Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation

by Kenneth Turan

Kenneth Turan brings to life the extraordinary partnership of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and their role in creating the film industry as we know it

One was a tough junkman’s son, the other a cosseted mama’s boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899–1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry.

Mayer, older by fourteen years, was the business-minded face of the studio, and Thalberg worked closely with the creative corps, especially writers—together they rarely set a foot wrong. And while Mayer initially viewed Thalberg as the son he never had, the two would go from passionate friends to near enemies before Thalberg’s shocking death at the age of thirty-seven.

In the first joint biography of the two men in fifty years, film critic Kenneth Turan traces their fraught relationship while examining the complicated history of Jewish identity in Hollywood.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Film, Media Tie In, Audiobook

392 pages, Hardcover

Published February 4, 2025

About the author

Kenneth Turan is the film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR’s Morning Edition, as well as the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. He has been a staff writer for the Washington Post and TV Guide, and served as the Times’ book review editor. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, he is the co-author of Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. Turan teaches film reviewing and non-fiction writing at USC and is on the board of directors of the National Yiddish Book Center. His most recent books include Free for All: Joe Papp, The Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told and Never Coming To A Theater Near You. Turan lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Reviews

[Anthony Kurlan]

Pretty good read, but not as good as the book on the Warner Brothers.

[James Scheid · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 9th book I have read in this series of biographies. This book is two biographies about the two men who brought MGM to the pinnacle of success. Mayer was the businessman but had the ability to spot talented actors and see in them future stardom. Thalberg, becoming a movie executive in his early twenties could read a problematic script and spot the problem and suggest to the writer how to fix it. Both men had other talents that made MGM the success that it was. Turan takes the reader from the lives of both men before they entered the movie business through to their deaths (Thalberg, dying at age 37 in 1936). This is also a biography of MGM and film making from the silent era through the 1950's. It is about film making's evolution. This is a wonderful addition to this series of biographies.

[Alan Kaplan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book about the early days of Hollywood. Irving Thalberg was considered a movie genius and he was the driving force behind the MGM glory days in the 1950’s. Thalberg died young at 37 years old, but his legacy lives on. Thalberg was born in America. He was born with an undescribed congenital heart disease. I would have liked to see an autopsy after his death to see what his diagnosis really was. He grew next door to the founder of Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle who offered Thalberg his first job in the movie business. Louis B. Mayer ran the business side of MGM from the 1920’s thru the 1950’s. His name is more recognizable to the younger generation today. This book is part of Jewish Lives series. Jews created Hollywood. Mayer, his past is in some dispute, was born extremely poor in the Russian Pale of the Settlement. His family emigrated to Saint John, New Bruswick. Mayer quit school at 12. Only in America could someone like this, Jewish, poor, and uneducated, rise to the top of his profession. He believed in family entertainment, and he created more movie stars than you can count. These men created the golden age of Hollywood, and the movies that we all know.. You may not know their names, but Thalberg and Mayer found and developed Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Norma Shearer and many, many more. While the world is screaming anti-semitic lies over and over again, remember who created Hollywood and network television along with a thousand other things, including 25% of all Nobel Prizes. Look up this series of books, and you will be amazed at the names. Jewish Lives printed by Yale University press.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's more about Thalberg than Mayer, but that's good because I already knew a fair amount about Mayer and next to nothing about Thalberg. I had heard of Thalberg as Mayer's sidekick, the boy genius who died young, and I have been to many meetings at the Thalberg Building on the old MGM lot (now Sony Pictures), but Thalberg's massive contribution to the creation of the modern film business was unknown to me before I read this book. His focus on story, script and writers was new. He was brilliant at using previews and post-production to save bad films and to make good films great. He cared about making money, but he also cared about films as art, and more than any other single person was responsible for making films the great art form of the twentieth century. Some of the early silent films before the MGM era were works of genius, but writing, acting, directing and all of the techniques of modern film making came into their own under the guidance of Thalberg. Everyone else was a pale imitation. But he couldn't have done it without Mayer, his crude blustery partner with a sharp eye for signing star talent and an even sharper eye for the bottom line. Together they were an epic team.

Mayer was a unique person. He was the locomotive that drove the train, so without Mayer, Thalberg would probably never have been able to work his miracles. Mayer deserves great honor for that, personally repellant though he may have been.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have an interest in Hollywood, especially old Hollywood, this is a really great read. Not knowing anything about these figures who made movie making into what it is today, I learned quite a bit and found the history interesting. But also not being much of a historian or an old movie buff, it lost my interest at times. So it was interesting enough and well written enough to keep me going but I don’t think I could tell you what most of the book actually said. I did recognize some of the names and films referenced and was really interested in the way studios “owned” actors and would loan them out. The relationship between the moguls was also interesting and kind of made me sad in a way, that your closest partner is a bit of a frenemy. Objectively it’s a good book.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following the careers of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg separately and then the several years they intersected and made MGM a powerhouse. They were successful making silent films and surpassed that with their transition to talkies. The stars, the writers, the directors and on and on is what made moviemaking so fascinating. Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Judy Garland and on and on. I simply loved this story.

[Michael Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent history of early Hollywood, full of characters and films from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Garbo, Lillian Gish, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy and William Powell, Jean Harlow and Paul Berg, Clark Gable, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Marie Dressler, Mank, Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst. An amazing collection of stories fill out this double biography.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great! Turan pulls together threads of the story you've heard elsewhere, but I think he's painted a much more accurate and insightful portrait of their characters here. Turan isn't interested in being salacious or picking sides or tearing down or building idols. Much needed piece of history.

[Victoria Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There wasn’t a lot about this book that I haven’t read before, but Kenneth Tynan is an enjoyable writer and he made the the times and the two giants of early film complete humans with their horrible flaws and great accomplisments.

[Mrs. Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really excellent. Wonderfully sourced and an engaging read for anyone interested in the early days of MGM and the studio system.

[Stefan Hedmark]

⭐️

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a survey of previous biographies and memoirs that doesn't break new ground but is a good introduction to the lives of Mayer and Thalberg.

[Harold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kenneth Turan’s history of Mayer and Thalberg is one of the biographies — in this case a joint biography — that is good enough for those with an interest in the subject matter not compelling or eye opening. Interest in Thalberg and Mayer will be rewarded but not kindled. Turan’s prose is straightforward and he has an eye for the stories and witticisms of Hollywood — my favorite of which is a Dorothy Parker witticism when she refused to wait in the interminable line outside Thalberg’s office.