It would take just a week after the shocking awards ceremony for the response from the big studios to hit the headlines, as they did on the 1st of April, 1949 and read like April's Fool Day jokes, including "Academy Awards May Be Stopped" and "Hollywood Oscars May Be On The Way Out." The first … Continue reading How Hamlet nearly killed Oscar: The big studio revolt that almost ended the Academy Awards
Anyone who comments about a rare early morning start to play himself in a movie that, "Birds were singing. How long has that been going on?" I could have had a lot of fun with. Of all the early Hollywood elite that I have written about, the one I most wished I could have met … Continue reading Sid Grauman: the hair, the theaters, the chutzpah.
This is one of the oddest photos in the collection. Clearly, Louis B Mayer is chairing a meeting, but which one? And who is the amazing mustachioed man? The boardroom table, with its incredibly polished surface, mirrors these men of power. In fact, through some freak of lighting, the table reflects them in an even … Continue reading A Room So Powerful…
"She was driven, passionate and unstoppable. It is uncanny to me how alike she and LB were in sheer determination..." It dawned on me recently as I looked at photos of my grandmother Mitzi and my great-grandmother Ida Mayer Cummings that I was looking at me in a few decades. The resemblances are uncanny in … Continue reading What I Will Look Like in 40 Years
My great-grandmother Ida Mayer Cummings was Louis B Mayer's sister and best friend. They were the middle children of five - Yetta, Ida, LB, Gerald and Ruben. Louis B Mayer's legacy was MGM, AMPAS, the Oscars, the MPAA and other major achievements. What is not as known is that his sister was the same mover and shaker in fundraising, and to this day an event she founded (the same year as LB founded the Academy Awards) is still a fixture in Los Angeles today. She was also the mother of four children, one of whom, Jack Cummings, went on to be a film producer in his own right.
The Film Colony ♛ 
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