Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1884 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industry's most prestigious movie studio, accumulating the largest concentration of leading writers, directors, and stars in Hollywood.

Mayer was born in the Russian Empire and grew up poor in Saint John, New Brunswick. He quit school at 12 to support his family and later moved to Boston and purchased a small vaudeville theatre in Haverhill, Massachusetts, called the "Garlic Box" because it catered to poorer Italian immigrants.  He renovated and expanded several other theatres in the Boston area catering to audiences of higher social classes. After expanding and moving to Los Angeles, he teamed with film producer Irving Thalberg and they developed hundreds of films. Mayer handled the business of running the studio, such as setting budgets and approving new productions, while Thalberg, still in his twenties, supervised all MGM productions.

Mayer claimed to believe in "wholesome entertainment" and went to great lengths to discover new actors and develop them into major stars. During his long reign at MGM, Mayer acquired many critics and supporters. Some stars did not appreciate his attempts to control their private lives, while others saw him as a concerned father figure. He was controversial for his treatment of the actors under his management, demanding compliance from female stars by threatening their livelihoods, such as in the case of Judy Garland, whom he forced to go on diets, take drugs, and work punishing schedules.

Mayer was forced to resign as MGM's vice president in 1951, when the studio's parent company, Loew's, Inc., wanted to improve declining profits. A staunch conservative, Mayer at one time was the chairman of the California Republican Party. In 1927 he was one of the founders of AMPAS, famous for its annual Academy Awards.

Early life
The exact date and location of Mayer's birth remain highly disputed. According to Bosley Crowther, Mayer was born "in a little town near Minsk" according to Samuel Marx in "Demre", according to Gary Carey in "Dmra,  a village between Minsk and Vilnius" while Charles Higham  and Scott Eyman  believed that Mayer was born in Dymer  near Kyiv  in Ukraine. In addition, Andrzej Krakowski suggested that the birthplace has been misinterpreted and Mayer was in fact from the town of Mińsk Mazowiecki in eastern Poland, which at the time was subjugated by the Russian Empire.

According to his personal details in the U.S. immigration documents, the date was July 4, 1885. In addition he gave his birth year as 1882 in his marriage certificate while the April 1910 census states his age as 26 (b.1883). His parents were Jacob Meir and Sarah Meltzer (both Jewish) and he had two sisters — Yetta, born in c. 1878 and Ida, born in c. 1883. Mayer first moved with his family to Long Island, where they lived from 1887 to 1892 and where his two brothers were born—Rubin, in April 1888 and Jeremiah, in April 1891. Then, they moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, where Mayer attended school.

His father started a scrap metal business, J. Mayer & Son. An immigrant unskilled in any trade, he struggled to earn a living. Young Louis quit school at age twelve to work with his father and help support his family. He roamed the streets with a cart that said "Junk Dealer" and collected any scrap metal he came across. When the owner of a tin business, John Wilson, saw him with his cart, he began giving him copper trimmings which were of no use and Mayer considered Wilson to be his first partner and his best friend. Wilson remembered that he was impressed with the boy's good manners and bright personality. Whenever Mayer visited Saint John in later years, he placed flowers on Wilson's grave, just as he did on his mother's.

"It was a crappy childhood", said Mayer's nephew Gerald. His family was poor and Mayer's father spoke little English and had no valuable skills. It thus became young Mayer's ambition and drive which supported the family. With his family speaking mostly Yiddish at home, his goal of self-education when he quit school was made more difficult.

In his spare time, he hung around the York Theatre, sometimes paying to watch the live vaudeville shows. He became enamored of the entertainment business. Then in 1904 the 20-year-old Mayer left Saint John for Boston, where he continued for a time in the scrap metal business, got married and took a variety of odd jobs to support his new family when his junk business lagged.

Early career
Mayer renovated the Gem Theater, a rundown, 600 seat burlesque house
in Haverhill, Massachusetts, which he reopened on November 28, 1907, as the Orpheum, his first movie theater. To overcome an unfavorable reputation that the building had, Mayer opened with a religious film at his new Orpheum, From the Manger to the Cross, in 1912. Within a few years, he owned all five of Haverhill's theaters, and, with Nathan H. Gordon, created the Gordon-Mayer partnership that controlled the largest theater chain in New England. During his years in Haverhill, Mayer lived at 16 Middlesex St. in the city's Bradford section, closer to city center at Temple Street and at 2 1/2 Merrimac St. Mayer also lived in a house he built at 27 Hamilton Ave.

In 1914, the partners organized their own film distribution agency in Boston. Mayer paid D.W. Griffith $25,000 for the exclusive rights to show The Birth of a Nation (1915) in New England. Mayer made the bid on a film that one of his scouts had seen, but he had not, although he was well aware of the plot surrounding the Ku Klux Klan; his decision netted him over $100,000. Using earnings from the popularity of The Birth of a Nation, Mayer partnered with Richard A. Rowland in 1916 to create Metro Pictures Corporation, a talent booking agency, in New York City.

Two years later, Mayer moved to Los Angeles and formed his own production company, Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation. The first production was 1918's Virtuous Wives. A partnership was set up with B. P. Schulberg to make the Mayer-Schulberg Studio

In late 1922, Mayer was introduced to Irving Thalberg, then working for Universal Pictures. Mayer was searching for someone to help him manage his small, but dynamic and fast-growing studio. At that first meeting, Thalberg made an immediate positive impression on Mayer, writes biographer Roland Flamini. Later that evening, after Thalberg had left, Mayer told the studio's attorney, Edwin Loeb, to let Thalberg know that if he wanted to work for Mayer, he would be treated like a son.

Although their personalities were in many ways opposite, Mayer being more outspoken and nearly twice the younger man's age, Thalberg was hired as vice president in charge of production at Louis B. Mayer Productions. Years later, Mayer's daughter, Irene Mayer Selznick, found it hard to believe that anyone "so boyish could be so important". According to Flamini, Thalberg was hired because, although Mayer was an astute businessman, he lacked Thalberg's strong ability to combine making films of quality with gaining commercial success.

Heading new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios

Mayer's big breakthrough was in April 1924 when his company subsequently merged with two others to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).  The 24-year-old Thalberg was made part-owner and accorded the same position as vice president in charge of production.

Marcus Loew, owner of the Loew's chain, merged Metro Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn's Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, and Mayer Pictures into Metro-Goldwyn. Loew had bought Metro and Goldwyn some months before, but could not find anyone to oversee his new holdings on the West Coast. Mayer, with his proven success as a producer, was an obvious choice. He was named head of studio operations and a Loew's vice president, based in Los Angeles, reporting to Loew's longtime right-hand man Nicholas Schenck. He would hold this post for the next 27 years. Before the year was out, Mayer added his name to the studio with Loew's blessing, renaming it Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.  Three years after the merger, MGM became the most successful studio in Hollywood.

Loew died in 1927, and Schenck became president of Loew's. Mayer and Schenck hated each other intensely; Mayer reportedly referred to his boss, whose name was pronounced "Skenk", as "Mr. Skunk" in private. Two years later, Schenck agreed to sell Loew's – and MGM – to William Fox, which angered Mayer. But despite his important role in MGM, Mayer was not a shareholder, and had no standing to challenge the sale. So he instead used his Washington connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay the merger on antitrust grounds. During the summer of 1929, Fox was severely injured in an auto accident. By the time he recovered, the stock market crash had wiped out his fortune, destroying any chance of the deal going through even if the Justice Department had lifted its objections. Nonetheless, Schenck believed Mayer had cost him a fortune and never forgave him, causing an already frigid relationship to become even worse.

Working with Irving Thalberg

Mayer and Thalberg were a brilliant team that worked well together. They relied on each other, and neither operated unilaterally. Mayer took charge of the business part of running the studio, such as setting budgets and approving new productions. Thalberg, eventually called the "boy wonder", took charge of all MGM productions. Director Joseph M. Newman said that their skills complemented each other well, with Thalberg having a great story mind, and Mayer having superior business acumen.

They shared a guiding philosophy, to make the best motion pictures they could at any cost, even if it meant reshooting the entire picture. More important than showing a consistent profit with their films was, for them, to see MGM become a high-quality studio. That goal began with their early silent films, when stars such as Greta Garbo, Mayer's discovery, acted in lush settings with spectacular camera work.

Although they initially got along well, their relationship frayed over philosophical differences. Thalberg preferred literary works over the crowd-pleasers Mayer wanted. He ousted Thalberg as production chief in 1932, while Thalberg was recovering from a heart attack, and replaced him with producer David O. Selznick.

But MGM received a serious blow when Thalberg died suddenly on September 14, 1936, at age 37. His death came as a shock to Mayer and everyone at MGM and the other studios. Mayer issued statements to the press, calling Thalberg "the finest friend a man could ever have ... the guiding inspiration behind the artistic progress on the screen." His funeral was a major news event in Los Angeles. All the studios observed five minutes of silence, while MGM closed its studio for the entire day.

