Mayer was born in Ukraine and grew up in Saint John, New
Brunswick, Canada after his parents fled Russian oppression in 1886.
He had a brutal childhood, raised in poverty and suffering physical
and emotional abuse from his peddler father. In the early 1890s, he
changed his name to Louis and fudged his birth date to reflect the
more “patriotic” date of July 4, 1885. He moved to Boston
in 1904 and struggled as a scrap-metal dealer until he was able to
purchase a burlesque house. By 1918, he had acquired and refurbished
enough small movie theaters that he was able to move his business to
Los Angeles and venture into movie production. Along with Samuel
Goldwyn and Marcus Loew of Metro Pictures, he formed a new company
called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Over the next 25 years, MGM was “the Tiffany of the
studios,” producing more films and movie stars than any other
studio in the world. Mayer became the prime creator of the enduring
Hollywood of myth, home to stars like Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Joan
Crawford, and Jean Harlow. Mayer became the highest-paid man in
America, one of the country’s most successful horse breeders, a
political force and Hollywood’s leading spokesman. Both he and MGM
reached their peaks at the end of World War II, and Mayer was forced
out in 1951. He died of leukemia in 1957.
Born Eliezer Meir to a Jewish family in Minsk, Russian Empire (now
Belarus), his family immigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
when he was still very young and Mayer attended school there. His
father started a scrap metal business and Louis worked with his
father in the business until he was in his late teens, when he went
to Boston.
On November 28, 1907 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, Louis B. Mayer
opened his first movie theater. Within a few years he had the largest
theater chain in New England and in 1916 Mayer partnered with Richard
A. Rowland to create Metro Pictures Corporation based in New York
City. A Hollywood facility was set up in late 1918. Mayer then left
the partnership to start his own production company, Louis B. Mayer
Pictures, and later became a partner with B.P. Schulberg in the
Mayer-Schulberg Studio. In 1924 Marcus Loew bought Louis B. Mayer
Pictures and as part of the deal made Mayer head of the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.