Cedric Gibbons

“Gibbons was responsible for the physical look of most of the 20th century through his designs for MGM, which were wildly influential both at the time and now, when we look back at his era.”
— Historian Steven Bingen, author of MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot, in an interview with Stuart Galbraith IV

Cedric Gibbons, a graduate of New York’s Art Student League, began his long association with the movies at Edison Studios in 1915. In 1918, he served as art director at Goldwyn Studios. When Goldwyn became incorporated with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1924, forming MGM, the young designer signed on as the new studio’s art director, a position he would hold for the next 32 years. More than 1,500 films bear his name as art director while a number of designers on his staff went uncredited. Nevertheless, the look of MGM films—and much of the studio proper—are reflections of Gibbons’s taste, creativity and discipline.

Here’s a brief look at his legacy.

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Frank Capra on It Happened One Night (1934)

We didn’t write the film for [Clark] Gable. We wrote it for Robert Montgomery, who turned it down. Nobody would play it. No women would play it. Comedies don’t read very well in script form, especially light comedies. They’re too fluffy. Nobody gets killed, there are no wars, no whores. Five girls turned it down, and finally Claudette Colbert took it because we paid her a lot of money. But we were going to do away with the whole picture when we got a phone call from mister big shot out at MGM, Louis Mayer. He called Harry Cohn and said, “Herschel, I got a man for you to play that megillah in that film you couldn’t get off the ground.” And Harry Cohn said, “Oh, the hell with it. We’re calling it off.” Louis Mayer said, “Oh, no, I’ve got a man here who’s been a bad boy, and I’d like to punish him.” And Harry Cohn said, “Okay.” So the picture was on again because Louis Mayer wanted to punish Clark Gable. We wouldn’t have made the picture, you see, without Mr. Mayer wanting to send Gable to Siberia, which was Poverty Row, where we were. They had to triple his salary when he went back to MGM, after the film came out.

April 6

Greer Garson dies of heart failure in Dallas, Texas, 1996. “If you’re going to be typed, there are worse moulds in which you can be cast,” the actress once remarked about playing stiff-upper-lip women facing adversity. While on the London stage, she captured the attention of Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a contract on the spot. In her first American movie, she earned great reviews opposite Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and grew increasingly popular with moviegoers the following year in Pride and Prejudice. The Academy joined the love fest as well, nominating her seven times for the Oscar; she won playing the title character in 1942’s Best Picture winner, Mrs. Miniver. “I've been offered nymphomaniacs, kleptomaniacs, pyromaniacs, homicidal maniacs and just plain maniacs,” Garson said in a 1970s interview. “I think producers felt that after playing a long series of noble and admirable characters there would be quite a lot of shock value in seeing me play something altogether different. But I prefer upbeat stories that send people out of the theater feeling better than they did coming in. It's my cup of tea."

October 7

Mario Lanza dies of a heart attack in Rome, 1959. The Philadelphia truck driver sang opera professionally at the age of 16, was discovered and signed by Louis B. Mayer and, in 1950,  made The Toast of New Orleans, his first major film. The new movie star added to his popularity with The Great Caruso (1951), in which he portrayed his idol, fellow tenor Enrico Caruso. Over the next couple of years, his indulgence in food and alcohol created casting problems. For The Student Prince (1953), however, the main problem was Lanza’s dislike for director Curtis Bernhardt. The star walked off the film and was replaced by Edmund Purdom, who lip-synched to Lanza’s prerecordings. Ironically, Bernhardt was later replaced by Richard Thorpe, who had directed Lanza without incident in The Great Caruso.

August 23

Gene Kelly is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1912. "I never wanted to be a dancer," Kelly once said. "It's true! I wanted to be a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates." A handful of Hollywood studio moguls had other ideas after seeing the young hoofer's turn on Broadway in Pal Joey. Both David O. Selznick and Louis B. Mayer promised to sign him without a screen test. Mayer reneged; Selznick kept his word, so Kelly signed with Selznick. For lack of finding the proper role for the actor, however, Selznick ended up selling Kelly's contract to MGM. Tension between Mayer and Kelly lasted for years.