Mayer dedicated MGM's front office building and christened it the Thalberg Building. He had the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences establish the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given to producers to recognize their exceptional careers, now considered one of the most prestigious awards in the Hollywood film industry.

Continued success after Thalberg's death
After Thalberg died, many in Hollywood expected Mayer to "stumble and fall". Director Joseph M. Newman saw the studio start to change for the worse. Some actors were affected, such as Luise Rainer, winner of Hollywood's first back-to-back Oscars, who felt that the death of Thalberg marked the death of her career: "Had it not been that he died, I think I may have stayed much longer in films." Joan Crawford was also concerned, feeling that with Thalberg gone, the concept of the quality "big" picture "pretty much went out the window".

However, MGM under Mayer's leadership continued to produce successful movies. Mayer made himself head of production as well as studio chief. For the next ten years, MGM grew and thrived. 1939 was an especially "golden" year: besides distributing Gone with the Wind, MGM released The Wizard of Oz, Babes in Arms, At the Circus, and The Women. Garbo laughed in Ninotchka; Goodbye, Mr. Chips won an Oscar (it was nominated for seven); and Hedy Lamarr, another of Mayer's personal discoveries, made her film debut.

Mayer became the first person in American history to earn a million-dollar salary. For nine years from 1937, when he earned $1,300,000—equivalent to $ today,Mayer was the highest-paid man in the United States.

Managing MGM

Management style
In his overall management skills, Mayer was considered a great executive, someone who could have run General Motors equally as well as a large studio like MGM, said producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz. He worked at the studio all the time, and decisively, without any fixed schedule, but disliked paperwork. Some said Mayer had a lot in common with newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Hearst had financed multiple MGM pictures, while MGM benefited by having film reviews included nationwide in the Hearst newspapers.

Hearst, 20 years Mayer's senior, affectionately referred to Mayer as "son" and they became good friends. Mayer took Hearst's suggestion to build himself an office bungalow on the MGM lot, something Hearst said was appropriate for a studio head: "Everybody of distinction from all over the world comes to Los Angeles and everybody who comes wants to see your studio and they all want to meet you and do meet you, so put on a few airs son, and provide the atmosphere." Director Clarence Brown pointed out that overall, Mayer's skill was similar to Hearst's in that they both learned by doing. What Mayer couldn't do on his own, he hired the best talent he could find to do for him. "Like Hearst and Henry Ford," said Brown, "he was an executive genius".

Mayer's temper was widely known, but most people knew that his sudden bursts of anger faded quickly. With those working underneath him, he was usually patient and preferred to leave department heads alone, and would fire executives if they failed to produce successful films over a long period.

Growth of the studio
At its peak in the 1940s, MGM employed six thousand people, had three entrances, and covered 185 acres in Culver City, California, outside of Los Angeles. It had forty cameras and sixty sound machines, used on its six separate lots, and connected with its own rail line. About 2,700 people ate in the commissary every day. Power was supplied by an in-house electrical plant which could light a town of 25,000. In addition, MGM maintained a police force of fifty officers—larger than that of Culver City itself. "Anywhere from sixteen to eighteen pictures were being shot at one time", remembers actress Ann Rutherford. "They were either shooting or preparing to shoot on every sound stage."

Creating a "star system"
Mayer helped create what is termed the "star system". At one point he explained the process he went through in creating a star:

Hiring actors and staff

During MGM's growth period, Mayer traveled often, and among his personal discoveries were Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr, Norma Shearer and Greer Garson. He also signed up dancing team Marge and Gower Champion and discovered Mario Lanza, then a young tenor from Philadelphia, who Mayer hoped to turn into a "singing Clark Gable".

When hiring new actors, he typically wanted them to agree to stay with the studio for either three or seven years, during which time they would become one of the MGM "family". The studio usually succeeded in hiring those it wanted since they offered the highest salaries. With executives, Mayer took more time before taking them, wanting to know them first on a personal level. He respected intelligence and talent overall, said manager Joe Cohn: "One time he said to me, 'Never be afraid of hiring a fellow smarter than you are. You'll only learn from them.'"

Mayer took pride in his ability to hire good people, and once hired, he left  them alone to do their job without interference. That policy held true whether the person was a producer, a department head or simply a janitor. As a result, while other studios went through continuous upheavals or reorganizations, Mayer's hands-off policy kept MGM stable and sound, where employees felt their jobs were secure."

When meeting a new employee, he always told them to come to him personally for help with any problems. Some, like Barbara Stanwyck, considered this attitude to be "pompous" however, since he used his position to meddle in people's lives. Others, such as actor Edward G. Robinson, after his first meeting Mayer, said "I found him to be a man of truth ... Behind his gutta-percha face and roly-poly figure, it was evident there was a man of steel—but well-mannered steel." British director Victor Saville remembered him as being "the best listener. He wanted to know. He was the devil's advocate. He would prod you and question you and suck you dry of any knowledge."

Working with studio people

His attitude and conversational style were both professional and animated, sometimes "theatrical", observed June Caldwell, secretary to Eddie Mannix, Mayer's assistant. "Bombastic and colorful, but I never heard him use nasty language ... he had a great loyalty to everybody, and everybody respected him. And he would listen ... You could work with him." His manners were considered "impeccable".

With MGM's film output as high as one film each week, he never panicked over a bad picture. If somebody suggested canceling a movie and cutting the studio's losses, when a film had consistent production problems, Mayer would typically refuse. He relied on his instinct and intuition, said actress Esther Williams. Although he did not read full scripts, if he was given the framework of a story, he could assemble the pieces needed to see if it could be a successful film.

Occasionally, when producers, directors, writers or actors were deadlocked over how to handle a problem in a film, he would mediate. On Rosalie, for instance, when Nelson Eddy refused to sing a song he thought was too melodramatic, its songwriter, Cole Porter, went to Mayer and played it for him. Mayer was moved to tears by the song, and told Eddy to sing it. "Imagine making Louis B. Mayer cry," Porter later told friends.

Response to technical innovations
With regard to any technical issues with productions, Mayer left the details and solutions to MGM's engineers. He, though, like other top film executives and Hollywood stars in the 1920s and early 1930s, was often too quick to dismiss news of inventions and major innovations on the horizon that might profoundly change the movie industry or possibly challenge in the future the growing dominance of films in the realm of American entertainment. Beyond the well-entrenched aspect of sound by 1932, other technologies being discussed at that time in newspapers and on studio lots included color features, widescreen formatting, and even early television. In August 1932, after an "exclusive" interview with Mayer in New York, The Film Daily reported the movie mogul's assertions that such potential developments would never impact motion pictures in substantial, meaningful ways:

Being a father figure
With many of his actors, Mayer was like an overprotective father. In some cases, especially with child actors, he could become closely involved in managing their everyday life, telling them where to shop, where to dine, or what doctor to visit. He liked giving suggestions about how they could take better care of themselves. He sometimes arranged marriages, and coping with occupational hazards such as alcoholism, suicide, and eccentric sexual habits were as much a part of his job as negotiating contracts with stars and directors. When he learned that June Allyson was dating David Rose, for instance, he told her to stop seeing him: "If you care about your reputation, you cannot be seen with a married man."

Stories about his sobbing or rages have often been repeated in books, but few employees ever saw that part of him. "Mr. Mayer was to me like a father", said Ricardo Montalbán. "He really thought of the people under contract as his boys and girls." Mayer's paternalism could extend to productions; for example, he revised the Dr. Kildare stories in order to keep an ailing Lionel Barrymore, who required the use of a wheelchair due to arthritis, on the job.

Some, such as young starlet Elizabeth Taylor, disliked Mayer overseeing their lives; Taylor called him a "monster", while Mickey Rooney, another young actor who co-starred with Taylor when she was 12, formed the opposite impression: "He was the daddy of everybody and vitally interested in everybody. They always talk badly about Mayer, but he was really a wonderful guy ... he listened and you listened."  Rooney spoke from experience, as he himself had some confrontations with Mayer, observed film historian Jane Ellen Wayne:

One of Rooney's repeat costars in Andy Hardy and other films was Judy Garland, with whom he made nine films. Garland stated in her unfinished autobiography that Mayer molested her. In the late 1940s, she began having personal problems which affected her acting, and Mayer tried his best to protect her star reputation while continuing to have her overworked and making money for MGM. She suffered from addictions to prescription drugs, severely disordered eating and domestic strains, as well as a multitude of issues with her mental health. This was largely the result of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, her mother, and the era's ignorance of diet and drugs.  When her absences caused the production of Summer Stock to go far over budget, producer Joe Pasternak suggested that Mayer cut his losses and cancel the picture. Mayer refused, telling him, "Judy Garland has made this studio a fortune in the good days, and the least we can do is to give her one more chance. If you stop production now, it'll finish her", in what some consider to be his last attempt at holding on to her fame for the benefit of the studio. She completed the film, but during her next picture, Annie Get Your Gun, the studio finally ran out of patience. Costar Howard Keel recalls that "she began to fall apart". After the studio fired her, she attempted suicide.

