The Boy Wonder

Guns and Oranges

San Dimas - 1900

Early Hollywood was beyond a doubt, the Wild West. Barnstorming film crews of socially questionable, youthfully indiscrete, armed and determined "movie people," scrambled from one location to the next with the rock throwing, camera smashing goons of the Motion Picture Patents Company nipping at their heels. After the Trust was broken in 1912, hostilities ended and small groups began to settle in permanent locations amid the sunny orchards. The opportunity to make a buck was the driving force behind businessmen, who in turn saw little importance in aesthetics or their place in posterity. The earning potential of a product with the lifespan of a housefly was their primary concern. Film was destined to exist as culturally banal, inconsequential fluff. Movies became more elaborate over time, but a flimsy cardboard and greasepaint appearance prevailed and overused stories grew stale,

The Boy Wonder …

Irving Thalberg (1899-1936) was a sickly child. Born a ‘blue’ baby, his mother alternately pushed him to succeed and worried about his poor health. At sixteen, a bout with rheumatic fever caused further damage to his already weakened heart. His doctor believed the frail young man would never reach thirty. With a sense of urgency he skipped college and entered the world of business to make his mark. After quitting a dead-end job, he left Brooklyn to spend the summer at his Grandmother’s home on Long Island.

Hollywood's original power couple, Irving Thalberg & Norma Shearer

By sheer coincidence, her next-door neighbor was movie mogul Carl Laemmle, who offered young Irving a job. At the age of nineteen, he was Laemmle’s personal secretary, and by twenty, production manager in charge of Laemmle’s California studio at Universal City. At an age when most young men were in college, Thalberg produced Erich von Stroheim’s Foolish Wives (1922), while struggling to manage the wild excess of the temperamental but brilliant director. Thalberg fired the autocratic von Stroheim while Merry-Go-Round (1923) was in production.
An astute businessman with a remarkable eye for talent and quality, Thalberg left each film he produced with a recognizable look and refinement that set the standard for commercial motion pictures. The boy genius was also a gifted negotiator who always knew the right thing to say and just when to say it. Small and unassuming but driven and intensely focused, Thalberg was able to quickly spot a problem on the set, or in a script, correct it with surgical precision, while soothing inflamed egos, relieving anxieties and inspiring confidence. Above all, he was a master of tactful diplomacy, with impeccable manners and flawless personal conduct. Thalberg remains among the most loved, most powerful and remarkable figures in the history of Hollywood. Following The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), Thalberg and Laemmle parted ways, and Hollywood’s greatest era was about to begin.

… and The Lion of Hollywood

The Big Parade (1925)

Louis B. Meyer longed to dominate the film industry. The former scrap metal dealer turned movie magnate saw in Irving Thalberg a young man with immense talent, potential and the means to achieve his goal. If Meyer was the Lion of Hollywood, Thalberg without question was the Ringmaster. The merger of Metro, Goldwyn and Meyer in 1924 created an institution responsible for setting the gold standard in motion pictures. This new mega-studio was to be supervised by Hollywood’s boy wonder, Irving Thalberg. Over the decade that followed, he produced a succession of films whose consistent high standards have never been equaled. Throughout his career, Thalberg shunned the spotlight and screen credit. "The credit you give yourself is not worth having." No other individual has ever come close to matching his amazing accomplishments. In the silent era alone, Thalberg was responsible for He Who Gets Slapped (1924), Greed (1924), The Merry Widow (1925), The Big Parade (1925), Ben-Hur (1925), Flesh and the Devil (1926), The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), The Crowd (1928) and Show People (1928). He delivered MGM into the sound era without a hitch, producing one blockbuster after another. The tacit proof of his genius can be seen in every film released during his tenure. A single example of his profound effect on production standards (and a personal favorite), may be seen in the unbelievably complex and seemingly endless musical extravaganza featured in A Day at the Races (1937), one of Thalberg’s final productions. His frailty was both his greatest asset and his undoing. As a healthy child he may have simply finished school and joined the family business.

Ben-Hur (1925)

The studio system was MGM. Hollywood’s greatest collection of beauty, talent and technology was also the greatest oppressor of the non-conformist and the independent. It closed the door forever on the days when the fun of making movies was just as important as the profits earned, but also made possible a depth and scale never achieved before or since.

Flesh and the Devil (1926)

Next ... The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)