Crowther’s book about Mayer was called, the mogul received many honours. He was cited for outstanding American activities by the California Department of the American Legion, and received the Gold Citizenship Medal, the highest award given by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

France made him an officer of the French Legion of Honour. Czechoslovakia gave him the Cross of the Order of the White Lion. Mexico presented him with the Order of the Aztec Eagle. Jewish War Veterans of the United States voted unanimously to give him their Gold Medal of Merit.

But the honour he most revered was the special Oscar he received in 1950 for his twenty-seven years of achievement in the film industry. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had finally recognized the man who was their founder. When he reached the podium to receive his award he was so overcome with emotion that he wasn’t able to speak. He merely bowed to the audience, which was standing applauding, and ran off the stage.

On June 1, 1951, Mayer left MGM for the last time. Dore Schary, the man he brought in to replace Irving Thalberg, had gradually fallen out of favour with Mayer. Schary took his beef to MGM’s parent company in New York, and won the support of the board of directors. Mayer resigned and left the studio he had built from nothing to greatness. He never again passed through the studio gates.

The following year he was named chairman of the board and technical advisor to the Cinerama Corporation. The floundering company obviously hoped his name would bring them the extra capital they needed, but it didn’t happen, and a few years later the company ceased operations.

That same year he received the Lewis Milestone Award from the Screen Producers Guild for his contributions to the motion picture industry. “It is ironic,” said Mayer when he received the award, “that I am getting an award named for a director and producer who I gave his start in our industry. But I am honoured, very honoured, to be with all my friends today.”

Sy Weintraub, then head of Sol Lesser Productions in Hollywood, picked up on what he considered an omission by the film industry, and proposed to George Stevens, then president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, that an award be given annually to the person in the film industry who does most to recognize and encourage new talent. “This should be named the Louis B. Mayer Award, to perpetuate the memory of the man who did more than any other man to recognize and nurture new talent.” The Academy board promised to study the matter, but nothing more was heard of the proposal.

In January of 1957 Mayer made his last bid to make a comeback in the industry he loved. He and Jack Cummings, his nephew from Saint John, New Brunswick,

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