Developing child stars
Mayer wanted the studio to nurture child stars for MGM's family-oriented productions. The studio provided all the essential services, such as formal education and medical care. They were given acting or dancing tutors. Mayer loved children, wrote biographer Kitty Kelley: "They provided the magic that brought millions of people stampeding into theaters every week ... They were the good, clean, wholesome elements of the folksy entertainment that was MGM's specialty."

Jackie Coogan, then 11, marked the studio's debut using child stars with his role in The Rag Man in 1925. During Hollywood's golden age, MGM had more child actors than any other studio, including Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Freddie Bartholomew, Margaret O'Brien, Elizabeth Taylor, and Roddy McDowall.

Themes, musicals and formula
While MGM's films during the 1920s and 1930s were often known for containing adult themes and strong female stars, such as Greta Garbo, after Thalberg's early death in 1936, Mayer promoted a change in emphasis to more male leads, family themes, and child stars. And unusual for a movie mogul, he took moral positions in his movies, especially when it came to portraying family values—as in the Andy Hardy series. One of Mayer's proudest moments came when Mickey Rooney, who starred as Andy Hardy, was given a special award by the Academy in 1942 for "furthering the American way of life."

Mayer tried to express an idealized vision of men, women, and families in the real world they lived in. He also believed in beauty, glamour, and the "star system". In MGM films, "marriage was sacrosanct and mothers were objects of veneration". Author Peter Hay states that Mayer "cherished the Puritan values of family and hard work." When he hired writers, he made those objectives clear at the outset, once telling screenwriter Frances Marion that he never wanted his own daughters or his wife to be embarrassed when watching an MGM movie. "I worship good women, honorable men, and saintly mothers", he told her. Mayer was serious about that, once coming from behind his desk and knocking director Erich von Stroheim to the floor when he said that all women were whores.

Mayer knew that formula in his themes and stories usually works. He felt that the general public, especially Americans, like to see stars, spectacle, and optimism on screen, and if possible, with a little sentiment attached. They don't like to be challenged or instructed, but comforted and entertained.

Therefore, having messages was less important to Mayer than giving his audience pure entertainment and escapism. In his screen dramas, he wanted them to be melodramatic, whereas in comedies, he often laced them with strong doses of sentimentality. "He loved swaggering, charismatic hams like Lionel Barrymore and Marie Dressler", wrote Eyman.

Musicals were high on his list of preferred genres. Anxious to make more of them, on a hunch, he asked songwriter Arthur Freed to be associate producer for The Wizard of Oz. As Mayer hoped, Freed's unit at MGM produced many films considered among the best musicals ever made: For Me and My Gal, Girl Crazy, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Harvey Girls, The Pirate, Easter Parade, The Barkleys of Broadway, On the Town, An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, The Band Wagon, and Gigi. Mayer's greatest contributions to posterity are said to be his musicals. Both An American in Paris and Gigi won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

World War II issues

Unlike Charlie Chaplin, who produced The Great Dictator, the other, much larger Hollywood studios lacked the freedom to make such independent films. Mayer understood that the Germans could ban or boycott Hollywood films throughout much of Europe, with serious economic implications, since 30 to 40 percent of Hollywood's income came from European audiences. Nevertheless, MGM produced Three Comrades in 1938, despite movie censor Joseph Breen warning Mayer that the film was "a serious indictment of the German nation and people and is certain to be violently resented by the present government in that country."

After the Second World War began in Europe in September 1939, Mayer authorized the production of two anti-Nazi films, The Mortal Storm and Escape. At the same time, Warner Brothers produced Confessions of a Nazi Spy. The German government informed the studios that "those films would be remembered by Germany when — not if — they won the war", writes Eyman. Warners had to post guards to protect the family of actor Edward G. Robinson, and the Germans threatened Mayer with a boycott of all MGM films.

From September 1939 until January 1940, all films that could be considered anti-Nazi were banned by the Hays Office. The U.S. ambassador to England, Joseph Kennedy, told the studios to stop making pro-British and anti-German films. Kennedy felt that "British defeat was imminent and there was no point in America holding out alone: 'With England licked, the party's over,' said Kennedy."

Defying those pleadings, MGM produced Mrs. Miniver, a simple story about a family in rural England trying to get by during the early years of the war. Eddie Mannix agreed that "someone should salute England. And even if we lose $100,000, that'll be okay."

Mayer wanted British actress Greer Garson, his personal discovery, to star, but she refused to play a matronly role. Mayer implored her "to have the same faith in me" that he had in her. He read from the script, having her visualize the image she would present to the world, "a woman who survives and endures. She was London. No, more than that, she was ... England!" Garson accepted the role, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. Mrs. Miniver won six Academy Awards and became the top box office hit of 1942.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill both loved the film, said historian Emily Yellin, and Roosevelt wanted prints rushed to theaters nationwide. The Voice of America radio network broadcast the minister's speech from the film, magazines reprinted it, and it was copied onto leaflets and dropped over German-occupied countries. Churchill sent Mayer a telegram claiming that "Mrs. Miniver is propaganda worth 100 battleships." Bosley Crowther (1960 biographer of Mayer, below), wrote in his New York Times review that Mrs. Miniver was the finest film yet made about the war, "and a most exalting tribute to the British."

The following year, 1943, saw the release of another Oscar-winning film, this one aimed at supporting the home front, titled The Human Comedy. It was Mayer's personal favorite and the favorite of its director, Clarence Brown. Mayer assisted the U.S. government by producing a number of short films related to the war, and helped produce pro-American films such as Joe Smith, American, in 1942.

Declining years at MGM
The post-war years saw a gradual decline in profits for MGM and the other studios. The number of high-grossing films in 1947 dwindled to six, compared to twenty-two a year earlier. MGM had to let go many of its top producers and other executives. Mayer was pressured to tighten expenses by the studio's parent company, although Mayer's reputation as a "big-picture man" would make that difficult. They began looking for someone, another Thalberg, to redo the studio system.

In the interim, Mayer kept making "big pictures". When RKO turned down financing of Frank Capra's State of the Union in 1948 because of its expensive budget, Mayer took on the project. He filled the cast with MGM stars including Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson, Adolphe Menjou and Angela Lansbury, but the film only broke even. Nicholas Schenck called Mayer and insisted that he "cut, cut", recalls director George Sidney. Mayer replied, "A studio isn't salami, Nick." "L.B. would ask only one question: 'Can you make it better?' It was all he cared about", said Sidney.

As pressure built to find a new Thalberg-style manager to handle production, Dore Schary was brought in from RKO, and began work on July 14, 1948, as vice president in charge of production, working under Mayer's direction.

Some long-time studio executives saw this change as a sign of the eventual downfall of MGM. When she heard the news, Lillian Burns Sidney, George Sidney's wife, marched into Mayer's office and announced, "Now you've done it. You've ruined everything." She told Mayer that she was afraid Schary would eliminate all future musicals, comedies and adventure movies, and replace them with the "message" movies that he preferred. She expressed her fear: "They won't have need for anybody around here. Even you! You'll see."

By mutual consent with Loew's, Mayer resigned from MGM in August 1951. On his final day, as he walked down a red carpet laid out in front of the Thalberg Building, executives, actors and staff lined the path and applauded him for his contributions. "He was so respected," said June Caldwell, Eddie Mannix's secretary. Many assumed that his leaving meant the end of an era. Actor Turhan Bey said, "In every meaningful way, it was the end of Hollywood."

Mayer, for a period after he left MGM, tried to finance and assemble a new group of film stars and directors to produce his own films as an independent. He told the press that his films would carry on in the tradition of MGM's previous style of film subjects.
In 1952, he became chairman of the board and the single largest shareholder in Cinerama, and had hoped to produce a property he owned, Paint Your Wagon, in the widescreen process, but without success. He left Cinerama in 1954 when the company was sold.

Personal life

Accusations of sexual abuse
Louis B. Mayer has been accused of sexual abuse, including having groped a then-teenage Judy Garland. According to Gerald Clarke's book Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, Mayer "held meetings with the young woman seated on his lap, his hands on her chest". In an interview with Larry King, Shirley Temple claimed that Mayer disrobed before her when she was 12, and she proceeded to laugh until he threw her out.

Mayer reportedly pursued Jean Howard in hopes of establishing a sexual relationship, but without success. Cari Beauchamp, author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood, observed: "Mayer chased actress Jean Howard around the room. When she said, 'No way', and went off and married Charles K. Feldman, the agent, Mayer banned Charlie from the lot. For a long time after, he wouldn't allow any of Feldman's clients to work at MGM." In her autobiography, Esther Ralston recorded that her career was sabotaged by Mayer when she refused to sleep with him.

