Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg : The Whole Equation / Kenneth Turan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Turan, Kenneth, Author.

Series:

Jewish Lives Series

Jewish Lives

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mayer, Louis B. (Louis Burt), 1885-1957.

Mayer, Louis B.

Thalberg, Irving G., 1899-1936.

Thalberg, Irving G.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (384 p.) : 13 b-w illus.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2025]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Kenneth Turan brings to life the extraordinary partnership of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and their role in creating the film industry as we know it One was a tough junkman’s son, the other a cosseted mama’s boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899–1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry. Mayer, older by more than a dozen years, was the business-minded face of the studio, while Thalberg worked closely with the creative corps, especially writers; together they rarely set a foot wrong. And while Mayer initially viewed Thalberg as the son he never had, the two would go from passionate friends to near enemies before Thalberg’s shocking death at the age of thirty-seven. In the first joint biography of the two men in fifty years, film critic Kenneth Turan traces their fraught relationship while examining the complicated history of Jewish identity in Hollywood.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

1 Mayer Before Thalberg

2 Thalberg Before Mayer

3 Early Days and Norma

4 One Out of Many

5 Unfinished Business

6 The Right Stuff

7 The Women

8 Rivals

9 The Two and Only

10 Garbo

11 Sound Makes Some Noise

12 Threats and Opportunities

13 New Beginnings

14 To Each His Own

15 Fissures

16 Alone Together

17 Endgame

18 Saying Goodbye

19 Mayer Being Mayer

20 Old and in the Way

21 Afterlife

Sources

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Mar 2025)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780300281606

0300281609

OCLC:

1482000516