![]() MGM Lot 1 … Culver City, CA The more modern 70’s Lion, greets visitors here in 1974… This picture of the Lion preceded Loew’s control…Leo actually sat on a different rooftop after this merger. “Ars Gratia Artis” (Art for art’s sake) proudly promulgated. Newman also composed a fanfare for the logo-less Samuel Goldwyn, which was equally as good as his 20th-Fox & Selznick fanfares.You enter this rooftop through a trap door, a lion sits above you. He thought the 20th-Fox logo was ‘crummy’! Selznick himself was never satisfied with his logo. ![]() In Selznick’s 1956 ‘A Farewell To Arms’, though released by 20th-Fox, the Selznick logo opens the picture, done over in CinemaScope, with the fanfare revised by Mario Nascimbene, who scored the film. The great Alfred Newman composed the remarkable ‘gamelan chimes’ fanfare. In some, the camera tilts up to the sign, while in others, the camera tilts from the sign to the building. Several variations, including the most famous: ‘Selznick International Pictures’ for ‘Gone With The Wind’. In the late 30s to 40s, Franz Waxman composed a modest but appealing fanfare for Leo.Īll the classic logos are great, and it’s reassuring that the studios still have the sense to preserve them, variations and all.Īlso one of my favorites: the Selznick Studio, with its elegant sign in front of the Mt. A variation was used for the Vegas/Reno casino operations. The ‘2001’ logo was best used for posters and print ads, but I agree that it was perfect for two such ‘modern’ films. The revised ‘from the eye’ logo at the beginning of ‘The Hobbit’ is brilliant, I think. Interestingly, the lion at the beginning of the 1925 ‘Ben-Hur’ roars silently, while the lion at the beginning of the 1959 (sound!) ‘Ben-Hur’ is silent – just a still photo. I read somewhere that Howard Dietz was inspired by the lion statues in front of the New York Public Library. This entry was posted in Movies and tagged lions, mgm, mgm logo, myfilmviews, the story behind. The logo as it has been for a very long time with Leo roaring, there have been subtle changes, but the lion has not changed. This logo wasn’t very popular and only used on two movies, Grand Prix and 2001: A Space Oddysey George the Lion was used here and he clearly seems a bit different in his look compared to the other lions. The logo didn’t change much except for the coloring and filmstrip details. The next lion to appear in the logo was called Tanner. Telly the Lion was used in the all the color version movies of MGM.Ĭoffee the Lion was another lion used for the color versions of MGM movies. Slats was replaced for this updated version by Jackie the Lion and it was the first logo where you would hear him roar. Mayer added his name to Metro Goldwyn to complete the three letters we take for granted now. He chose a lion because it was the Columbia University’s mascot. ![]() It was designed in 1916 by Howard Dietz, the studio’s chief publicist. The lion is called Slats and for those wondering what “Ars Gratia Artis” means: It’s Latin for “Art for art’s sake”. The official name is Leo the Lion, but he has been “played” by various lions.Īs you can see the first logo isn’t that different from the current one (even when it wasn’t called MGM yet). Loewe is German for lion, so using it as the logo was appropriate. Part of his expansion was buying Metro Pictures Corporation (founded in 1916) and Goldwyn Pictures (founded in 1917). He needed to have a steady flow of movies for his theatres and founded People’s Vaudeville Company, which later changed its name to Loew’s Consolidated Enterprises, which became Loew’s, Inc in 1919. So how did MGM became the company that it is today? Marcus Loew was a very succesful enterpreneur who steadily built his chain of Loew’s Theatres, one of the most prestigious in the US. Turns out the lion has been roaring for a long time. My journey into stories behind famous movie related things we take for granted continues, this week’s choice is the MGM Logo.
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