MGM Studio founded in 1924 in Culver City Californa. Here's a bit of Hollywood History from my family archives

Newly formed MGM, 1924. From my grandfather's archives. 
Buster Keaton, Hardy Rapst, Irving Thalberg, (Head of Production,) Nick Schende, Natale Talmadge, (Mrs. Buster Keaton.) Louie B. Mayer, Eddie Mannix, (general manager and head of publicity,) Hunt Stomberg, (Producer.)

MGM and its legendary roaring lion logo was formed in April 1924, by theater magnate Marcus Loew, who orchestrated the merger of Metro Pictures Corp., Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions

Metro Pictures had the look, the style and the stars needed to attract a growing audience, but the little studio on Gower Street in Hollywood became too limited to meet it's growing needs.  In 1924 Goldwyn Pictures with its valuable studio property in Culver City was purchased and MGM was born.  Mayer and my grandfather, Andy Mac Donald, moved Metro's sets together in Andy's truck, to the new lot in Culver City.

 Mayer now the head of M.G.M. gave my grandfather the position of head of construction and eventually head of 7 MGM departments.  Metro Goldwyn Mayer's magnificent entrance on Washington Blvd.,  looked like a turret of a Castle.   The offices, shops, and main stages were up front on the main lot and the

other two back lots held street scenes, college malls, quaint village

squares, meadow, forest and even a jungle with a  man-made pool for the Tarzan.  The outlying studio ranches used for Westerns

were located in the San Fernando Valley and the nearby convenience of ocean, wild country and desert afforded a variety of natural settings.

M.G.M.'s now celebrated and polished films required only the

best in every department.  The Studio's level of expertise excelled over any other studio and became the quintessential glamour and star factory in Hollywood.

Louie B. Mayer ran the Studio like a boot camp.  If there were any slackers on a job, they were quickly fired. He demanded excellence and loyalty and under his rule, M.G.M. became the most authoritarian studio  in the industry.   He instituted an important break with the early movie tradition of allowing directors to serve as a overseers of the art... "Griffith style." 

 At M.G.M.  film making became an assembly line of departments each answerable to a producer,  each producer answerable to the head of production and the head of production answerable to Mayer.  M.G.M's. stars became nothing like the merry old player of the old days, insisting on their favorite directors, idea men and supporting players and actors were never allowed to choose their own properties.

Mayer's directors  directed,  his writers wrote and his actors acted. All separately.   Free spirits were no longer tolerated. Team

players and company men were the only people allowed to play ball with Mayer. 

My grandfather, Andy Mac Donald on the left with his men, on a set they constructed

As head of construction,  Andy was expected to respect Mayer's style rather than rely on his own.  Authority started at the top and worked down.  Andy's men took direction from him, he took direction from an art director and the art director took direction from the Mayer.

Economics ruled under Mayer's reign and there was no waste. Andy figured out a way to construct detachable sets that could be used over and over again. Walls, bookshelves, staircases etc. could be taken apart and put back together in different ways.  When they weren't in use they could be stored for future projects. Elaborate sets, especially exteriors were kept standing on the back lots and when a scene called for it, a whole town could be constructed quickly, or be reassembled to look like a new town.

 A facade of a Mediterranean Villa nestled in a grove of fake palm trees created the feeling of the Italian Renaissance and when the film was over it could be repainted and redecorated to give the impression of an entirely different part of the world.

Andy's innovative ways of constructing difficult sets and props

for "Ben Hur,"  M.G.M. 's first major picture after the merger, was

legendary and Mayer increased his salary to an all time high.

Natalie Talmadge and Buster Keaton

The 1920's were prosperous for most people in America, but for those with big positions at a major studio, it was unimaginable. Money was worth much more, because income tax and unions  were still a long way off and the price of homes and fancy cars was still reasonable.

Read more about Louie B. Mayer, MGM and my grandfather's 55 year career at the Studio in my book, The Maybelline Story. I know you'll find it hard to put down. 

My mother Pauline Mac Donald, was born in 1924, the year MGM moved to Culver City.  She grew up watching her father, Andy oversee every set built for every picture made at the Studio, including Gone with the With Wind and the Wizard of Oz in 1939.  You're going to love this memoir....

Culver City Celebrates it's 100 year Anniversary Sept 26 - Oct 1
Here's the details   http://culvercity100.org/

Loretta Young, Maybelline's Hollywood Madonna, a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the glamour and stardom was a woman of substance.

Nobody loves old Hollywood movies and Movie Stars more than I do.  Not just because so many of them endorsed Maybelline ad's between 1915-1967, but because my mother's father Andrew Mac Donald was a Motion Picture Pioneer in Hollywood from 1915 to 1967.  I grew up surrounded by Maybelline history from my great uncle Tom Lyle Williams, founder of the Maybelline Company and stories from my grandfather Andy who worked at MGM and knew most every Star at the studio.

 My grandfather's story is lightly glazed over in my book, The Maybelline Story, because it's so extensive it needs to be a book itself, but you do get a brief picture of what his life was like during the Golden Age of MGM.  That being said, you can understand why I was so fixated on wanting to be a Star myself, or at least a Maybelline Model.

