100 Years of MGM
April 2024 marks 100 years since Marcus Loew began the mergers of Metro Pictures Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Productions to form what became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Some of MGM’s most famous films are "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" (1925), “Ben-Hur” (1959), “Gone With the Wind” (1939) and “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).
We look back through the AP’s photo archives at MGM's early years.
Movie actress Norma Shearer, left, and Irving Thalberg, MGM motion picture supervisor, are shown aboard the liner Majestic on arrival in New York, July 18, 1933. The couple have been traveling in Germany, England, France and Scotland. (AP Photo)
Actors William Powell and Myrna Loy wear oversized shoes to a theater party, Oct. 21, 1936. Man at right is unidentified. (AP Photo)
Louis B. Mayer, head of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, pictured at Ciro's in Hollywood, May 16, 1948, with Lorena Danker. (AP Photo/Ed Widdis)
Screenland's "name" performers were on hand, June 1, 1949 at the Hollywood Egyptian Theater for the opening of "The Stratton Story". The event also gave MGM opportunity for another celebration of its twenty fifth anniversaries. Louis B. Mayer cuts a birthday cake for the stars of the picture, James Stewart and June Allyson. (AP Photo/Frank Filan)
Actor Spencer Tracy, shown in New York on May 21, 1948, enroute to England on the Queen Mary, to star in the movie "Edward, My Son" for MGM. (AP Photo)
Actor Clark Gable, left, on location at the Indianapolis Speedway, Indianapolis, Ind., for the filming of the new MGM film "To Please the Lady", talks with Seth Klein, May 22, 1950. (AP Photo/Gil Friedberg)
Actress Debbie Reynolds swings from a rope outside the haymow of a barn on the MGM lot in Hollywood, Sept. 30, 1958, as she continues her work on a movie they call "The Mating Game". (AP Photo/Harold Filan)
Lana Turner, film star, and Dore Schary, production head of MGM Studios, exchange greetings while Lana's husband, actor Lex Barker looks on, at the world premiere of "Knights of the Round Table", at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA., on Dec. 28, 1953. (AP Photo/Ed Widdis)
From Left: Jane Powell, Fred Astaire and Greer Garson, three of Hollywood’s big names, look over other arrivals at the luncheon held on MGM Studio’s biggest sound stage, on Sept. 9, 1953. (AP Photo/Ellis Bosworth)
Judah Ben-Hur, played by Charlton Heston, and his friend Balthasar, left, played by Finlay Currie, watch as a Roman chariot belonging to their host Sheik Ilderim is driven past in a scene from the movie "Ben-Hur," Sept. 26, 1958. The desert set is built at the edge of the Pontine marshes in Italy. (AP Photo/Mario Torrisi)
Crowds line the sidewalk around the Loew's State Theater on Broadway and 45th Street near Times Square, for the premiere of the film "Ben-Hur", Nov. 19, 1959. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., shown outside the main gate at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Hollywood, CA., April 22, 1959. The younger Goldwyn is not a figure with MGM. (AP Photo/Ellis R. Bosworth)
King Baudouin of Belgium, center, chats with actress Gina Lollobrigida and Frank Sinatra on the set of “Never So Few”, at MGM Studios, May 19, 1959. He met a score of movie stars, saw several sets, and had lunch during a tour of the sprawling lot. (AP Photo/David F. Smith)
Three sound effects men pose at MGM Studios in Hollywood with some of the gear they use to produce the effects, Oct. 12, 1967. From left: Hank Brodkin, 32, holding a horse’s bridle and folded briefcase he uses to simulate saddle squeaks, Scott Perry, 55, with device used to produce hoofbeats of horses, and Jack Morisette, 43, simulating sound of a chain being pulled to open a heavy gate. (AP Photo/ESH)
Studio employees lunching in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer commissary turn around to look as Princess Grace of Monaco chats with Rock Hudson in Hollywood on Aug. 19, 1967, during her visit to the studio with Prince Rainier, unseen. She knew Hudson when she was a Hollywood star. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)
The hands of a make up artist and a hairdresser put the finishing touches to British actress Maggie Smith before she faces the camera with Peter Ustinov in the new MGM comedy "Hot Millions", being filmed at Elstree Studios, England, Jan. 12, 1968. (AP Photo/Bob Dear)
Actress Ann Rutherford, returning to MGM Studios for a new film, gazes at old sets on the studio’s Lot 2 on July 26, 1972, in Los Angeles, where she and Mickey Rooney filmed the “Andy Hardy” series years ago. The 38-acre lot is to be leveled and sold for commercial development, with the studio confining its activities to its main lot. (AP Photo/Jeff Robbins)
Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart, talk over old times at MGM Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 1973, where they are working on separate television projects. The two never made a movie together, but when Stewart learned Miss Davis would be working on the MGM lot in “Hello Mother, Goodbye” while he was making “Murder Man”, he invited her to lunch. (AP Photo/George Brich)
From Left: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Liza Minnelli, and Sammy Davis Jr. at MGM Studios in Culver City, CA., March 28, 1974, for the announcement of a new film called "That’s Entertainment", made up of great scenes from MGM musicals of the past. (AP Photo/Jeff Robbins)
Singer Kenny Rogers and his wife, Marianne Rogers (nee Gordon), inspect a robot at the MGM Studios prior to a gala preview of MGM/UA’s movie “WarGames", on May 23, 1983 in Los Angeles, CA. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
John Perry, a worker in the MGM film archives, catalogs some of the thousands of cans of movie film in the company’s storage vault in Culver City, CA., on May 29, 1984. Like money in the bank, the major studios are sitting on film libraries that may be worth billions of dollars in an era in which theatrical distribution is often only the first step in a film’s long, long life. (AP Photo/Robert Gabriel)
Text and photo curation by Katherine O'Mara