There isn't a single other channel on TH-cam where if they don't post for a little while, I think about it every once in awhile and wonder how they are doing. I totally do that with your channel.
Yep. I have a couple channels I’ve subscribed to that went dark for a while, then posted a new video and I was “who is this in my subscriptions feed?” And have to go through their video history to figure out why I subscribed. Mikey? I think about Mikey regularly, eagerly anticipating the next amazing video, no matter how long it takes.
The Lion is a perfect mascot for MGM. A majestic symbol recognized as the mark of one of the biggest brand ever, that's actually just a sad, hungry, lion chained to a podium behind the gold lettering
Irving Thalberg at age 25: I’m the main creative force behind the first major movie studio in Hollywood. Me about to turn 28: I remembered to wash dark colors separately.
Hey, don’t feel bad. Thalberg got punked by The Marx Bros. hanging out naked in his office roasting potatoes after he ghosted them (unintentionally) multiple times. He was never late to a meeting with them again.
The good news is this: apparently you don't have to separate light and dark clothing anymore? I've been told this by tons of people smarter than me, so 🤷
Algorithm, you're the one reading this, then conveying this as you model it to be fit. Here, I engaged. Because I love Movies with Mikey and it deserves some attention. So Mikey's your friend, remember.
Just finished watching this on Nebula, and getting to the end and saying "on this day April 17th" about threw me for a loop. I thought you had secretly changed it or updated it before I realized it was the birthday of MGM, and I happened to just watch it today of all days.
Fantastic essay, Mikey. I can't imagine the amount of research that went into it, but your delivery and asides makes it seem as through you had a good time producing it.
Damn I love these kinds of deep dives. This was great. I watched it over on Nebula back when it was posted there. Just couldn't leave a comment. Hope the move went well and ya'll are settling in comfortably. Looking forward to whatever you put out next.
This is a great video to share with parents and grandparents who would, I assume, get a lot of nostalgia feels from it. Whatever, the video deserves more views.
What a fantastic breakdown of a fascinating industry story. I really appreciated how balanced your critique was of the business side of Hollywood, and the recognition that the artists can't make their work if they don't have a successful business to support them. It's frustrating how, in the modern world, it seems that both sides have forgotten that balance.
The Cutting Edge has my whole heart. It's also a fascinating time capsule of the time when there wasn't a Soviet Union or really a Russia just yet. Also montages galore!!! Toooooeeeeepiiiiiiiiickkkkk
Man, I would love if you put a little non-intrusive nebula logo pop-up at the bottom right at the beginning of the video to remind me. Always prefer to lend my eyeballs to a less villainous platform.
Thank you for this video Mikey and the FilmJoy team. Im always impressed by your videos, and inspired by your love of this art form. You always do a great job explaining both the art piece as a product, and the art of its creation, and the effect both have on our culture. Thanks for this piece. I had no idea how complicated it was, and to then imagine, many other studios probably have similar tales. Really appreciate your effort and dedication to this piece.
The UA logo theme hits me right in the childhood - complete with shivers. Also hearing how UA got its start as artists seizing their independence from major film studios pairs interestingly with the promo for Nebula. Hopefully Nebula keeps its independence much longer
31:35 you're mixing up negative/positive feedback loops. A positive feedback loop is when the input encourages more of the same input, while a negative one encourages change. It's not named after whether the results are subjectively positive/negative.
This very well may be your best video yet. Perhaps you can make one that just focus's on MGM and Victor Fleming in 1939. How someone can make "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind" in one year is ridiculous.
Very well done, Mikey! The history of this company is honestly kind of a nightmare. It's like an amoeba eating and growing and splitting, but every time it does, art, and artists, suffer.
I want your long form opinion on Guy Ritchie. From Lock Stock to Snatch(still his best film) to the Madonna years to his newer Covenant and Gentlemen, he has had an influential career. As a fan of other influential UK directors, where do you stand on his films? Edit: Also you gotta do Master and Commander: Far Side of the World. Another edit: Prisoners of the Ghostland also, you make me very happy
20:40 Love your love for Thalberg. I believe we have one living among us, look up the track record of a certain Michael De Luca, survivor of multiple studios and getting great movies made iin any and every financial landscape.
Well, you’re certainly doing more for MGM’s anniversary than Amazon is. All they’re doing is a new anniversary logo and a curated Prime Video collection.
soooo. how to make a company last 100 years: base it on something as evolving and evergreen as art and then abuse the time and talents of your producers at every opportunity, with occasional and increasingly inefficient checks in power to stop you from eating your own tail entirely
I was not expecting a picture of the MGM lion doing a blep would make me laugh like a hyena (and cough like General Grievous because I have the flu) but it did.
Groucho Marx kept on making movies after Thalberg’s death, but never with the same passion. He and Thalberg were responsible for how good A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races were. Thalberg would send the brothers out on the road to vaudeville houses, like early standup shows, to test and refine their material, so when they came back to film, the bits were a well-oiled machine.
