October 29 1957 Film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn Mayer studios (MGM), Louis B. Mayer dies in Los Angeles at the age of 73. After emigrating with his family to America, the young Mayer first becomes enamoured with show business whilst renovating vaudeville theatres in Boston. By 1914 he is running a small film distribution business and two years later moves to Los Angeles where he and Samuel Goldwyn merge their respective companies to form the iconic MGM brand. With whiz-kid Irving Thalberg as its artistic director, MGM becomes the industry’s most prestigious movie studio boasting “more stars than there are in heaven”.
