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Louis B. Mayer

Louis B. Mayer

Uncle of directors Fred M. Wilcox and Gerald Mayer .

Uncle of producer Jack Cummings.

Uncle of production manager Al Shenberg.

Was highest paid American business executive throughout the 1930s.

Was lampooned by author/MGM writer Aldous Huxley in "Ape and Essence," in which Huxley's character Lou is purported to have denied Jesus Christ a pay raise.



Was the father-in-law of producer/studio boss William Goetz (1903-69), married to Mayer's daughter Edith (Mrs. William Goetz). As one of the initial investors in Darryl F. Zanuck's fledgling Twentieth Century Pictures (which would soon merge with ailing Fox), Mayer insisted that his son-in-law be hired so as to get him out of MGM. Goetz served as executive vice president of Twentieth Century-Fox, heading the studio during Darryl F. Zanuck's leave of absence to serve in the military in 1942. Zanuck, fearful of his underling's ambitions, forced him out of the company upon his return in 1943. Ironically both Mayer and Zanuck felt that Goetz was decidedly unimaginative and a mediocre film executive. That same year Goetz formed International Pictures, which merged with Universal in 1946. Goetz would go on to become one of the most successful movie moguls in the post-TV era.

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