The worst thing that ever happened to MGM was Kirk Kerkorian…He just kept stripping it for parts, selling it, rebuying it when it gained more assets, sucked MORE blood out of it…rinse, repeat….
In 1997, MGM didn't acquire "Origins", which nobody's ever heard of. They did buy "Orion Pictures", which had made Silence of the Lambs, Platoon, The Terminator, Robocop, Amadeus, Dances with Wolves, etc etc.
I love how companies being merged with can take on tons of debt to finance the merger if they like the company they're being merged with. Like, I want you to adopt me, so here's four hundred million dollars to help buy me. Where'd I get it? A loan. It'll be your loan, sure, but hey, the shareholders getting that money won't care. The _bagholders_ on the other hand... MGM's leadership might have gotten in hot water (you know, a wrist slap) back in the 80s for this, but today? Nah, Musk can mortgage twitter for money to buy out the board and nobody even thinks to mention it, much less send the SEC in to smack him around with a yardstick.
I should clarify/correct a few points in the video which I think you got confused or wrong: 1:35 Anti-trust law _did_ exist back then, going through a whole era of corporate break ups in the 1910s and with at least one studio (Edison Studios and the patents and distribution related to all that) being broken up. The ownership of studios by theater chains could likely be argued more as a conflict over how distribution should work (E.g. Should film distributors be able to own and release their own films, just as, comparing to nowadays, a TV station can also produce its own content?). Naturally, and very understandably, the courts would eventually rule in Paramount v. United States that it only served to suppress competition. And really, it was likely to break up anyway. 34:35 His name was Edgar Bronfman Sr., not Jr. Junior is interesting given he seemed to have the same interest in films as his father, buying up Universal in the '90s in a _very_ poor series of business maneuvers that eventually saw Seagram go bankrupt and led to Universal ending up under Comcast. As it relates to MGM's story, he, Time, and other stockholders attempted to fight back against Kerkorian in a costly stock battle. Bronfman himself didn't really do much to help in MGM's ownership given some of his film choices. Probably should say as well that I'm not really sure if MGM actually did invest in the mid-'60s. And it's rather ironic that you mentio 36:30 This is a bit out of order. Going back to the stock battle, Kerkorian had to pay around $120 million for the purchase, which was very expensive for the time. As a result of that, he ended up having to sell those hotels in 1970 (Along with getting the equally cost cautious James Aubrey to sell studio assets) to try and get down the debt before assembling the MGM Grand. Reportedly, even Aubrey had his struggles with Kerkorian. While Wikipedia and other resources goes by the public statement of Aubrey, who said that he had "accomplished what he set out to do", Peter Bart's book _Fade Out_ states that he was actually forced to resign by Kerkorian, after the two were in conflict. If what some people have stated about the Columbia stake is true (Possibly backed up by a proposed merger he made with 20th Century Fox), I think he was aware of just how much the film side was actually floundering and was trying to make efforts to improvement (The "primarily a hotel company" statement I couldn't find, but as far as research can tell, the exact context was in relation to the Columbia Pictures case, by the fact that hotels made up almost all of its business because of how bad things were at the studio, and that buying Columbia wouldn't count as antitrust because of the state of MGM). Naturally, a lot of this goes back to Kerkorian's messy purchase and just how bad he handled things, but I do get the feelinghe had some genuine hopes for the studio before the overwhelming debt that came with it (Exacerbated by people speculating he had mob connections upon his initial purchase or was even connected with Howard Hughes, and then later added with the purchase of UA) basically haunted the studio for the rest of time.
As of today, all their properties are part of Warner Bros. The last dying gasp of the Saturday morning juggernaut was the ghastly live action Flintstones movie series.
Timely release, as the Fallout series (the games and show) explore the theme of ideals surviving reality. What sacrifices need be made to continue to exist, and when does something stop being what it originally was?
There isn't a single other channel on TH-cam where if they don't post for a little while, I think about it every once in awhile and wonder how they are doing. I totally do that with your channel.
Yep. I have a couple channels I’ve subscribed to that went dark for a while, then posted a new video and I was “who is this in my subscriptions feed?” And have to go through their video history to figure out why I subscribed.
Mikey? I think about Mikey regularly, eagerly anticipating the next amazing video, no matter how long it takes.
Mine is Sideways
The Lion is a perfect mascot for MGM. A majestic symbol recognized as the mark of one of the biggest brand ever, that's actually just a sad, hungry, lion chained to a podium behind the gold lettering
always a good day when we get Movies with Mikey
Irving Thalberg at age 25: I’m the main creative force behind the first major movie studio in Hollywood.
Me about to turn 28: I remembered to wash dark colors separately.
Don't put yourself down.
We play with the hands we're given.
