American media company involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs.
The company was founded in 1924 when entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the most dominant motion picture studio in Hollywood between the end of the silent era through until just after World War II. The list of actors who were signed to MGM at some stage during their careers includes: Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Lucille Ball, Jean Harlow, Laurel and Hardy, Esther Williams, Buster Keaton, Greta Garbo, Red Skeleton, Bette Davis, Jimmy Durante, Margaret O'Brien, Donna Reed, Robert Young, Lana Turner, Jane Powell, Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Peter Lawford, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Paul Newman, Kathryn Grayson, Hedy Lamarr, Mario Lanza, Greer Garson, Angela Lansbury, Rosalind Russell, Robert Taylor and Jackie Cooper. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, two of M-G-M's stars, still hold the world records for the most Oscars won by an actor and actress.
Despite its promising beginnings MGM failed to respond quickly enough to the changing legal, economic, and demographic nature of the motion picture industry during the 1950s and 1960s, and indeed lost significant amounts of money throughout the latter decade despite producing a number of hit films. In 1969, Kirk Kerkorian purchased 40 percent of MGM and immediately set about slashing staff and production costs, thereby forcing the studio to produce low-budget films. The company eventually shut down production in 1973, focusing instead on distribution (film production resumed at MGM in 1980). In the early 1980s MGM attempted to rebuild its production capacity by purchasing United Artists (which included the lucrative James Bond film franchise). Nevertheless, in order to increase production the company continued to incur large debts. In 1986 the Turner Broadcasting System purchased MGM in a cash-stock deal for $1.5 billion. Although founder Ted Turner immediately sold MGM's United Artists subsidiary to raise capital, he was unable to find financing for the rest of the deal. 74 days after the original agreement was made Turner was forced to sell MGM's film and distribution business back to Kirk Kerkorian. The MGM film studios and laboratory facilities were subsequently sold to Lorimar Television. Turner kept the pre-1986 library of MGM films, along with pre-1950 Warner Bros. and RKO Pictures films which MGM had previously purchased.
The end result of more than a decade of deals was that MGM became even more heavily debt-laden. In 1990 the company was bought by Pathé Communications, but its owner, Italian publishing magnate Giancarlo Parretti, lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. French banking conglomerate Credit Lyonnais, the studio's major creditor, then took control of MGM. Even more deeply in debt, the company attempted to raise capital by selling a portion of its assets to Australia's Seven Network in 1996. The following year, however, MGM purchased Metromedia's film subsidiaries (Orion Pictures, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and the Motion Picture Corporation of America) for $573 million. Kirk Kerkorian bought out the Seven Network in 1998, thereby reasserting his association with the company. Under Kerkorian MGM acquired the Polygram Filmed Entertainment catalogue in 1999 for $250 million, and obtained the broadcast rights to more than 800 of its films previously licensed to Turner Broadcasting. In 2001 the company purchased 20 percent of Cablevision Systems for $825 million. An attempt to take over Universal Studios in 2003 failed, and MGM was forced once again to sell several of its assets - this time cable channel investments (taking a $75 million loss on the deal). The debt load from these business deals negatively affected MGM's ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 2004, after a three-way bidding war between Time Warner, General Electric and Sony MGM was acquired by a partnership led by Sony Corporation of America (and including Comcast, Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners). The company offices are now located in century City, California.
Among the classic cannon of MGM films are The Big Parade (1925), The Broadway Melody (1929), The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Boys Town (1938), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Northwest Passage and The Philadelphia Story (1940), Meet Me in St Louis (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), Easter Parade (1948), Father of the Bride (1950), Showboat, An American in Paris and Quo Vadis (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Guys and Dolls (1955), Gigi (1958), Ben Hur (1959), How the West was Won (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Thelma and Louise (1991). The company also produced a number of successful television series - including The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969-72), Stargate SG-1 (1997). A number Elvis Presley's films were also made by MGM, including Jailhouse Rock (1957), Viva Las Vegas (1964), Girl Happy (1965) and Double Trouble (1967).
Several films produced by MGM had their screenplays based on stories written by Australian or Australian-resident authors. These include The Ship from Shanghai (1929), Rhapsody (1954) and The Shoes of the Fisherman (1969).
