Here are very brief blurbs about some of the members of my family:
Louis B. Mayer – one of my great-grandmother’s three younger brothers, who helped to found Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the Oscars and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Received an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1950.
Ida Mayer Cummings – my great-grandmother and a legendary fundraiser who worked tirelessly for Los Angeles’s Jewish Home for the Aged (JHA), and whose legacy lives on through an organization that bears her initials today, Associates IMC, which has raised millions of dollars over 80 years. Ida had four children: Ruth Cummings Rowland (married Roy Rowland and had one son, Steven Rowland); Jack Cummings (see below); Mitzi Cummings Fielding (married to Sol Baer Fielding); and Leonard Cummings, from her second marriage.
Jack Cummings – producer and occasional director of dozens of notable MGM films, including Kiss Me Kate, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Elvis Presley’s many films, including Viva Las Vegas. In 1954, Jack Cummings was nominated for Best Picture Oscar for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Sol Baer Fielding – my grandfather was a fine artist, cartoonist and graphic artist. He also produced Trooper Hook (with Barbara Stanwyck), Tennessee Champ, Bright Road (Harry Belafonte’s debut) and Jeopardy. As far as I know my grandfather was raised in Denver and as a kid worked for the Denver Post. As a young man he was very close to Mexican artist, Ben Hur Baz, and later in life with legendary illustrator Burne Hogarth.
Irene Mayer Selznick – Louis B. Mayer’s youngest daughter and a successful theater producer in her own right. First producer of A Streetcar Named Desire, which launched Marlon Brando’s career. Irene married film producer David O Selznick and they had two sons: L Jeffrey Selznick and Daniel Mayer Selznick (see below).
- David O. Selznick
- Richard Shepherd – Warner Bros, MGM, MCA and founded Artists Agency (son in law of Edie and Bill Goetz)
- William Windom – ABC, CBS, NBC
(Family mentioned here are either deceased or chosen a public profile. No living family members of current generations are identified by name. Mayer is a maternal last name, which Alicia uses as a pen name.)
The Film Colony ♛ 