Family
Mayer had two daughters from his first marriage to Margaret Shenberg (1883–1955), which ended in divorce in 1947. The elder of these, Edith (Edie) Mayer (1905–1988), whom he would later become estranged from and disinherit, married producer William Goetz (who served as vice president for Twentieth-Century Fox and later became president of Universal-International). The younger, Irene (1907–1990), was the first wife of producer David O. Selznick and became a successful theatrical producer. In 1948, Mayer married former actress Lorena Layson Danker (1907–1985).

At home, Mayer was boss. "In our family, all the basic decisions were made by him", remembers his nephew, Gerald Mayer. "He was a giant. ... Were we afraid of him? Jesus Christ, yes!" And although he never spoke Yiddish at the office, he sometimes spoke Yiddish with "some of the relatives", said his daughter Irene.

Mayer's activities for the Jewish Home for the Aged led to a strong friendship with Edgar Magnin, the rabbi at the Wilshire Temple in Los Angeles. "Edgar and Louis B. virtually built that temple", said Herbert Brin.

Entertainment and leisure
At his home on Saint Cloud Road in the East Gate Bel Air neighborhood, Sundays were reserved for brunches in what was an open house, which often included visiting statesmen or former U.S. presidents, along with various producers, directors or stars. There would be a buffet supper, drinks, and later a movie. Mayer drank almost no alcohol, cared nothing for fine cuisine, and did not gamble, but might play penny-ante card games for fun.

For leisure activities, he liked going to the Hollywood Bowl, especially the annual John Philip Sousa concert. Sousa's patriotic-style music built up his pride in America, and he "would be stoked with extra exuberance for days afterward", states Eyman. Mayer also enjoyed ballet and opera, and concerts where violinist Jascha Heifetz or pianist Arthur Rubinstein performed.

While Mayer seldom discussed his early life, his partiality towards Canada would sometimes be revealed, especially after Canada entered World War II in September 1939 and the United States followed more than two years later in December 1941. On one occasion in 1943, Mary Pickford called to tell him she met a movie-struck Royal Canadian Air Force pilot from New Brunswick, where Mayer grew up. Mayer asked her to have him drop by the studio. The pilot, Charles Foster, recalled his visit: "Mary's driver took me through the gates, and I saw this little man come running down the steps of the Thalberg Building. I thought, 'Oh, he's sent a man to greet me.' And I got out of the car, and this man threw his arms around me and said, 'Welcome to my studio.' "

Mayer took him on a personal tour of the studio, and Foster remembers that "everybody waved to him and he waved back. He spoke to people and knew them by name. I was shocked." Mayer invited him back for lunch the next day. But before Foster arrived, Mayer had invited every Canadian in Hollywood to meet the flier, including Fay Wray, Walter Pidgeon, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson, Rod Cameron, Deanna Durbin, Walter Huston, Ann Rutherford, and even his main competitor, Jack Warner. Mayer told him, "When this war is over, if you want to come back here, I'll find a job for you." Foster said "It was like he was the father I never knew."

Politics
Active in Republican Party politics, Mayer served as the vice chairman of the California Republican Party in 1931 and 1932, and as its state chairman in 1932 and 1933. As a delegate to the 1928 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Mayer supported Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover of California. Mayer became friends with California Governor James Rolph Jr., Oakland Tribune publisher Joseph R. Knowland, and Marshall Hale. Joseph M. Schenck was an alternate delegate at the convention. Mayer was a delegate to the 1932 Republican National Convention with fellow Californians Knowland, Rolph, and Earl Warren. Mayer endorsed President Herbert Hoover's failed reelection bid.

Mayer was a Freemason.

Horse racing hobby
Mayer owned or bred a number of successful thoroughbred racehorses at his ranch in Perris, California, near Los Angeles. It was considered one of the finest racing stables in the United States and raised the standards of the California racing business. Among his horses were Your Host, sire of Kelso; the 1945 U.S. Horse of the Year, Busher; and the 1959 Preakness Stakes winner, Royal Orbit. Eventually Mayer sold off the stable, partly to finance his divorce in 1947. His 248 horses brought more than $4.4 million. In 1976, Thoroughbred of California magazine named him "California Breeder of the Century".

Death
Mayer died of leukemia on October 29, 1957. He was buried in the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. His sister, Ida Mayer Cummings, and brothers Jerry and Rubin also are buried there.

Legacy
Mayer and his lieutenants built a company that was regarded by the public and his peers alike as the pinnacle of the movie industry. "Louis B. Mayer defined MGM, just as MGM defined Hollywood, and Hollywood defined America", writes biographer Scott Eyman.

In 1951, he was given an honorary Oscar for heading MGM for over 25 years. At the event, screenwriter Charles Brackett presented the award and thanked him for guiding MGM's "production policy with foresight, aggressiveness and with a real desire for taste and quality". Mayer was also thanked for founding and developing new personalities and for bringing the Hollywood "star system into full flower".

Although Mayer was often disliked and even feared by many in the studio, editor Sam Marx explains that "his reputation is far worse than it should be. He had to be strong to do his job, and he couldn't do that without making enemies." Director Clarence Brown compared him to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst:

Mayer never wrote or directed movies, and never pretended to tell writers what to write or art directors what to design. But he understood movies and their audience. According to Eyman, "Mayer's view of America became America's view of itself." Because of the stars, the stories, the glamour, the music, and the way they were presented, audiences the world over would often applaud the moment they saw the MGM lion. Mayer was the constant at MGM who set the tone. At Mayer's funeral in 1957, Spencer Tracy expressed Mayer's ambitions:

Honors and recognition
 Revered in his home country, Mayer has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
 A street in the Canadian city of Laval, Quebec a suburb of Montreal, is named Rue Louis-B-Mayer.
 The primary screening facility for Loyola Marymount University's School of Film and Television—the Mayer Theatre—is named after him. Mayer permitted the university's sports teams to use the MGM lion as their mascot.
 The main theatre at Santa Clara University bears his name.
 Mayer was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1990.
 The Louis B. Mayer Research Laboratories building at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston opened in 1988.
 Mayer is enshrined in the Citizens Hall of Fame in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Filmography

Producer

Portrayals in popular culture
Mayer has been portrayed numerous times in film and television including:
 Harlow (1965) (by Jack Kruschen)
 Gable and Lombard (1976) (by Allen Garfield)
 Rainbow (1978) (by Martin Balsam)
 The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (by Harold Gould)
 Mommie Dearest (1981) (by Howard Da Silva)
 Malice in Wonderland (1985) (by Richard Dysart)
 RKO 281 (1999) (by David Suchet)
 The Three Stooges (2000) (by David Baldwin)
 Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) (by Al Waxman)
 De-Lovely (2004) (by Peter Polycarpou)
 The Aviator (2004) (by Stanley DeSantis)
 Trumbo (2015) (by Richard Portnow)
 The Last Tycoon (2016) (by Saul Rubinek)
 Feud (2017) (by Kerry Stein)
 Judy (2019) (by Richard Cordery)
Mank (2020) (by Arliss Howard)

William Saroyan wrote a short story about L. B. Mayer in his 1971 book, Letters from 74 rue Taitbout or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody.

Characters based on Mayer
 Pat Brady in the 1941 F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Last Tycoon. He was played by Robert Mitchum in the 1976 film adaptation, and Kelsey Grammer in the 2016 TV series.
 Stanley Shriner Hoff in The Big Knife (1955) (by Rod Steiger) was based in part on Mayer.
 Cyril H. Bean, referred to by his employees as "The Head", in the 1966 Jacqueline Susann novel Valley of the Dolls
 Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink (1991) (by Michael Lerner, who earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor)
 L.B. Mammoth in the animated film Cats Don't Dance (1997) (voice-acted by George Kennedy)

See also
 Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood
 Selig Polyscope Company
 List of Freemasons
 List of people from Belarus

Notes

References

Further reading

 Hay, Peter. (1991). MGM: When the Lion Roars Turner Publishing.

 Selznick, Irene Mayer (May 1983). A Private View. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-40192-1.
 Gary Carey, (September 1981), All the Stars in Heaven: Louis B Mayer's MGM. Dutton ISBN 0525052453
 Samuel Marx, (June 1975), Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-believe Saints, Random House, ISBN 0394488423
 Bosley Crowther (March 1960). Hollywood Rajah: The Life and Times of Louis B. Mayer. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (Reviewed by John K. Hutchens, New York Herald Tribune, March 21, 1960, p. 15.)

