When the news hit that Amazon was buying MGM, I was sad that another classic Hollywood studio had bit the dust. The entertainment industry is undergoing a metamorphosis, with streaming services upending how we consume our film and television shows. The scenario is not unlike “Game of Thrones,” with Disney, Warner Media, and Netflix fighting over the iron throne of the seven kingdoms. We’re also in an unprecedented time of mergers and acquisitions, with AT&T unloading Warner Media only to be scooped up by Discovery, Disney buying out 20th Century Fox (another storied film studio), and Viacom/Paramount merging with CBS Corp. It’s enough to make one’s head spin. When you throw in the Silicon Valley giants of Apple and Google into the mix, this unholy alliance has produced a streaming lineup of Hulu/Disney +, Paramount +, Peacock (Universal), and Warner/Discovery (HBO MAX), all vying to take down the “Queen of Dragons” called Netflix. Now we have Amazon/MGM added to the wreckage.
The whole scenario is sad for fans of the golden age of Hollywood since MGM was the king of the film studio jungle. Back in the 1920s, that jungle included the big five: MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, RKO Pictures, and Warner Bros. There was also a little animation studio from Walt Disney. It was fitting that Leo the Lion was the studios’ mascot, appearing before each MGM picture roaring through a masthead that read in Latin “ars gratis artis” (art for art’s sake). At first, the roar was silent, but Leo made his presence known with the advent of talkies in 1927. And he would be the king for the next 30 years. Now the roar has gone silent once again.
Ironically, MGM itself would be created through a series of buyouts in 1924 when movie theatre magnate Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. With the new moniker of MGM and its massive collection of sound stages and backlots, the new studio quickly became the dominant player in the nascent studio system. This was when the studios owned or partially owned most of the big theatre chains throughout the country. And Marcus Loew’s plan was for MGM to create high-quality product for his extensive chain of movie theatres. Eventually, the goal was to build a “dream factory” assembly line where a film could be created on a weekly basis.
MGM was run by the infamous Louis B Mayer, who ruled the studio with an iron fist and was loved and loathed by the studio’s stable of stars and directors. Mayer’s right-hand man was the much-respected head of production Irving Thalberg who, at only 24 years old, was nicknamed the “Boy Genius.” The pair would set a template of the MGM style: big productions that exemplified glamour and sophistication along with crowd-pleasing films.
Mayer and Thalberg smartly invested in the most important currency of classic Hollywood: a large stable of bankable stars. MGM boasted “more stars than there are in heaven,” and they weren’t kidding. At one point, MGM had on exclusive contract Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Spencer Tracey, Katherine Hepburn, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Debbie Reynolds, Carole Lombard, and Elizabeth Taylor. Before World War II, the studio was close to signing Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant. I can keep going, but you get the idea. Combining that star power with the talent behind the camera from directors George Cukor, Victor Fleming, King Vidor, Vincente Minnelli, and Stanley Donen gave the studio an enormous creative edge.
The proof of MGM’s dominance was up on the silver screen. The two most popular MGM films are Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, but you can’t overlook classics like Singing in the Rain, Meet Me in St. Louis, and Ben Hur. The breath of films in various genres is impressive. Science Fiction (Forbidden Planet & The Time Machine). Prestige drama (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof & Boys Town). Romantic Comedy (The Philadelphia Story & Adam’s Rib). MGM practically invented the splashy movie musical that featured Easter Parade, Royal Wedding, The Band Wagon, An American in Paris, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Gigi. The studio even did its fair share of remakes like Ben Hur (1925 & 1959) and Show Boat (1936 & 1951). And for all the complaints about current franchise pictures, MGM helped pioneer the practice with the Andy Hardy films (16 and all with the same plot) and the charming Thin Man series (6 movies and a TV show!) I’m not even going to start on the many Elvis Presley pictures the studio produced in the 1960s. The point is that MGM produced a massive library of content.
Most film historians consider MGM’s golden age bookmarked by the pair of Ben Hur pictures it produced between 1925 to 1959. MGM went into sharp decline in the 1960s due to the rise of television and the anti-trust lawsuits that broke the monopoly of studio-owned movie theatres. The final death knell came when corporate raider Kirk Kerkorian bought MGM in 1970 to finance his Las Vegas casino empire (MGM Grand, anyone?) He auctioned off MGM’s many props and costumes and bulldozed the historic backlot, dismantling the studio piece by piece. Later in 1985, media mogul Ted Turner bought MGM, who divested all the company’s assets except for its 2,000 title libraries up to 1986.
The big irony is that Amazon will be getting none of that enormous library with its purchase. Time Warner bought Turner broadcasting in 1995, where they promptly launched the classic cable channel TCM which is now streaming under HBO MAX (head spinning again.) Amazon does get the United Artist library that merged with MGM that Turner unwisely divested. The UA library contains the profitable Rocky film series and the massively profitable James Bond franchise. Amazon also gets all the MGM films produced post-1986 and the many TV assets like the recent Hulu series “The Handmaid’s Tale.” It should be noted that Amazon still needs Federal approval before moving forward with the deal. The new Biden administration has been critical of the tech monopolies, so it’s anyone’s guess if this clears the regulatory hurdles.
As French writer, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once said, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” It’s a quote that describes the current media landscape. In the 1920’s we had the rise of the studio system versus the 2020’s dominance of streaming services. The current streaming options of Paramount, Disney, HBO Max, Peacock, and Netflix mirror the classic film studios MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, RKO, and Warner Bros. I’ll go a step further and say that Netflix is the spiritual streaming heir of the MGM model. Which is to say they go big. Big movies with big names throwing big money at the most famous content creators. They also produce a massive amount of content on a nearly weekly basis. They’re the dream factory of the new streaming era.
Throughout the years, I always rooted for MGM that somehow, they would regain their studio dominance. But the once tiffany studio operated more like a scrappy indie during the new millennium, only to be swallowed by one of the tech goliaths. I’ll be doing a double feature for my MGM memorial service. The first will be the studio’s 1932 academy award-winning “Grand Hotel.” The classic melodrama has everything you want in an MGM production: Opulent production values, a smart, sophisticated script, and a stacked cast of John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, and Greta Garbo. The feature will be followed with the excellent 1993 three-part documentary “MGM: When the Lion Roared.” Hosted with dramatic flair by Patrick Stewart, the doc is a treasure trove of never-before-seen clips, interviews, and deep dives into the studio’s creation, dominance, and then demise. The last section features heartbreaking footage of priceless props and costumes being auctioned and the maddening bulldozing of the historic backlot.
One hopes that MGM’s new owners treat the great lion with the respect it deserves and lets it roar be felt in this new streaming landscape.