Irving Thalberg the Boy Wonder

Irving Grant Thalberg was born May 30, 1899 to German Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. The Thalbergs named their son Irving and Grant, after Ulysses S. Grant, because it made him sound more American. The baby was frail, with arms and legs like matchsticks and the doctor told the Thalbergs their son had a congenitally defective heart. Henrietta refused to accept that her son's condition would shorten his life and keep him from distinguishing himself. During his childhood he was confined to his bed for long periods of time. Henrietta helped create a fantasy world to replace the real one outside his four bedroom walls with books such as "The Three Musketeers" and Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

Carl Laemmle, the five foot two inch, excitable president of Universal lived next door to Irving Thalberg's maternal grandmother on Long Island. He lived in a constant agitated state and ran a company notorious for nepotism, lampooned by Ogden Nash in the line, "Uncle Carl Laemmle has a very large faemmle." The film maker took an interest in young Thalberg and hired him as a secretary to one of his senior executives in the New York Office.

It didn't take long for Irving to realize Universal was a chaotic, unorganized mess. "Uncle Carl" hired people without giving them a job description and the result was squabbling over areas of responsibility. Always the quick study, Thalberg advised his boss to delegate authority and raise the overall standard of production by offering attractive contracts to top talent. Laemmle came to realize that this twenty-year-old man was calm, shrewd and analytical. Thalberg and Laemmle traveled to Southern California to see what could be done to salvage the mismanaged studio. Laemmle appointed Thalberg general manager of the Universal City Studio and his first project was was confronting one of the major Hollywood players of his time, Erich von Stroheim.

On October 19th, shortly after taking over management of Universal, Thalberg learned that a big, expensive banquet sequence was being film on the set of "Foolish Wives." The film starred and was directed by the extraordinarily gifted and reckless Erich von Stroheim. The filming of the movie was held up for a whole day because von Stroheim had ordered hundreds of champagne glasses with half-inch gold rims, and received glasses with a quarter inch of gold instead. He refused to shoot the scene and production wrapped for the day without any footage at all. When confronted, he responded, "Remove me as a director and you remove me as star, and you don't have a picture." This battle went to von Stroheim but Thalberg made sure he didn't have a starring role in his next picture and after "repeated acts of insubordination," he was quickly dismissed by Thalberg

After two years in Hollywood and a string of profitable movies, Thalberg knew he was a marketable talent. He asked Laemmle for a raise and when he didn't get one, he quietly spread the word that he would entertain offers from other studios. A meeting was arranged between Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer, president of Louis B. Mayer Productions. Mayer asked the young producer whether an embarrashingly risque movie titled Pleasure Mad could be dumped even though it had already been presold to exhibitors. Thalberg replied all major decisions are up to the producer because he is the ultimate authority at the studio. It was just what Mayer wanted to hear. Mayer was thirty-eight and Thalberg was only twenty-three.

Legend has it that when Norma Shearer arrived from the East at the Mayer company's Mission Road studios, she was met by a young office boy who was very polite and deferential. She asked him, "Can you show me to Mr. Thalberg's office?" He led her into an office, closed the door, sat down and put his feet up on the desk. He looked her up and down and introduced himself as Irving Thalberg, vice president of MGM.

First of all, why did you decide to write a book on Irving Thalberg?

Ben-Hur, Flesh and the Devil, Tarzan the Ape Man, Grand Hotel, Mutiny on the Bounty, A Night at the Opera, The Good Earth - most filmgoers today have heard of these Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer classics. Yet, few know the name of the genius behind them.

Nicknamed the "Boy Wonder," Irving G. Thalberg was running Universal Pictures at the age of twenty and M-G-M at twenty-three. Between 1924 and 1936, he supervised more than four hundred M-G-M films; made stars of Lon Chaney, William Haines, Ramon Novarro, Greta Garbo, Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, and Helen Hayes; innovated story conferences, sneak previews, and extensive retakes; introduced the horror film; and co-authored the Production Code.

By age thirty-seven he was Hollywood's greatest producer, his films a rare blend of commercialism and taste. Then, as he stood poised to lead the cinema to new heights, he died. With a legacy of classics, surely his place in the pantheon would be assured.

Irving Thalberg possessed a much-admired talent for picking out stories and was widely respected for being an enthusiastic proponent of "classy entertainment," including the production of a number of prestigious literary adaptations. Where did that come from?

He endured long stretches of childhood illness. His only weapon against fear and boredom was a well-stocked library. He learned to love the classics. He was told that he would not live past thirty. He pushed himself into the film industry and then pushed to make films of the same caliber as the books he had read as a child.

Much has been written about the complex relationship between Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg. What's your take on that? Who would you say was responsible for MGM's success during the Depression years, when most other studios were on the verge of bankruptcy?

The story of their relationship is a tragic one. A filial affection turned cold and competitive after they achieved wealth and power. Neither could have accomplished singly what they did as a team, turning a newly formed production company into the world's most successful studio-and in only three years.

It was Thalberg's creative vision that brought M-G-M an $8-million-dollar profit in the worst year of the Great Depression, when every other studio was either in the red or in receivership. He dared to film an eclectic array of projects.

Under the direction of Leo B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg, these two bit studio players became the most sensational superstars of 1930s Hollywood.

Jean Harlowe



Clark Gable

1938 - Darryl F. Zanuck
1939 - Hal B. Wallis
1940 - David O. Selznick
1942 - Walt Disney
1943 - Sidney Franklin
1944 - Hal B. Wallis
1945 - Darryl F. Zanuck
1947 - Samuel Goldwyn
1949 - Jerry Wald
1951 - Darryl F. Zanuck
1952 - Arthur Freed
1953 - Cecil B. DeMille
1954 - George Stevens
1957 - Buddy Adler
1959 - Jack L. Warner
1962 - Stanley Kramer
1964 - Sam Spiegel
1966 - William Wyler
1967 - Robert Wise
1968 - Alfred Hitchcock
1971 - Ingmar Bergman
1974 - Lawrence Weingarten
1976 - Mervyn LeRoy
1977 - Pandro S. Berman
1978 - Walter Mirisch
1980 - Ray Stark
1982 - Albert R. Broccoli
1986 - Steven Spielberg
1988 - Billy Wilder
1991 - David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck
1992 - George Lucas
1995 - Clint Eastwood
1997 - Saul Zaentz
1999 - Norman Jewison
2000 - Warren Beatty
2001 - Dino De Laurentiis

No award was presented in the following years: 1941, 1946, 1948, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1969, 1970, 1972-1975, 1979, 1981, 1983-1985, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2002-2009.

Irving's son wasn't interested in the materialism of Hollywood life. He was educated at the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and Stanford University, and devoted his time to political issues. He was a teacher of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago until he died of cancer in 1988. Only six years old when his father died at the age of thirty-seven, Irving Thalberg Jr. had a distant relationship with his famous mother and only outlived her by five years.

Reportedly neglected by Norma from the very beginning, Katherine attended West Lake School for Girls in Beverly Hills, went on to attend Vassar College in New York and Stanford University, and earned her bachelor's degree in English literature. After two failed marriages, she moved to Aspen, Colorado where she married former Aspen mayor, Bill Stirling. She became a successful bookstore owner for over twenty years before losing a two-year battle with cancer in 2006.