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Tue 14 Sep, 2004 08:43 pm
MGM was a powerful entity in the Golden Age of Hollywood and after the reign of Louis B. Mayer ran straight into the wall of the 1950's decline of movie attendance and grossly overtaxed movie houses. It's been in many hand since that time and so it shouldn't be a surprise that SONY is on the verge of making the deal to own MGM including it's prestigious library of films. I can't link to Variety as it's a membership site so here's the CNN article:
http://premium.money.cnn.com/2004/09/13/news/fortune500/twx_mgm/
The deal closed, there's some worried MGM execs as staff will be "moved" from the gitzy, retro MGM Tower. When the air clears, it can be determined how this new media giant stacks up.
What do you think of the merger, Wizard? And, btw, has MGM done anything at all lately? Seems like a voice out of the past. Who were the most recent owners?
MGM was an entity onto itself for the second time in its history. It's been responsible for such TV far as "Dead Like Me," and recent films like "Barbershop" and "Legally Blonde." It's a concern as these gigantic corporations swallow more of their competitors. We'll likely still see Leo roar at the beginning of films and TV fare but will it be the same? The MGM library is what SONY was after and that's really the keystone of Hollywood's Golden Age.
Yeah, nobody had musicals like MGM musicals.
The MGM musical is and always will be legendary. Louis B. Mayer might have ruled with an iron fist but he also wanted to bring a kind of escapism and unbridled joy to the screen that hasn't been duplicated. It culminated in "The Bandwagon" which marked the beginning of the decline for MGM but they've rebounded several times. They did put up the cash to make "2001: A Space Odyssey" and gave Kubrick totally free reign in what the movie would be.
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