Metro Goldwyn Mayer
New York Red Sox Block 2
MGM was founded in 1924 when Marcus Loew gained control over Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. He then named his Company Metro Goldwyn Mayer combining all three names. Loew created the company to produce a steady stream of movies for his movie theater chain, Loews Theaters. MGM was the first film studio to [Photo]experiment with filming in Technicolor. They created several films using this
technique. In 1930 MGM purchased the rights to distribute a series of cartoons that starred a character named Flip the Frog. MGM's most popular cartoon show was Tom and Jerry. As World War II approached it became increasingly harder to get people to watch their films. In 1967 MGM was sold to the Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr., whos son, Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios. Edgar owned the company for two years and then MGM was bought by Kirk Kerkorian, a millionaire from Nevada. Through the 1970's studio output of films decreased considerably. In 1985, Ted Turner bought MGM and changed the name to MGM/UA. The lettering of the logo was changed to reflect both companies. In 1986 the company was sold back to Kirk Kerkorian for $780 million. Turner got to keep the MGM film library and began colorizing all the old black and white films and airing them through his Turner Network Television. Up until 2001 MGM distributed its films internationally through UIP (United International Pictures. In January 2001, MGM broke with UIP and began distributing films internationally through 20th Century Fox. In 2007 MGM announced their films would be available through the iTunes music store. In October the same year, the began filming movies in HD.References
