Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation

by Kenneth Turan

Overview

Kenneth Turan brings to life the extraordinary partnership of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and their role in creating the film industry as we know it
 
“Sharply observant.”—Farran Smith Nehme, Wall Street Journal
 
One was a tough junkman’s son, the other a cosseted mama’s boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899–1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry.
 
Mayer, older by more than a dozen years, was the business-minded face of the studio, while Thalberg worked closely with the creative corps, especially writers; together they rarely set a foot wrong. And while Mayer initially viewed Thalberg as the son he never had, the two would go from passionate friends to near enemies before Thalberg’s shocking death at the age of thirty-seven.
 
In the first joint biography of the two men in fifty years, film critic Kenneth Turan traces their fraught relationship while examining the complicated history of Jewish identity in Hollywood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300254495
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	02/04/2025
Series:	Jewish Lives
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Kenneth Turan was the film critic of the Los Angeles Times for nearly thirty years and was also a film critic for National Public Radio. He is the author of Not to Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film, among other books. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Editorial Reviews

Mr. Turan has provided an entertaining primer on the men and their studio. . . . Sharply observant.”—Farran Smith Nehme, Wall Street Journal

“They don’t make ’em like this anymore.”—Christopher Bray, The Telegraph

“A record of a paradigm-shifting partnership, this is an entertaining, literate and beautifully crafted contribution to Hollywood history.”—Charles Arrowsmith, Los Angeles Times

“Turan casts an engagingly fresh light on two of old Hollywood’s most powerful studio moguls. . . . An illuminating history of the MGM studio system. A thoroughly engrossing, well-documented biography of two Hollywood legends.”—Kirkus Reviews

“From film critic and historian Turan comes this irresistible story of the partnership (and friendship) between Mayer, a producer-turned-studio chief in the early years of the film industry, and Thalberg, a young-but-brilliant producer. . . . Turan is a thoughtful writer, highly knowledgeable about his subject, and his enthusiasm for the history of movies, and the people who made them, is downright contagious. A splendid addition to the literature of film history.”—David Pitt, Booklist

“Rich in anecdote and brimming with old Hollywood lore. Its great virtue, beyond its compulsive readability, is that it widens the scope on its two subjects, . . . spinning a good yarn in the process.”—Noah Isenberg, American Scholar

“This feels like the book Kenneth Turan was born to write, for he brings to the task, and conveys to the reader, all the pleasure of deep research into an inexhaustible subject, all the expertise gained over the course of a lifetime spent loving and thinking and writing about Hollywood and the movies, and all the insight into and feeling for his remarkable subjects, with their gifts and their demons, of his own powerfully humane imagination.”—Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

“Dazzling, engaging, and beautifully written, Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg is the latest addition to the outstanding Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press. Turan captures these two titans with exceptional insight and appreciation. It’s a wonderful piece of history, masterfully told.”—Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book

“How do you present a fresh version of a familiar story? Start by conducting meticulous research, then filter it through a twenty-first-century prism, aided by vast personal knowledge and superior writing skill. It’s no small feat, but it’s what Kenneth Turan has managed to achieve in this compelling dual biography.”—Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian

From the Publisher

2024-11-21
A prolific partnership that established MGM and transformed Hollywood.

In yet another lively entry in the publisher’s Jewish Lives series, formerLos Angeles Times critic Turan casts an engagingly fresh light on two of old Hollywood’s most powerful studio moguls: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899-1936). Though both were Jewish, they came from markedly different backgrounds. The scrappier and more emotional Mayer was born in Russia and emigrated to the U.S. as a young child, building his empire from humble beginnings in the scrap metal business. Thalberg, born in Brooklyn to a family of German Jewish descent, struggled throughout his short life with a congenital heart condition. His intellectual acumen and innate understanding of storytelling would make him a wunderkind of the film industry. Together, they established MGM as Hollywood’s premier studio, producing prestigious films during the silent era and beyond. Under their leadership, MGM became synonymous with glamour and excellence. The studio launched the careers of numerous luminaries, including Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, and Norma Shearer—who married Thalberg in 1927. They deftly navigated the transition from silent to sound pictures, with Thalberg bringing innovative practices: test-screening films, acquiring prestigious properties based on bestselling novels and classic literary works, adapting Broadway hits, and nurturing writing talent. Among the notable writers profiled is MGM veteran Frances Marion, whose credits include the Academy Award–winning filmThe Champ (1931). While several biographies of both Thalberg and Mayer exist, along with memoirs by Hollywood figures like Irene Mayer Selznick, who knew them personally, Turan’s achievement lies in his thoughtful synthesis of these sources. Though he presents little new material, he weaves together stories and anecdotes to create both a vivid portrait of their complex personal and professional relationship and, for modern readers, an illuminating history of the MGM studio system.

A thoroughly engrossing, well-documented biography of two Hollywood legends.

Kirkus Reviews