Leo's Logos
August 8, 2023
Ron
THE RONNIE CHRONICLES — RC-007
"Leo's Logos"
I regard the Lion's Gate each year nearly reverently. The way I grew myself up, Leo the Lion was the school mascot for my inner university of glorious Technicolor, breathtaking Cinemascope and stereophonic sound expression. I have great soul affinity for Leo and the royal authority his presence asserts. The Lyran Lion Beings are among my favorite beings anywhere. I use their imagery a lot in my personal symbolism.
MEET LEO
THE ARK. The Lyran.
Therefore, I have to amend my Newsletter #12 to include a new king I hadn't originally considered but whom I have nevertheless and most assuredly encountered.
KING LEO.
He sat and roared with regal authority at the front of Hollywood's greatest films, and so I thought he must be the same dude as the one below. I mean, do we know for sure that the Cowardly Lion wasn't named Leo?
I first met all these figures I'll be talking about upcoming as I lay sprawled amid piles of encyclopedias on our living room floor pretty much any night of the week. It was how I first learned about people, and world events. And we had two really excellent sets of encyclopedias plus a bunch of other cross-referencing texts. My mom always made sure our reference library was killer, so we definitely had access outside the box if we wanted it. And I definitely wanted it.
Through the TV guide (a sacred weekly text in our house), our three television channels, our family library, and my inventive curiosity (along with a very busy mail-order system), I honestly didn't notice myself being all that less informed that I am now. I was just informed in different ways than I am now, I suppose. And who wasn't raised with Leo the Lion greeting you before your favorite movies? Everybody knows Leo.
And as I became more educated about the lore of MGM, this great symbol of artistic excellence guided my sense of what constituted first-class musical entertainment. That, too, was part of the program.
LEO'S LOGOS
LEO'S HISTORY
LEO's KINGDOM
THROUGH THOSE GATES
MGM famously boasted that through those gates were more stars than there were in Heaven. The greatest motion picture studio in Hollywood's Golden Era. MGM: The Tiffany of the Hollywood studios. I spent my youth going through those fabled and revered gates in my mind.
1930s (mid)
Original MGM gates on Washington Blvd, Culver City, circa mid 1930s
1930s
View along Washington Blvd at MGM Studio gate, circa 1930s
1940
The Thalberg Building (1940)
1938
A view from inside MGM’s original gate on Washington Blvd, Culver City, 1938
1939
MGM's East Gate (1939)
1939
MGM Studios and its famous 10-column entrance in 1939
1951
The MGM front gate and Thalberg Building, Culver City, as seen in “The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story” 1951
1958
1970s
MGM Gate / Archives
THE GUARDIAN OF THE GATES
JUDY GARLAND and GYPSY ROSE LEE part 1
[Judy Garland tells Gypsy Rose Lee her story about the guardian of the gates at MGM. It's very funny. Skip to 6:45 to go directly to the story. This is the Gypsy Rose Lee, by the way, upon whom the movie musical "Gypsy" is based. A real stripper, who was a first class act.]
She's talking about this gate:
And if you want more fun:
JUDY GARLAND and GYPSY ROSE LEE part 2
JUDY GARLAND and GYPSY ROSE LEE part 3
MGM: 95 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
THE MGM STORY
[The rise and fall of MGM. It’s interesting.]
THE KING MAKERS
WHY WE WEAR CROWNS
THE DREAM MERCHANTS — THE JEWISH MOGULS
Link forthcoming
CALLING WALT
Link forthcoming
THE THALBERG BUILDING
1930s
Thalberg, Irving Thalberg, L.B. Mayer, Harry Rapf Meeting circa 1930s
1938
The Thalberg Building on the MGM studio lot shortly after it was completed in 1938, Culver City, Los Angeles GREAT
1940
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, with Thalberg Building in foreground (1940)
1942
The Irving Thalberg building on the MGM lot, 1942
1946
The Irving Thalberg building, MGM.
1951
The MGM front gate and Thalberg Building, Culver City, as seen in “The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story” 1951 GREAT
1950s
The Irving Thalberg building at the old MGM Studios, Culver City, late 1950s.