External links

1880s births
1957 deaths
People from Kiev Governorate
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Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Canada
Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent
Canadian emigrants to the United States
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
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American film studio executives
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Film producers from California
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executives
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Businesspeople from Los Angeles
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Louis B. Mayer


La Grande Bouffe (Italian: La grande abbuffata; English: The Grand Bouffe and Blow-Out) is a 1973 satirical film directed by Marco Ferreri. It stars Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and Andréa Ferréol. The film centres on a group of friends who plan to eat themselves to death. It satirises consumerism and the decadence of the bourgeoisie and was therefore controversial upon its release. It has become a cult film.

Plot
The film tells the story of four friends who gather in a villa for the weekend, with the express purpose of eating themselves to death. Bouffer is French slang for "eating" (the Italian abbuffata means "great eating").

The first protagonist is Ugo, owner and chef of a restaurant, "The Biscuit Soup". The second is Philippe, a somewhat important magistrate who still lives with his childhood nanny, Nicole, who is overprotective of him to the point of trying to prevent him from having relationships with other women, and who fulfills her own sexual needs with him. The third character is Marcello, an Alitalia pilot and womaniser. The fourth and final main character is Michel, who is an effeminate television producer.
The four come together by car to the beautifully furnished but unused villa owned by Philippe. There they find the old caretaker, Hector, who has innocently prepared everything for the great feast, and a Chinese visitor who is there to offer a job to the magistrate in faraway China, which Philippe politely rejects with the phrase "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" ("Beware of Greeks bearing gifts"), quoting Virgil.

Once alone, the four begin their binge. In one scene, Marcello and Ugo race each other to see who can eat oysters faster. They discuss organizing a little "feminine presence" and decide to invite three prostitutes to come to the house the following evening (not four, because Philippe does not want to participate). Their breakfast next day is interrupted by the arrival of a school class who would like to visit the garden of the villa to see the famous "linden tree of Boileau", under which the French poet used to sit while looking for inspiration. The four willingly invite the class not only into the garden, but also to view the old Bugatti in the garage and to a magnificent lunch in the kitchen. Above all, they get to know Andrea, the young and buxom teacher, whom they spontaneously invite to dinner that evening. Philippe is dismayed at the notion of the school teacher being in the same company as three prostitutes; he warns her, but she appears not to be perturbed. The prostitutes arrive in due course and the atmosphere becomes frivolous and sexually charged, with each of the men howling throughout the film when they are overjoyed. Andrea arrives and embraces the spirit of the party. She is attracted to Philippe, who proposes to marry her.

The eating continues unabated. Ugo is responsible for the preparation of the food. Michel, who seems to have been brought up strictly not to break wind, suffers from indigestion. His friends encourage him to let out whatever wind is trapped.

Frightened and disgusted by the turn of events, the prostitutes flee at dawn and leave only Andrea. She seems to sense the purpose of the protagonists and decides to help them in their efforts, establishing a tacit agreement and remaining with them until the death of all four. She indulges in sex with all the men after the departure of the prostitutes, while joining them in their binge as well.

The first to die is Marcello, after being enraged with his own impotence; he goes to the toilet and causes the sanitary pipes to explode. The bathroom is flooded with sewage, which leaks through the ceiling below, and leaves a nauseous smell even after cleaned up. He becomes exasperated, and realizing the futility of the farce, decides to leave the house at night during a snow storm, in the old Bugatti that he had repaired earlier in the day with great delight. His friends find him the next morning, frozen to death in the driving seat. The first suggestion is to bury Marcello in the garden, but on the advice of Philippe (who, being a judge, warns that there is a severe penalty for the illegal burying of a corpse), they place the body in the villa's cold room, where it remains seated and clearly visible from the kitchen.

After Marcello comes Michel, who finds a new dog in the yard sitting in the Bugatti. Already suffering from indigestion and crammed to capacity with food (he cannot even lift his legs practising dance, his favourite pastime), he suffers an attack of bowel movements while playing the piano. Amid flatulence and worse, he is finally able to let it all go, and collapses on the terrace. His friends place him in the cold room next to Marcello.

Shortly afterwards, the backyard dogs cause a stir (including another new dog) and Ugo prepares an enormous dish made from three different types of liver pâté in the shape of the Dome of Les Invalides, which he serves to the remaining diners, Philippe and Andrea, in the kitchen in view of the two dead friends. It is decorated with eggs, since Jews see them as symbols of death. However, Philippe and Andrea cannot bring themselves to eat it. Philippe goes off to bed, leaving Andrea to keep Ugo company during his determined effort to eat the entire pâté. Some time later, she later calls Philippe back downstairs to help her stop his friend from stuffing himself to death. They cannot dissuade Ugo, and end up attending to him on the kitchen table, the one feeding him, the other masturbating him until he orgasms and dies at the same time. On the advice of Andrea, his body is left on the kitchen table, in his "domain".

The last to die is the diabetic Philippe, on the bench under the lime-tree of Boileau and into the arms of Andrea, after eating a pudding she has made shaped like a pair of breasts. He dies on the bench with Andrea and yet another dog who he keeps calling Ugo, just as another delivery of meat arrives. The delivery men react with incomprehension when Andrea instructs them to leave the meat – whole animals, and sides of pork and beef – in the garden (the kitchen and the cold room now containing the bodies of Ugo, Marcello and Michel). The film ends bizarrely with a scene of the garden filled with dogs who begin chasing and dining on the poultry and meat carcasses.

Awards
Marco Ferreri won the FIPRESCI Prize given by the International Federation of Film Critics at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. It was later shown as part of the Cannes Classics section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Cast
 Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello
 Philippe Noiret as Philippe
 Michel Piccoli as Michel
 Ugo Tognazzi as Ugo
 Andréa Ferréol as Andréa
 Florence Giorgetti as Anne
 Solange Blondeau as Danielle
 Cordelia Piccoli as Barbara

Production
Andréa Ferréol had to gain 25 kilos in two months to get the role.

References

External links

1973 films
1973 comedy films
1973 comedy-drama films
1973 drama films
1970s satirical films
Film controversies in Italy
Film controversies in France
Cooking films
Films about food and drink
Films about suicide
Films directed by Marco Ferreri
Films originally rejected by the British Board of Film Classification
Films scored by Philippe Sarde
French comedy-drama films
French satirical films
1970s French-language films
Italian comedy-drama films
Italian satirical films
Obscenity controversies in film
1970s Italian films
1970s French films

La Grande Bouffe


Sir Yvain (also called Owain, Ywain, Ewain or Uwain) is a Knight of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. He is purported to be the son of King Urien. The character is thought to be based on Owain mab Urien, who was the king of Rheged in Great Britain during the late 6th century.Arthurian legend

"Yvain, the Knight of the Lion" is a well known and documented story of a Sir Yvain in King Arthur's court. Before being known as the Knight of the Lion, Sir Yvain went on a mission to revenge the brother-in-law of King Arthur—and to win fame for himself. This trip lead to several more and, in the course of his travels, he jousted various knights, fought a few monsters, fell in love with a widow queen, lost his sanity—albeit shortly—and saved helpless women.

Characters in written fiction
Fictional knights

Yvain


Roger Guyett is an English visual effects supervisor and second unit director.
Guyett and his fellow visual effects artists were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

He started his career working in London doing Computer Animation work on commercials, pop videos and TV idents in the mid-1980s. Following a move to the United States in 1993, he began working on various film projects. He initially worked at Pacific Data Images (PDI - the largest Computer Graphics company at that time, known for the Michael Jackson video 'Black or White') before moving in 1995 to Industrial Light & Magic – one of the longest-standing and most successful visual effects companies in the world. During his 27 year tenure at ILM he has worked on over 30 films.

Guyett has been nominated for six Academy Awards: he was also nominated for Ready Player One, Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Additionnally, he has won two British Academy Film Awards for Best Special Visual Effects and been nominated a further six times.

Guyett returned to supervise the visual effects for the final/episodic film of the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which was released on 20 December 2019.

References

External links

Living people
Best Visual Effects BAFTA Award winners
Year of birth missing (living people)

Roger Guyett


Black Widow (Claire Voyant) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer George Kapitan and artist Harry Sahle, the character first appeared in Mystic Comics #4 (August 1940), published by Marvel predecessor Timely Comics. Claire Voyant is a medium who has been murdered and became the demonic "ambassador" of Satan on Earth. She kills evildoers in order to deliver their souls to her master.

Publication history
The Black Widow makes five appearances during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books, all five written by George Kapitan. These short comics stories (the longest is eight pages, the shortest five) are spread among three different Timely anthology titles over a three-year period from 1940 to 1943.

