Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) is an American entertainment company with a historic past. It began as a motion-picture studio in the early decades of the movie industry. It then became influential during Hollywood‘s “golden age” of the early to middle 1900’s, when several major film studios dominated the industry. Today, MGM chiefly produces and distributes movies and television programs.
MGM was formed in 1924 when the movie theater entrepreneur Marcus Loew merged his distribution company, Metro Pictures, with Samuel Goldwyn’s production facility and Louis B. Mayer’s production company. Loew hired former Universal Studios chief Irving Thalberg to find talent for MGM. Thalberg put under contract some of the country’s best writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ben Hecht, and Dorothy Parker. Thalberg also signed such stars as Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Helen Hayes, Norma Shearer, and Spencer Tracy.
In the 1930’s, MGM’s hits included the melodramas Anna Christie (1930) and Grand Hotel (1932). In 1939, the studio released two of the most popular films in motion-picture history: Gone with the Wind, an epic set during the American Civil War (1861-1865); and the musical The Wizard of Oz.
Successful MGM pictures released during the 1950’s and 1960’s included the musicals An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958), which won 6 and 9 Academy Awards, respectively; the Biblical spectacle Ben-Hur (1959), which won a record 11 Academy Awards; the Western How the West Was Won (1962); and the romantic epic Doctor Zhivago (1965).
Since 1969, control and ownership of MGM have changed a number of times. Amazon.com, Inc. acquired MGM in 2022.