THE KINGDOM
THE DREAM FACTORY AT FULL-TILT
1918
Aerial view of the Goldwyn Studios (later MGM) in Culver City, California, 1918
1918
Aerial shot of Goldwyn Studios, Washington Blvd, Culver City, 1918 MUST SEE
1919
Aerial shot of the Goldwyn studio lot, Culver City, Los Angeles, 1919
1919
Aerial photo looking east across the Goldwyn movie studios, Culver City, Los Angeles, 1919
1922
Aerial shot of the Goldwyn Pictures movie studios (later MGM), Culver City, Los Angeles, 1922
1926
MGM star dressing room building on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio lot, Culver City, California, 1926
1929
Three soundproof camera booths on the set of “Showgirl in Hollywood” at First National (Warner Bros) studios, Burbank, late 1929
1932
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio Lot One showing the back lot, Culver City, Los Angeles, 1932
1930s
Color postcard of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, Culver City, California, circa 1930s
1939
Aerial view of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) movie studios, Culver City, Los Angeles, August 27, 1939 MUST SEE
1943
Movie fans crowd the entrance to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, Culver City, California, 1943
1949
Aerial shot of Lot Two of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studios, Culver City, Los Angeles, 1949
1958
Looking west on Washington Blvd towards the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer columns, Culver City, Los Angeles, September 1958
MGM Commissary
You'd think for a kid so wrapped up in old Hollywood and MGM lore (at a time when the industry was radically redefining itself in trendier ways) that it would be the stars who most captured my imagination. And I guess they did, but I was most interested in behind-the-scenes stuff. I wanted to know how the dream factory worked. I really needed to FEEL what it felt like to be on a set.
THE PRODUCT
MGM proving what it had long claimed: that they had "more stars than there are in Heaven" at this legendary command performance:
MGM ROSTER 1949
MGM 25th Anniversary —1949
The production trivia is almost as riveting for me as the performance itself:
"Fascinating Rhythm" — Eleanor Powell from "Lady Be Good" (1942)
[Truly fascinating behind-the-scenes view of the massive army of technicians involved in bringing to life a number of this scale.]
THE BACKLOT: LEO's WALLS
All good kingdoms have sure and solid walls. And with good reason. All the gold is held within. These are Leo's Walls; boundaries to help define his sprawling territory and environs.
A virtual tour of the old MGM back lots THIS IS FABULOUS
Backlot Stories
1944
MGM back lot set for “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944)
1951
Waterfront Street on the MGM backlot during the filming of “An American in Paris” (1951)
1939
Vivien Leigh Victor Fleming Clark Gable Mervyn LeRoy (1939)
[On the 40 Acres backlot set of "Gone With the Wind" at the Selznick Studios.]
TARA
[Although the Tara set for "Gone With the Wind" was located on the 40 Acres backlot at Selznick International, which later became part of the Desilu Empire, it is forever linked with MGM because of the film.]
The completed Tara set from "Gone With the Wind" on the 40 Acres backlot at Selznick International studios, Culver City, Los Angeles in 1939. Notice the fake trees, the tops of which would be painted in via matte processing.
David O'Selznick standing inside the arches of the train depot set on the 40 Acres backlot looking up at the just-completed Tara.
When your set is so badass that other actresses
come to have their picture taken there.
David O'Selznick on Tara's front steps. (1939)
The tattered Tara set after 20 years of neglect and decay.
THE FATE OF TARA
The Iconic Houses and Sets from the movie "Gone With the Wind".
Hollywood’s Iconic ‘Gone with the Wind’ Movie Set Has Been Hiding in a Barn for Decades
[Once sold from the 40 Acres Backlot, the pieces of Tara were deconstructed, shipped to Georgia, and have remained preserved in storage ever since.]
Famed "Gone with the Wind" Tara movie set surfaces in Georgia (VIDEO)
Buy Tara From "Gone With The Wind"
I liked this set a lot. I even painted the Tara house, which is sprawling, on a wall in my Pepe Ortiz house. I've been very obsessed with that house, nearly as much as Scarlett herself.
I also painted Scarlett's infamous "I'll never go hungry again" carrot moment on my wall in my Indy apartment.
RELATED MATERIAL
When MGM Ruled Hollywood: The Rise (and Fall) of Amazon’s Next Prize
[A curtain-closing look at the era and moguls that defined the iconic brand as the e-commerce giant aims to seal a $8.5 billion deal to gobble up the studio to feed its streaming ambitions.] EXCELLENT. GREAT HISTORY.
The Amazing Irving Thalberg: The Boy Wonder of Hollywood
MGM musicals: more stars than the heavens
MGM: More Stars Than There Are in Heaven
MGM: More Stars Than There Are in Heaven — Part II
Where to begin with MGM musicals. A beginner’s path through the Technicolor exuberance of the classic MGM musicals.
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