Madame Claire Voyant is introduced in Mystic Comics #4 as "the strangest, most terrifying character in action picture magazines — the Black Widow. You've heard of the black widow spider — that evil creature whose bite spells doom. Now start the adventures of another black widow — a human tool of Satan whose very touch means death." Both Mystic Comics #4 and #5 (August 1940, March 1941) feature artwork by Harry Sahle (the stories are "Introducing the Black Widow," 7 pages, and "Garvey Lang," 8 pages, respectively). Another Mystic Comics appearance in issue #7 (December 1941) has art by Stan Drake ("Lewis & Sykes," 5 pages). USA Comics #5 (Summer 1942) is penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by George Klein ("Murder Unlimited," 5 pages). Her final Golden Age appearance in All Select Comics #1 (Fall 1943) has art tentatively attributed to Drake ("Blood Money," 5 pages); this story is reprinted in 1974, along with the rest of the issue, by publisher Alan L. Light's company Flashback as Special Edition Reprints #14.

According to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, "The Black Widow can kill with a touch and has other, Satan-derived, plot device powers. The wrongdoers she goes after are ordinary humans, although one group of them call themselves Murder, Unlimited and another is the Cult of the Black Widow Spiders."

Her next appearance occurs 51 years later, in a flashback cameo in one panel of issue #1 (January 1994) of the mini-series Marvels ("A Time of Marvels," written by Kurt Busiek with art by Alex Ross), and again eleven years later (February 2005), also in brief flashback, in Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9 ("The Last Stand," written by Mark Millar with art by Terry and Rachel Dodson).

The Black Widow returns, finally in full-length stories, albeit as part of an ensemble cast, beginning in 2008 in The Twelve (written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Chris Weston). The character appears in all 12 issues of The Twelve, in addition to a one-shot titled The Twelve:  Spearhead.

Fictional character biography
In 1940, Claire Voyant is a spirit medium who communicates with the dead through supernatural means. While serving a family named the Waglers, she is possessed by Satan to put a curse on them. James Wagler, a member of the family, survives a subsequent car crash provoked by the spell and, upon returning to Claire's quarters, guns her down.

Satan brings Voyant's soul to Hell, where he dresses her in her Black Widow costume. He also gives her the power to kill with a single touch of her fingers to the head (which leaves a branded "Black Widow mark") and other mystical tricks. Satan sends her back to Earth to avenge her death. After killing her murderer, she returns to Satan who, no longer content to wait for evil souls to die a natural death and perhaps repent their sins in the interim, charges her with bringing those souls to him. "On the upper world are mortal creatures whose hearts are blackened with wickedness and corruption. You, the Black Widow, will bring their evil souls to me!."

She later kills corrupt arms manufacturers, crime boss Garvey Lang, members of a syndicate called Murder Unlimited and the villain Ogor, while also healing Ogor's victim.

In Marvels, she is shown in flashback as part of a group of Timely's Golden Age characters aiding the Invaders against the Nazis.

In The Twelve, Claire Voyant is retconned as becoming the Black Widow in 1928 after her sister is murdered. Standing over her sister's grave, she wishes for the power to avenge herself against the killer, and Satan responds.

Revived in the present day, along with 11 other heroes, after being in suspended animation since World War II, she recommences serving as an "instrument of vengeance" for an initially unidentified entity (though never actually referred to as Satan, the Black Widow's master is identified as "the devil" in later issues) and going on missions for that party.

Characterization

Personality
A recurrent character trait of the Black Widow in her Golden Age appearances is that she shows no hesitation or mercy when it comes to killing her victims, and no apparent remorse over depriving them of their lives and sending their souls to Hell for eternal torment. Whether this ruthless aspect of her personality is original to Claire Voyant or a result of her resurrection by Satan as the Black Widow is unclear. In her appearances in The Twelve she is much less a willing killer, and is shown crying after killing.

In her Golden Age appearances, she does possess great compassion for those she perceives as innocent victims of evil, and a willingness to use her powers to protect and even heal them. This is shown most clearly in her final Golden Age story. When she is sent by Satan to harvest the soul of Ogor, a charlatan faith healer who has been stealing money from those who come to him for cures, after confronting Ogor and causing his death – though he dies of fright and heart failure rather than the Black Widow's signature death touch, the result is the same and his blackened soul goes instantly to Hell – she then takes the time, and uses her powers, to regenerate the amputated leg of a young boy named Pepito, whom Ogor had promised to heal.

Costumes
During her five brief appearances in the Golden Age, the Black Widow wears four distinctly different costumes, with different designs and different color schemes, and has three different hair colors.

Her first costume in Mystic Comics #4 consists of a purple bodysuit with spider design on the belly, a green-and-blue striped cape, and red boots with yellow flame designs around the tops.

For her second appearance in Mystic Comics #5, the red boots with yellow flame trim survive, but the bodysuit becomes plain black with no spider design and the color of her cape changes to solid red. The color scheme and basic layout of the costume remain the same in a later appearance in Mystic Comics #7, however the bodysuit acquires dark blue highlights, and the red cape now has flame designs around its hem. Both the "flames" and the cape itself are the same shade of red. Though highly similar to the costume in Mystic Comics #5, it is different in its particulars. The cape is held in place with a circular, gold-colored pin inset with a death's head skull. Her hair remains blond for all three Mystic Comics appearances.

Her costume changes radically in U.S.A. Comics #5. The outfit's colors are now red, white and blue. The costume itself consists of a bright red bodysuit, a cape (colored either white or blue depending on the panel in question) with upturned Peter Pan collar, and white buccaneer boots. Her hair is now pure white.

For her final Golden Age appearance in All-Select Comics #1, the costume morphs into a blue bodysuit that, unlike any of her previous outfits, covers her legs as well as torso and arms, and a yellow cape. The boots with flame trim return, however both the boots and "flames" are yellow. The Black Widow is now a redhead.

Throughout the majority of The Twelve, she wears a fifth outfit, a minor redesign of the first, consisting of a dark purple bodysuit with, in a lighter shade of purple, a spider design on the belly. Her boots are the same dark purple as the bodysuit, with no "flames"; the cape is light purple, and likewise has no flame trim. She later wears a sixth costume, which is gray, covers her entire body except head and hands, and features a fine spiderweb pattern over much of its surface.

Powers and abilities
Before her transformation, Claire Voyant has undefined psychic powers enabling her to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Resurrected by Satan as the Black Widow, the character has been granted supernatural powers. She uses them to harvest the souls of evildoers for Satan. Claire Voyant has a death touch power. Her targets are instantly struck dead and their soul is sent to Hell. She leaves a mark in the shape of a spider on the victims she has touched. She possesses superhuman strength. She can alter her appearance. The character is able to generate fire. She is able to teleport between Hell and the mortal world at will. She has the power to heal others. Claire Voyant has the ability to fly. The character is shown to be bulletproof. Additionally, Satan states he has made the Black Widow immortal.

Reception

Critical response
Deirdre Kaye of Scary Mommy called Claire Voyant a "role model" and a "truly heroic" female character. Darby Harn of Screen Rant included Claire Voyant in their "10 Best Versions Of Black Widow From Marvel Comics" list. Megan Nicole O'Brien of Comic Book Resources ranked Claire Voyant 5th in their "Marvel: 10 Best Golden Age Heroines" list.

Impact

 Claire Voyant / Black Widow is the first costumed comic book superheroine, as she was introduced in Mystic Comics #4 (August 1940). Magician from Mars debuted in Amazing Man Comics #7 (November 1939), but has no distinctive costume. Fantomah was introduced in Jungle Comics #1 (February 1940) and possesses a dual identity and superpowers, but owns no distinctive costume as well. The Woman In Red also predates Claire Voyant, debuting in Thrilling Comics #2 (March 1940) from Standard Comics, but the character possesses no superpowers despite the distinctive costume she wears. Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, created by Russell Stammm, is a non-costumed character with the superpower of invisibility who debuted in a newspaper comic strip on June 3, 1940, rather than a comic book.

In other media

Television
 Dorothy "Dottie" Underwood appears as a 1940s precursor to Claire Voyant / Black Widow and an operative of Leviathan in Agent Carter, portrayed by Bridget Regan.

Video games
 Claire Voyant / Black Widow appears as a playable character in Marvel: Contest of Champions.

References

External links

Black Widow (Marvel Comics)
Comics characters introduced in 1940
Demon superheroes
Golden Age superheroes
Fictional characters with dimensional travel abilities
Fictional characters with fire or heat abilities
Fictional characters with healing abilities
Fictional cryonically preserved characters in comics
Fictional female murderers
Fictional murdered people
Fictional spiritual mediums
Fictional World War II veterans
Magical superheroes
Marvel Comics characters who can teleport
Marvel Comics characters who use magic
Marvel Comics characters with accelerated healing
Marvel Comics characters with immortality
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength
Marvel Comics demons
Marvel Comics female superheroes
Marvel Comics undead characters
Timely Comics characters
Undead superheroes

Black Widow (Claire Voyant)


Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed (; 20 April 1950 – 28 April 2002) was a Soviet and Russian military officer and politician who held senior positions in the Airborne Troops before running for president in the 1996 Russian presidential election. He did not win, but placed third behind incumbent Boris Yeltsin and the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with roughly 14% of the vote nation-wide. Lebed later served as the Secretary of the Security Council in the Yeltsin administration, and eventually became the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the second largest Russian region. He served four years in the latter position, until his death following a Mi-8 helicopter crash.

