Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anyone who's heard one of the legions of tales about obstinate Hollywood founding father Mayer's tyranny over his stars (and the entire studio system) won't be surprised to learn Mayer grew up selling scrap machinery in the eastern Canadian port town of Saint John: "Junk dealing itself made [Mayer] endlessly resourceful and opportunistic," Eyman (Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford) writes in this meticulous and engaging biography. But because Mayer (1885–1957) was a Russian Jew selling scrap metal and was looked down upon by many, he developed his "almost feral belligerence" early on. That ruthlessness may explain his unprecedented consolidation of power once he arrived in Los Angeles in 1918, but not his genius for packaging and selling the nascent and suspicious medium of film to audiences. Mayer's maudlin sentimentality about American values and the virtues of family life (despite major womanizing) surfaced in most of the films he oversaw at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer—and in what he did to get them made. Mayer's "mania for quality" drove MGM to the top of Hollywood's studio system, while his melodramatic fainting spells and crying jags would frequently induce fellow executives or stars to relent. Eyman's extensive knowledge of old Hollywood, his scrupulous research and his refusal to indict the often-pilloried Mayer make this biography an often revelatory delight. Agent, Fran Collin. (May)
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Review

"Lion of Hollywood is compulsive reading as well as thoroughly enjoyable. There is so much that is new, so much that surprised me."

-- Kevin Brownlow, author of The Parade's Gone By...

"Scott Eyman has accomplished the near impossible -- he's taken Louis B. Mayer, the comic goblin of so many Hollywood histories, and restored him to his rightful place as one of the great business executives of the twentieth century. Laughable no more, Mayer is a fascinating amalgam of vision, chutzpa, cunning, and sheer genius."

-- James Curtis, author of W. C. Fields and James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (April 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743204816
• ISBN-13: 978-0743204811
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #189,456 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and Knowledgeable Look into an Industry and a Man, June 29, 2006

By	dottikins (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

What distinguishes this book about Louis B. Mayer, the fearsome and legendary Hollywood mogul of the classic MGM era, is that it's far more than a biography. I was tempted into reading not by a fascination with Mayer (though I came to be fascinated once I began reading) but by the author's, Scott Eyman, previous books about Hollywood and the studio system. His knowledge and understanding of movie-making back in the Golden Age of Hollywood are outstanding, nuanced and multi-faceted. "Lion of Hollywood" is so much more than just an insightful biography of a complicated man -- Eyman's expansive book is also about the ins-and-outs MGM, from the business practices to the personalities, and how Mayer forged American cinema because he was the head of the greatest movie studio in Hollywood, therefore the greatest movie studio in the world.

There is a lot of well-researched information and carefully argued hypotheses of Mayer's personality and home-life, and while Eyman is full of understanding for his subject, he never lets Mayer off the hook for his hypocrises or cruelties. He didn't write this book to redeem Mayer into a "good man" -- he wrote this book to properly give Mayer the place in movie history he deserves. When he and the other moguls arrived, L.A. and Hollywood consisted of orange groves and dirt streets. Mayer didn't build Hollywood with his hands, he did it with his massive will, guile, business acumen and cunning understanding of mass entertainment. What comes through in the book is not what a nice man Mayer was, but what a *great* man he was. Flawed and venal, yes. Brilliant and complicated, also yes.

It's easy to look back at the movie moguls, with their terrible reputations for crushing actors and directors, their womanizing and vulgar ways, and condemn them as "what's wrong with Hollywood". But without them, without Mayer, Hollywood as we knew it wouldn't have existed. They set up and ran the studio system that nurtured such stars as Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and Gene Kelly. Mayer was a major reason American movies are the hallmark of mass entertainment all throughout the world today, and it wasn't because he was a great artist himself. He was that very rarest of beings: a businessman who understands, recognizes and nurtures talent in others. He was instrumental in setting up the Academy Awards because he instinctively got that actors and directors would almost prefer the prestige of awards over money. He was a dedicated Republican but hired Communists, Socialists, lefties of all stripes -- and said so to the McCarthy witch hunts -- because political affiliation had nothing to do with talent. He covered up murders, hushed up scandals, arranged marriages for gay stars: anything to keep the machine of movie-making well-oiled.

Mayer knew movies and he knew his audience -- he prided himself on being the "average movie-goer" -- and he was a savvy enough businessman to know that you have to spend a dollar to make a dollar and ten cents. He was a man of many contradictions, especially in his personal life, and an emotional ogre, not someone I would like to sit down to dinner with, but I finished the book absolutely convinced of Eyman's overall theme: that Louis B. Mayer did a lot for the movies, perhaps more to build the glittering empire known as "Hollywood", than any other man or woman.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from a terrific biographer, April 19, 2005

By	Aunt Charlotte (Boston) - See all my reviews

You can always rely on Scott Eyman for a readable, well-researched and even-handed bio. This is no exception: it's fascinating to see L.B. Mayer not as the monster so many have painted him, but as a well-rounded human being.

Eyman also gives his readers credit for intelligence and judgment: he repeats the questionable stories (John Gilbert hitting Mayer; Mayer cheating Marie Dressler out of money), but then cites his sources and lets us make up our minds as to how legitimate these stories are.

No doubt Mr. Eyman is taking a well-deserved breather after this book, but I al already anxiously awaiting his next project.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Needs an editor, February 28, 2006

By	D. Campbell (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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I enjoyed reading this book; however, I found it jarring at times. I've always said it was a mistake to stop teaching sentence diagramming in grade school. I think this book proves my point. It's a great yarn and has a lot of good information as well as all of the Hollywood dirt. That said, the writing could have been more clear--excessive use of reflexive pronouns left me re-reading more than one passage. Thoughts that should be separate sentences find themselves as subordinate clauses in lengthy awkward paragraphs. Despite its subject matter and presumably myriad dynamite photos out there, the photograph section was pretty stingy. In a Hollywoood bio, this is definitely a negative. Overall a good read, but requiring more effort than it should have. I don't like when I have to edit passages myself to make them make sense.