The original logo was designed by Howard Dietz and used by the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation studio from 1916 to 1924 ( see left), when the studio was ultimately absorbed into the partership that formed MGM. Slats was used on all black and white MGM films between 19. Slats was the first lion used for the newly-formed studio. Leo the Lion ( 1957 - present) in the MGM logo. The first color lion Telly, used in 1928. The original Goldwyn Pictures lion logo, which was later utilized for MGM. 2 Popular culture references and spoofs.When the comedian Mary Tyler Moore formed her own production company M TM in the 1960s – she mimicked the M GM logo, but replaced Cairbre with a little pussycat – it’s highly unlikely the kitty is also Irish.Ĭairbre, the big cat who tossed his mane from side to side for MGM, was born 96 years ago, on this day. He died at the age of 17 and although his hide is on display in a museum in Kansas he should not be confused with the cowardly lion of MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. As no one had recorded his heavily Dublin-accented roar, when the talkies began he was replaced by the more garrulous Jackie. Were Cairbre of malevolent disposition he could have had a snack of cinematographer sushi any time he wanted.Ĭairbre’s image continued to be used on all the old black and white, silent MGM movies until 1928. Camera crew and big cat are separated, not by a hefty iron grille, but by a few feet of clear air. Health and Safety considerations don’t seem to have been paramount (no pun intended – though, ironically, that’s where the shoot took place – Paramount studios). There is a famous photograph of two men filming him for the MGM logo. Gibbons apparently modelled the statuette on his wife, the statuesque film star Dolores del Rio.īut back to Cairbre. He also designed the statuette to be presented to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at their annual award ceremony, we know them more familiarly today as, the Oscars. This means that Gibbons is personally responsible for two enduring Hollywood icons, neither of them human. Cairbre was born in Dublin Zoo in 1919 and was named after Cuchulainn’s charioteer, or a High King of Ireland, or a rebellious pretender to the High Kingship, or whatever you’re having yourself.Ĭairbre had, apparently, been introduced to Sam Goldwyn, and the silver screen, by fellow Dub, Cedric Gibbons, the designer and art director. And he wasn’t African or even Californian, he was a genuine Dub. The studio called him Slats but that wasn’t his real name. Well, its because of the identity of the very first MGM lion. Perhaps it’s a 1920s version of Fifty shades of grey who knows.Īnd what has all this got to do with us, I hear you say? MGM decided to continue the practice and the first occasion on which the MGM lion appeared before one of the studio’s movies was in the utterly forgettable and accordingly utterly forgotten He who gets slapped a silent movie starring Lon Chaney and Norma Shearer. Mayer pictures in 1924, the company had already started using a lion in their pre-credit sequence. When Samuel Goldwyn’s old studio, Goldwyn Pictures merged with the exhibition business Metro and Louis B. The logo was a different matter entirely. The boastful organisation told not a word of a lie – MGM in the 1930s and 40s had some of the biggest names in Hollywood under contract, stars like Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire – need I go on? As regards the motto, don’t believe a word of it – it was art all right, but it was purely for the sake of money. Their first mascot was re-named Slats and was succeeded by, among others, Jackie, Tanner, George and Leo. They used to boast that they had ‘more stars than there are in the heavens’ though their official motto was the lofty ‘Ars gratia artis’ – which translates from bog Latin as ‘art for art’s sake’.
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