He participated in most of Russia's military conflicts in the final decade of the Soviet Union, including the Soviet–Afghan War. From 1988 until 1991, General Lebed served as the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, and later became the deputy head of the Russian Airborne Troops. The general also played a key role in ending the military phase of the conflict in Moldova between Transnistrian separatists and the Moldovan government in 1992, as the commander of the Russian 14th Guards Army which intervened and occupied the region. Popular among the army, when he resigned his commission in 1995 to enter politics, Lebed was also regarded as being charismatic by the public, in contrast to other Russian politicians in the 1990s, with polls showing his popularity being ahead of Yeltsin's for some time. As the Secretary of the Security Council in the president's administration after the 1996 election he also led the negotiations that ended the First Chechen War.

Although Lebed was compared by some Western and Russian analysts to Augusto Pinochet and Napoleon Bonaparte, he was considered to be the most popular candidate for the presidential election of 2000 during the second term of President Yeltsin. After getting elected as governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai in 1998 with strong support from Anatoly Bykov, however, he decided to stay in that position and did not run for president, despite calls for him to do so. General Lebed held the position until his death in the 2002 helicopter crash.

Early life and service
Alexander Lebed was born in the Cossack town of Novocherkassk, in the Rostov Oblast, in 1950. In his youth he was not a bad student but preferred boxing and chess. He grew up in poverty. His father was a carpenter who was sentenced to seven years in a Gulag labor camp for arriving late to work twice, and witnessed the Novocherkassk massacre in 1962. During that time he worked at a factory. He was determined to become a paratrooper and joined the Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School in 1969, becoming a cadet platoon and company commander while he was there. In 1982, as an officer of the Soviet Airborne Troops, Lebed became a battalion commander in Afghanistan during the Soviet war there. During his time in Afghanistan, Lebed became popular with the troops under his command. He held this position until 1982 at which point he attended the Frunze Military Academy. Among his duties was being a member of the funeral department during the period of many deaths among the Soviet gerontocracy, including three Soviet rulers.

In 1988, Lebed became the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division. He and his troops took part in the suppression of uprisings throughout the Soviet Caucasus, in Georgia (1989) and Azerbaijan (1990), in which he refused to use brutality to put down the protestors. By 1991, Lebed held the rank of major general and became second in command of the Airborne Troops. During the 1991 coup d'état attempt by Soviet hardliners against the new Russian government, he gained fame by refusing to follow orders to lead his forces against Boris Yeltsin at the Russian White House, contributing to the coup's collapse. It was also during that time that Lebed became a rival of General Pavel Grachev, Airborne Troops commander and future Russian Minister of Defense, due to what Lebed viewed to be his misguided military reforms. Grachev would thus become his main rival. It was reportedly because of Grachev that Lebed found himself deployed to Moldova in 1992, as commander of the 14th Guards Army. There, in the conflict between Russian and Romanian factions, he intervened and used his position to broker a peace agreement, also providing protection to ethnic Russians. Despite this, Lebed remained hostile to the separatist leadership, which he perceived as corrupt and stated that he was "sick and tired of guarding the sleep and safety of crooks." Nonetheless, he remained against President Boris Yeltsin's decision to withdraw most of the 14th Army from Moldova, as he feared it would bring back chaos to the region.

General Lebed's actions in Moldova increased his popularity among the Russian public, and Russian nationalists in particular. The event, along with his past service record, ensured that Lebed was the most popular military officer in Russia during that time, and by 1994 he was considered to be a favorite candidate for potentially running against Yeltsin in the 1996 Russian presidential election. Lebed himself described Yeltsin's performance as a "minus." Some analysts both in the West and Russia compared him to Augusto Pinochet and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Entry into politics
After catching public attention with his actions in Moldova in 1992, the general came to be perceived as being an honest, anti-establishment patriot who stood against government corruption and wanted to restore order. Lebed was not necessarily in favor of democracy and had a mixed opinion of it, but did praise both Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet—saying that Pinochet was able to revive Chile by "putting the army in first place" because "preserving the army is the basis for preserving the government"—and the French leader Charles de Gaulle.

General Lebed ended up joining the centrist, nationalistic political movement known as the Congress of Russian Communities. He retired from the army in 1995 in order to enter politics and won a State Duma seat in December of that year.

Presidential campaign

Shortly after winning a seat in the State Duma, Lebed officially launched his long-anticipated campaign for the Russian presidency in the 1996 election.

Lebed ran as a "law and order" candidate promising to curb both street crime and government corruption, as well as also promising to end the unpopular First Chechen War that had been started by President Yeltsin in 1994. For economic policy he hinted that he supported market reforms that were ongoing at the time, but remained deliberately vague.

Due to his populist rhetoric, Lebed was compared to Vladimir Zhirinovsky, but lacking the latter's aggressive nationalism. Lebed's style and personal charisma were considered to have been more important to his campaign than his political message itself. Up through May, Lebed flirted with the possibility of forming third force coalition with other candidates, however negotiations for this failed.

In the first round of the election on 16 June 1996, he came in third place behind Yeltsin and Zyuganov, with 14.7% of the vote. In exchange for Lebed's support, Yeltsin sacked his rival Defense Minister Grachev, replacing him with Igor Rodionov at Lebed's request. There was some evidence that Lebed had dealings with Yeltsin before the election ended. After the first round, Yeltsin named General Lebed as national security head by appointing him as the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia.

Career in government

Chairmanship of the Security Council
Shortly after taking office as chairman of the Security Council, following Yeltsin's victory against Zyuganov in the July 1996 runoff, Lebed led negotiations with the Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov. They signed agreements in the town of Khasavyurt in Dagestan which ended the First Chechen War in late August 1996. Lebed was given authority as President Yeltsin's representative and the resulting agreement became known as the Khasavyurt Accords.

However, the ending of the Chechen War by the general brought him into conflict with Minister of Internal Affairs Army General Anatoly Kulikov and his faction. He was fired from the Security Council by President Yeltsin in October 1996, following an internal conflict within the government between Lebed and a faction that included president's chief of staff, Anatoly Chubais (who was regarded as being in control of the ailing Yeltsin's administration), Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, and Interior Minister Kulikov. Yeltsin stated that he was "acting without proper authority" and Chernomyrdin accused General Lebed of "Bonapartism", while Kulikov even claimed Lebed was plotting a coup.

Chubais was also worried about the potential of Lebed becoming Yeltsin's successor, as he was the most popular member of the administration, especially after ending the Chechen war. After Chernomyrdin and Kulikov made their accusations, it caused a scandal that led to the President firing Lebed as national security chief. The general nonetheless decided to remain in politics.

2000 presidential election speculation
After his firing, there was some indication that General Lebed intended to run for the presidency again in the 2000 Russian presidential election. His visit to the United States in January 1997 was viewed as an effort to win over American business interests as the best successor to Yeltsin, and included a meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower. Reportedly, he discussed potential construction projects in Moscow that Trump could be involved in. "He invited me to Russia and I accepted, I thought he was terrific," Trump said after the meeting.

One Western analyst stated about Lebed, "He may perceive that Yeltsin benefited greatly from support from the Americans in the last campaign. Bill Clinton made a trip to Moscow during the campaign. And the International Monetary Fund extended loans that enabled the Government to make credible promises to pay wages." He also visited President Clinton's inauguration while he was there, at the invitation of Senator William Roth, who made the request at the behest of an unknown businessman. Overall Lebed was said to have left a good impression on the American businessmen that he met. During that time, he was described as being the most popular candidate for the Russian presidency.

On 7 September 1997, Lebed alleged during an interview that a hundred Soviet-made suitcase-sized nuclear weapons designed for sabotage "are not under the control of the armed forces of Russia". The government of the Russian Federation rejected Lebed's claims and stated that such weapons had never been created.

Governorship of Krasnoyarsk Krai
In 1998, the general decided to run for governor of the Krasnoyarsk Krai (the second largest region in Russia), wanting to get out of the politics in Moscow after his ouster from the Yeltsin administration. He ended up winning the election for governor, defeating the incumbent Valery Zubov, despite being a complete outsider. There was speculation that he would run for the presidency in 2000, with Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov being projected as his main opponent at that time. However, in 2000 Lebed decided against running for president because he was satisfied with his position as the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai.

Death
While serving as Governor, Lebed died in a Mil Mi-8 helicopter crash on 28 April 2002. The helicopter collided with electric lines during foggy weather in the Sayan Mountains.
Alexei Arbatov, then member of the State Duma for the liberal Yabloko party, called sabotage a possible reason of the crash.

Lebed was survived by his wife, Inna, two sons, a daughter, and his brother Aleksey. Aleksey Lebed served as Head of the Republic of Khakassia from 1997 to 2009.

