This silent documentary short is a studio tour of the newly created MGM studios at the time. We get to see all the stars that were under contract at the time as well as a lot of behind the scenes people and the studio executives, topped off by Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was just getting started at this time. It was an amalgamation of Metro studios and the former Goldwyn Picture Company. Sam Goldwyn was originally Sam Goldfish and he originally was with Famous-Players-Lasky which eventually became Paramount. Goldfish and Edgar Selwyn left Famous-Players-Lasky and formed Goldwyn Pictures taking the first syllable from Goldfish and the last from Selwyn as their company name. Goldfish liked the new name so much he took it for his own.
Well, it could have wound up Selfish Pictures.
Anyway Goldwyn soon left that to branch out on his own as an independent producer. Sam Goldwyn never had anything to do with what became MGM though his name is forever on their product.
It was originally Metro-Goldwyn. Louis B. Mayer as president had enough ego and clout to then get his name tagged on at the end. And it became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
I believe this short was a kind of cinematic brochure for the new studio that was being launched. I got a very big kick out of a shot with the caption of MGM showing off its new discovery, Lucille LeSeuer who as we all know shortly became Joan Crawford.
The short is a real treat though, hopefully TCM will broadcast it at some point.
And just think about a studio named Metro-Selfish-Mayer.