MGM and Ben Hur

       Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or MGM, as we know it today was the result of a very important three way merger between Metro pictures, Goldwyn pictures, and Louis B. Mayer pictures that was brought together by Marcus Loew. The studio’s chief publicist, Howard Dietz, alluded to his old Alma-matters mascot when he made their logo a roaring lion, and surrounded it with the Latin phrase “Ars Gratia Artis”, meaning “Art for art’s sake”. MGM is often credited with initiating the “industrial age of cinema”, but it was actually the last of the major studios to convert to sound. From the end of the silent film era all the way through the 1950’s, MGM had a top spot in Hollywood, so there was no real need to change their formula. MGM had some lofty goals in their early days, especially for being in an industry that was evolving so rapidly. They presented a mission to their producers that they wanted at least one full length feature film every single week. Due to these expectations, MGM had some money troubles early on.

       In 1959, MGM took a giant leap into what may still be the biggest production effort ever put forth into a single film. Their four hour long epic religious drama, Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston had the largest budget they had ever considered, a whopping fifteen million dollars (129.75 million in today’s economy). It also had the largest sets built for any film that had been produced ever before as well. There were one hundred wardrobe employees on top of two hundred workshop employees that made costumes and props for the one hundred and fifty thousand extras. The film was so massive that shooting for twelve to fourteen hours a day for six days a week was the only way to finish it in under a year. They used more than two hundred camels and over two thousand five hundred horses during filming, and the famous nine minute chariot race is still an awe inspiring spectacle to today’s standards.

       MGM then took another fifteen million dollars to market the film, which premiered in New York City. All of their time and money paid off upon release of the film, when it quickly became the fastest and highest grossing movie of the year. It continued to become the second highest grossing film of all time, (up to that year of course, and behind Gone with the Wind) winner of eleven Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, and it can often still be found on many people’s lists of the best movies of all time.

       By 1961 when the spoils of Ben-Hur were almost all spent, MGM set its sights on releasing new Tom and Jerry cartoons, which they later gave to Chuck Jones in Hollywood. Jones had his own studio called Sib Tower 12 Productions, but MGM absorbed it and renamed it MGM Animation/Visual Arts. Here, Jones was responsible various television specials like The Dot and the Line, the 1966 version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! starring Boris Karloff, and The Phantom Tollbooth.