Political views
During his time in Moldova, the general called the separatist Transnistrian government "hooligans" and considered the Moldovan authorities as "fascists". He also called fellow politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky "the Lord God's monkey."

Lebed did not consider Ukraine and Belarus to be separate countries from Russia, nor did he consider the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages separate from the Russian. In 1995 he believed both countries would become part of a new state, on a confederal basis with the Russian Federation, at the end of the 20th century. General Lebed was also strongly against the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe initially, but by 1997 had changed his attitude to be more accepting of the idea. However, in March 1997 Lebed stated that he believed its expansion would destabilize the alliance and that it was the result of Cold War thinking, which would cause Russia to become authoritarian in response.

References

External links

Former Soviet General Alexander Lebed Discusses the Future of US-Russian Relations (Baker Institute for Public Policy, March 1998)
Russia: Boris Yeltsin makes statement over Alexander Lebed sacking (Associated Press Archive, October 1996)

1950 births
2002 deaths
People from Novocherkassk
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
Congress of Russian Communities politicians
Second convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Lebed
Governors of Krasnoyarsk Krai
Heads of the federal subjects of Russia who died in office
Russian anti-communists
21st-century Russian politicians
Russian lieutenant generals
Soviet major generals
Personnel of the Soviet Airborne Forces
Frunze Military Academy alumni
Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School alumni
Soviet military personnel of the Soviet–Afghan War
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Russia
Victims of helicopter accidents or incidents
Russian people of Ukrainian descent
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner
Recipients of the Order of the Red Star
Recipients of the Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 3rd class
Recipients of the Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 2nd class

Alexander Lebed


Brian Vander Ark is an American singer-songwriter best known as lead singer for the band The Verve Pipe.

Music
Ark joined the band His Boy Elroy as a guitarist.  He eventually quit and started the band Johnny with an Eye with his brother, Brad Vander Ark. In 1992, he disbanded Johnny with an Eye to form The Verve Pipe with Brad, drummer Donny Brown and guitarist Brian Stout. The band recorded two independent albums I've Suffered A Head Injury and Pop Smear.

The Verve Pipe's major label debut, Villains, featured the Vander Ark-penned single "The Freshmen", the group's highest-charting single and one of the most successful multi-format tracks of 1997. "Never Let You Down," the lead single from the band's 2001 album, Underneath, was one of the Top 50 Most Played songs for Adult Top 40 and Modern A/C radio in 2001.

Brian Vander Ark released his first solo album, Resurrection, in May 2003. He toured extensively in support of the album, including a double-bill acoustic tour with Butch Walker.  Vander Ark's second solo release, Angel, Put Your Face On, was released in May 2006, followed by a self-titled third record in January 2008, produced by Bill Szymczyk. Bill Szymczyk then produced Brian's followup, Magazine, in 2011.

In 2016, Brian released an album of story songs with actor/songwriter Jeff Daniels.

Acting
Vander Ark acted in the film Rock Star in 2001. Vander Ark played bassist Ricki Bell, of the fictional band Blood Pollution. The film also featured performances by Zakk Wylde, Jason Bonham, Myles Kennedy, Blas Elias and Nick Catanese. Vander Ark wrote the song "Colorful", which appears at the end of the film, sung by the Chris Cole Band, and simulated by Mark Wahlberg. Vander Ark recorded vocals of this song on the film's soundtrack. The song is on album Underneath, by The Verve Pipe. He has also appeared in several independent films, including director Matthew Leutwyler's Road Kill, Dead and Breakfast, and Unearthed. Vander Ark also composed the musical scores for Dead & Breakfast and Unearthed.

Filmography

 Road Kill – Joey (1999)
 This Space Between Us – Tagger (1999)
 Mergers & Acquisitions – Larry (2001)
 Rock Star – Ricki Bell, Blood Pollution Bassist (2001)
 Dead & Breakfast – The Tall Hick (2004)
 Bullies on Vacation (short) – Steve Vanderlaan (2010)
 House of the Rising Sun – Detective Jimmy LaGrange (2011)
 Eden Shattered (short) – President Dave Pellaton (2011)

Discography

Albums

Resurrection (2004)
Angel, Put Your Face On (2006)
Brian Vander Ark (2008)
Magazine (2011)
Wonderland with Lux Land (2011)
Simple Truths with Jeff Daniels (2016)
Planet Sunday Sessions Vol. I (2016)
Planet Sunday Sessions Vol. II (2021)

Live Releases
Within Reach (2005)
Live at Schubas (2005)
Live At Eddie's Attic (2006)
Bootleg: Lawn Chairs And Living Rooms (2007)
Night One: Resurrection (2009)
Night Two: Angel, Put Your Face On (2009)
Night Three: Self Titled (2009)
My Little Town- Live In Grand Rapids (2011)

Singles

"This Time" (2009)
"Daddy's Girl" (2012)
"Another American Down" with Jeff Daniels (2016)

DVD Releases

Live at Aquinas College (2008)
Lawn Chairs and Living Rooms (2012)

Sources
Brian Vander Ark's official website

Second Motion Records

External links

Living people
20th-century American singer-songwriters
21st-century American singer-songwriters
Alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock singers
American alternative rock musicians
American male singer-songwriters
American people of Dutch descent
American rock guitarists
American male guitarists
American rock songwriters
American rock singers
Singer-songwriters from Michigan
People from Holland, Michigan
The Verve Pipe members
Guitarists from Michigan
20th-century American guitarists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Second Motion Records artists

Brian Vander Ark


Reverse flush toilet, also known as a washout toilet, is a type of flush toilet containing a shelf which holds the excrement out of the water until the flush. This could be to make inspection easier, to reduce splashing, or just tradition. It facilitates taking a stool sample. The design greatly increases associated odor and requires a brushing after every use. The design is common in Germany and the Netherlands.

See also
 Washdown toilet
 Western toilet, a toilet designed to be used sitting

Toilet types

Reverse flush toilet


Thomas Roussel Davids Byles (26 February 1870 – 15 April 1912) was an English Catholic priest who was a passenger aboard the  on its maiden voyage when it sank after striking an iceberg during the night of 14–15 April 1912. He was reported as being amidst the throng of trapped passengers on the ship's rear deck in its final moments of descent, audibly praying.

Life
Thomas Byles was born Roussel Davids Byles in Leeds, Yorkshire, the eldest of seven children of Alfred Holden Byles, a Congregationalist minister, and his wife Louisa Davids. He attended Leamington College and Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire, between 1885 and 1889, then went to Balliol College, Oxford in 1889 to study theology, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1894. While at Oxford, Byles converted to the Church of England and later, like his younger brother William had done before, to the Roman Catholic faith, taking the name Thomas. In 1899, he went to the Beda College in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained in 1902. He was assigned to St Helen's Parish in Chipping Ongar, Essex in 1905, where he would remain until his death.

An invitation to officiate at the wedding of his younger brother William prompted Byles to make the trip to New York City. He said Mass on 14 April, the morning of the sinking and the Octave of Easter (now known as Divine Mercy Sunday), for both second-and third-class passengers in their respective lounges. The sermon described the need for prayer and the sacraments as a "spiritual lifeboat" to avoid a metaphorical shipwreck in times of temptation.

Byles was walking on the upper deck praying his breviary when the Titanic struck the iceberg. As the ship was sinking, he assisted many third-class passengers up to the boat deck to the lifeboats. He reportedly twice refused a place on a lifeboat. Toward the end he recited the Rosary and other prayers, heard confessions and gave absolution to more than a hundred passengers who remained trapped on the stern of the ship after all of the lifeboats had been launched. His body, if recovered, was never identified. His brothers installed a door in his memory at St Helen's Catholic Church in Chipping Ongar, Essex. Pope Pius X later described Byles as a "martyr for the Church".

Beatification process

In April 2015, Graham Smith, the current priest of St Helen's Church, with support of Bishop Alan Williams of the Diocese of Brentwood, initiated the first steps toward declaring Byles a saint.

In popular culture
Byles has three times been portrayed in films about the disaster. In the 1979 television movie S.O.S. Titanic, he was portrayed by Matthew Guinness. In the 1997 film, Titanic, he was portrayed by James Lancaster, reciting the Rosary and Revelation 21:4. Richard Basehart plays a thinly disguised Byles in the 1953 film. His story is featured in a book written by Cady Crosby entitled A Titanic Hero: Thomas Byles. The book documents Byles' early life, his years in ministry and his final hours on board the .

References

External links

 Website dedicated to Father Thomas Byles
 Encyclopedia Titanica
 Titanic Memorial
 Titanic: A Voyage of Discovery

1870 births
1912 deaths
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
Deaths on the RMS Titanic
20th-century English Roman Catholic priests
People educated at Rossall School
Clergy from Leeds
People from Chipping Ongar
19th-century English people

Thomas Byles