I asked my grandfather about Clark Gable, who I adored as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind.  I was shocked when he said  "Gable was a very bad man," but wouldn't elaborate on the subject.  I never knew what he meant until this book about Loretta Young, came.  My grandfather disapproved of  Gable for abandoning Loretta Young when she was pregnant with their child, during the making of Call of the Wild in 1935.  He rejected their daughter all his life.

This story is clearly spelled out in Loretta Young's book, Hollywood Madonna, and though it makes me sad, I also realize how the Hollywood Star System worked at MGM and how any scandal could destroy a Stars career.  Gable and Young put their careers over their daughter and ruined her childhood.

Loretta Young's Daughter talks about her mother and father during the making of Call of the Wild.

Maybelline and Loretta Young represent classic beauty in the 1950s. 

Maybelline as well represented fashion and glamour with serenity and grace, always ahead of it's time.

Click below to view Lorretta Young as televisions best dressed most elegant woman in the industry. 

Like Loretta Young, Tom Lyle Williams was blessed with classic features and demended perfection in himself and his Maybelline Company.

  Want to meet Tom Lyle Williams and the Williams Family, be sure to purchase The Maybelline Story and brace yourself for quite a ride. 

THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW TRANSFORMED WOMEN'S ROLES.

Loretta Young hosted and starred in the well-received half hour anthology series The Loretta Young Show. It ran from 1953 to 1961. Her trademark was to appear dramatically at the beginning in various high fashion evening gowns. Her program ran in prime time on NBC for eight years, the longest-running prime-time network program hosted by a woman up to that time

The Loretta Young Show, put women front stage and center, and created a vehicle for Maybelline to reach a larger target market in the 1950's.

The Loretta Young Show ran from 1953 to 1961. Her trademark was to come through a door dramatically at the beginning in various high fashion evening gowns.

The Lorette Young, TV series, worked through the image of the glamorous Hollywood star, and would forever remain a phenomenon of 1950s television, the period in which the Hollywood studio system that had created larger-than-life stars came to a close.

Her program ran in prime time on NBC for eight years, the longest-running prime-time network program hosted by a woman up to that time.

In 1988, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the

entertainment industry.

Maybelline capitalized on Loretta Young's fashionable image. with a series of ads that illustrated her persona.. and affirmed postwar ideas, that true happiness, was possible, within the domestic/heterosexual sphere of the middle-class home.

I THOUGHT I WAS THE MARY AND SHE WAS THE RHODA... I was disqualified from the Miss Culver City Beauty Contest for trying out for a TV show called Room 222 in 1964.

In June of 1964 I turned 17 and it proved to be the best of times and worst of times for me.

This gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. Gizmag.

I entered Patricia Stevens Modeling School, where I learned to stand up tall with a big smile, looking sexy, at car shows and conventions. When that got old fast, I decided being an actress was more my style and found a private drama coach from MGM, where my grandfather, Andy Mac Donald had worked for 50 years... as boss over seven departments.  When a new series was in development at the studio,

 A talent scout saw me in a play called SEVENTEEN, and asked if I'd like to audition for a new TV Show,
called Room 222.

Thinking I needed a quick tan, I stupidly baked in the sun from 9 to 5 and suffered a serious burn on my face, under my arms and in the tender part of my inner-thighs.

Barely able to wear anything on my skin, I was forced to go to the audition in extreme pain, with a beet red face.  Not very attractive I can assure you.... and worst of all, I couldn't remember my lines and failed the audition.... 

Here I am with my dad, Bill Williams, wearing the dress, Dec. 1965, 
 I died my hair black and I looked like I was 35.

My dad knew the director at M.G.M. and asked him how I did.  Not wanting to be unkind...I'm sure... he told my dad that I looked to mature to play a high school kid, even though I was a high school kid..... He said, because I was under age, I'd have to have special tutors and the producer didn't want to pay for it. They were looking for girls who were over 18 and looked younger.

I must admit I did look pretty mature, with my eyes overdone with  Maybelline, and wearing a sexy black sheath with a low cut neckline, that Nana and my mom picked out for me. I may have looked 35 on the outside, but inside I was immature, insecure and unprofessional... and sadly, I didn't get the part. But the good news was the show was shelved for 5 years, so I guess the producers had a hard time funding it or finding the right talent. However, it finally aired in 1969 and became a very popular show.

I THOUGHT I WAS THE MARY AND SANDY WAS THE RHODA.....turns out I was wrong, she was the cutest.

The announcement in the paper about the Miss Culver City Contest, I'm in the middle, # 5, the only blonde.. My friend Sandy Block #6, won when I was disqualified.

Sharrie # 3, Sandy # 4 from left.

Sandy # 3 on top, Sharrie # 4, who is the cutest.....

Well the judges thought Sandy was the cutest and she won.

My big fat ego was deflated after being disqualified during the finals at the Miss Culver City Beauty contest.....for being a professional actress..... Because I was auditioning at MGM...It was humiliating, but, I learned that the more beautiful you are and the more privilege you come from, the harder it is to get a break.

                        I'm the Mary you're the Rhoda

                                            Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion

It hurt me to be cut out of Room 222 and the Beauty Contest, but it taught me why my great uncle Tom Lyle Williams, founder of the Maybelline Company, wanted us kids to remain hidden from the world for our own protection and just be normal kids, with normal lives.