Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a leading American film production company, was established in 1924, an amalgam of three older production companies: Metro Pictures Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures, and was under the corporate control of the exhibiting concern, Loew's Inc.
From the guide to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films and personalities scrapbooks, 1920-1944, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the American film production company, was established in 1924 when Metro Picture Corporation (formed 1915), the Goldwyn Picture Corporation (formed 1917), and Louis B. Mayer Pictures (formed 1918) joined together; under the corporate control of Loew's Inc., Louis B. Mayer was vice president and head of the studio and Irving Thalberg was vice president in charge of production; during the 1930s and 1940s, the studio was home to the finest creative talent, technicians, and stars in the industry and dominated Hollywood until the end of WWII; the government forced Loew's, Inc. to divest itself from MGM (1952); in the 1960s, MGM suffered huge declines and was taken over by Kirk Kerkorian (1970) with James T. Aubrey as president.
From the description of Collection of motion picture scripts for MGM productions, 1924-1954. (University of California, Los Angeles). WorldCat record id: 41000702
From the description of Collection of architectural set plans for MGM motion picture productions, 1917-1950. (University of California, Los Angeles). WorldCat record id: 41000535
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM is an American motion picture and television company. This treatment was for the 1960 film version of The Time Machine, produced by the British MGM studio. The film was based on the 1895 science fiction novel of the same name by H. G. Wells. The final film was directed by George Pál and written by David Duncan. It won an Oscar for Best Special Visual Effects for its use of time-lapse photography to depict time travel.
From the guide to the Time Machine Typescript, 1960, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., or MGM, is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.
From the description of Dialogue Cutting Continuities, 1927-1946. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 642019058
From the guide to the Dialogue Cutting Continuities, 1927-1946, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)
Koretz was an executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Lewinsky was an attorney who was investigating a matter pertaining to royalty payments for sales of works by Franz Werfel due to be issued to Alma Mahler from Germany.
From the description of Correspondence with Alma Mahler, Franz Werfel and Adolf Klarmann 1945-1950. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155863940
Betty Comden was an American lyricist, playwright, screenwriter and actress working on stage and screen productions from the late 1930s through the 1990s. She was born Elizabeth Cohen on May 3, 1917 in Brooklyn, NY and attended New York University, where she studied drama, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Education in 1938. Comden began her theatrical career writing and performing satirical sketches with the nightclub act, The Revuers, along with Judy Holliday and Adolph Green, who became her lifelong writing partner. The Revuers played at the Village Vanguard and the Rainbow Room in the late 1930s and made regular appearances on radio and one brief appearance in the Fox film, Greenwich Village 1944). The team of Comden and Green scored a hit with their Broadway debut, On the Town (1944), for which they provided the book and lyrics to Leonard Bernstein's score, as well as appearing in the original Broadway cast.
After their second show, Billion Dollar Baby (1945), written with composer Morton Gould, Comden and Green signed with Metro-Goldwin-Mayer and began working for the Arthur Freed Unit. Their first project was a screenplay and additional lyrics for Good News (1947). They went on to write original screenplays for several classic movie musicals, including Singin' In The Rain (1952), The Bandwagon (1953), It's Always Fair Weather (1955) and the final film of the legendary partnership between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949). They also adapted the screenplay and provided lyrics to new songs for their own On The Town (1949).
In the early 1950s, Comden and Green resumed their Broadway career with the revue Two on the Aisle (1951), the first of many collaborations with their most frequent composer, Jule Styne. Their next project, Wonderful Town (1953), reunited them with Leonard Bernstein and won the Tony Award as Best Musical. Their next seven Broadway musicals were collaborations with Styne, including additional songs for Peter Pan (1954) and full scores (with Styne) and scripts for Say, Darling (1958), Do-Re-Mi (1960), Subways Are for Sleeping (1961), Fade Out-Fade In (1964) and Best Musical Tony Award winner, Hallelujah, Baby! (1968). The most successful show from their collaboration with Styne was Bells Are Ringing (1956), a vehicle for Comden and Green's old friend, Judy Holliday, now an Academy Award winning actress.
During this period of high productivity on Broadway, Comden and Green also continued to work on film projects, adapting Bells Are Ringing for the screen in 1960 and scripting the 1958 screen adaptation of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's play Auntie Mame, which starred Rosalind Russell. Their last produced film was the comedy with songs, What A Way To Go! (1964), but they continued to work on screenplays for the rest of their careers. Comden and Green also continued performing in 1959, with the first version of their successful revue, A Party With Betty Comden and Adolph Green, which they performed several times on Broadway and around the country over the following thirty years.
In 1970, Comden and Green provided the book for Charles Strouse and Lee Adams' score for Applause, a musical version of the classic film, All About Eve, (1950) which won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Another Comden and Green show won the Tony later in the decade: On The Twentieth Century in 1978, which also won them and their composer, Cy Coleman, the Tony for Best Score. Comden and Green's next project was a departure from the witty, urbane style that had characterized their previous work when they tackled nineteenth century feminism in a collaboration with composer Larry Grossman and director Harold Prince. A Doll's Life (1982) investigates what might have happened to Nora from Ibsen's A Doll's House after she slams the door and leaves her family. This ambitious project was unsuccessful, but demonstrated Comden and Green's versatility. Their last original musical, however, was a triumph, both artistically and financially. The Will Rogers Follies (1991), another collaboration with Cy Coleman, ran 981 peformances and brought Comden, Green and Coleman another Best Score Tony Award.
Throughout her career as a writer, Comden continued to work a performer with an appearance in films like Garbo Talks (1984) and Slaves of New York (1989). She and Green also appeared together in countless tributes and concerts including Follies in Concert, performed at Avery Fisher Hall in 1985.
Betty Comden was married to artist Steven Kyle from 1942, until his death in 1979. They had two children, Alan Kyle and Suzanne Kyle. Comden died in New York on November 23, 2006.
From the guide to the Betty Comden papers, 1929-2004, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)
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Subjects:
- Theater
- Theater
- Motion picture art directors
- Motion picture plays
- Motion pictures
- Motion pictures
- Musical films
- Musical theater
- Musical theater
- Popular culture
- Radio, television, film
- Science fiction films
- Time travel
Occupations:
- Actresses
- Lyricists
- Playwrights
- Screenwriters
Places:
- United States (as recorded)
