Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot

10 Tidbits about M-G-M

Attention, cinema history buffs. M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot is a coffee table book that exhaustively covers Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the studio era. Its maps, never-before-seen photographs, and details on the ins and outs of running a movie studio during its glory days make it a treasure trove for classical film lovers. Indeed, as one of my colleagues confides, “I wish I could shrink and jump into the pages.”

To encourage fellow classical Hollywood fans to check out the book, here are ten tidbits from M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot:

1. Along with Edgar Selwyn, Samuel Goldfish purchased the studio facilities in 1918. The studio would be an anagram of the two men’s last names: Goldwyn Pictures, a name Goldfish would ultimately adopt as his own, i.e., Samuel Goldwyn.
2. Goldwyn’s six magnificent glass stages (for shooting silent pictures) would be demolished and then replaced by 30 concrete ones (for filming “talkies”).
3. Irving Thalberg, Mayer’s supervisor of production, proposed to Norma Shearer “by displaying trays of engagement rings and asking her to pick one.” Not too shabby.
4. Some of MGM’s Lot One structures (the East Gate, Scoring Stage, Little Red Schoolhouse) may be seen in Anchors Aweigh (1945), that Gene Kelly musical in which he dances alongside Jerry the Mouse.
5. The Dressing Room Building was called “the bordello” because it contained “open verandahs running along the front in which actors traversed in their dressing gowns to and from the bathrooms.” At least that’s how Myrna Loy remembers it.
6. Jane Powell recalls her on-set schooling as “merely adequate” since the teacher “didn’t do much teaching.”
7. Betty Danko, Margaret Hamilton’s stunt double for The Wizard of Oz (1939), was injured on the third take of the “surrender Dorothy” skywriting sequence when her broomstick (i.e., a smoking pipe) exploded. Yikes!
8. The Saucer Tank, a 5,250-square-foot iron bowl for shooting water sequences (think Esther Williams and Jaws), lasted on the lot until 2003, when it was replaced by a Coke machine. Sigh.
9. MGM transported stars around the lots in limousines.
10. Soundstage 6 was the tallest at 80 feet high; it’s the one with the 15-ton “Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer” on the top (image below). Stage 6 is also where the first recorded fatality at MGM occurred; sadly, an electrician plummeted to his death when a lighting platform support broke loose.

Note: These tidbits come from the section of M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot that covers Lot One. In other words, there are plenty more morsels for readers to discover in the sections on Lots Two and Three.

Further Reading

• A preview of the book (pdf) and some excerpts/images from Santa Monica Press’s page.
• The official site for the book.
• Interview with one of the authors.