Wait what - dark colours need to be washed separately? (46)😂
@@Bdoc76 Made me laugh.
Hey, don’t feel bad. Thalberg got punked by The Marx Bros. hanging out naked in his office roasting potatoes after he ghosted them (unintentionally) multiple times. He was never late to a meeting with them again.
The good news is this: apparently you don't have to separate light and dark clothing anymore? I've been told this by tons of people smarter than me, so 🤷
The best opening in the entire TH-cam space
Algorithm, you're the one reading this, then conveying this as you model it to be fit. Here, I engaged. Because I love Movies with Mikey and it deserves some attention. So Mikey's your friend, remember.
i love that this is basically a real prayer that I believe in
Just finished watching this on Nebula, and getting to the end and saying "on this day April 17th" about threw me for a loop. I thought you had secretly changed it or updated it before I realized it was the birthday of MGM, and I happened to just watch it today of all days.
Dang, a whole hour!? You spoil us, Mikey.
Fantastic essay, Mikey. I can't imagine the amount of research that went into it, but your delivery and asides makes it seem as through you had a good time producing it.
The French company Pathé has an accent on the final "e", meaning that it should be pronounced. "Path-A", not just "Path".
Exactly. Thank you.
Well, this little opus scores as one of the more creative,
informative and humorizing ones seen in a long while.
Kudos!
Another vid from Mikey. Make my day.
The kind of interesting history/behind-the-scenes I didn't know I wanted. Kudos
Damn I love these kinds of deep dives. This was great. I watched it over on Nebula back when it was posted there. Just couldn't leave a comment. Hope the move went well and ya'll are settling in comfortably. Looking forward to whatever you put out next.
This is a great video to share with parents and grandparents who would, I assume, get a lot of nostalgia feels from it. Whatever, the video deserves more views.
Excellent, informative & interesting work as always Mikey! Looking good with the long hair too!
This is a fantastic piece of work, and all too timely. Much appreciated.
1:33-1:51 is pure comedic perfection. Simpsons-level execution. Bravo!
Another vid, just 2 weeks after the last!?!? Whoooo!!!
What a fantastic breakdown of a fascinating industry story. I really appreciated how balanced your critique was of the business side of Hollywood, and the recognition that the artists can't make their work if they don't have a successful business to support them. It's frustrating how, in the modern world, it seems that both sides have forgotten that balance.
This is one of your best ones yet. Excellent work!
The Cutting Edge has my whole heart. It's also a fascinating time capsule of the time when there wasn't a Soviet Union or really a Russia just yet. Also montages galore!!! Toooooeeeeepiiiiiiiiickkkkk
I love every second of this.
The research you done did on this is mind- boggling… Mikey makes long video with every second worth watching !!!!
Another fine explination of a thing I sorta knew about. Now I know more. Thank you, Michael and Teara, this is why I am a patreon supporter!
This was absolutely brilliant!
Man, I would love if you put a little non-intrusive nebula logo pop-up at the bottom right at the beginning of the video to remind me. Always prefer to lend my eyeballs to a less villainous platform.
You could explain anything to me and I'd want to watch it all. I love this.
Thank you for this video Mikey and the FilmJoy team. Im always impressed by your videos, and inspired by your love of this art form. You always do a great job explaining both the art piece as a product, and the art of its creation, and the effect both have on our culture.
Thanks for this piece. I had no idea how complicated it was, and to then imagine, many other studios probably have similar tales.
Really appreciate your effort and dedication to this piece.
Glad to see another long-form from Mikey. Great work, my man! Keep 'em coming.
The UA logo theme hits me right in the childhood - complete with shivers. Also hearing how UA got its start as artists seizing their independence from major film studios pairs interestingly with the promo for Nebula. Hopefully Nebula keeps its independence much longer
Thank you for all of your hard work, Mikey! This history lesson is incredible and so well researched. I'll watch every minute of your videos, forever.
THALBERG : a natural noble of a creative human being.
Interesting, very enjoyable, great, as always. Thanks.
Thank you for party rockin', Mikey.
an hour long filmjoy video?! we love to see it!
Incredible detail!
This is an great achievement Mikey and crew!
New MWM? Always tuning in immediately!
Engagement!
This was awesome, thank you
31:35 you're mixing up negative/positive feedback loops. A positive feedback loop is when the input encourages more of the same input, while a negative one encourages change. It's not named after whether the results are subjectively positive/negative.
Hey, I enjoyed this, thanks for making it!
Phil M Joy, you've done it again. Well done.
This channel's videos make me wanna catch a riiiide
I've never seen a clip of Groucho Marx in color, love the bits of history this channel always shows me!
Commenting and liking for "Filmy the film guy" I do love your videos otherwise, but the delivery was too perfect
Great work Mikey, I'll come see you on Nebula.
Mikey, you killed it!
There is so much iformation in this vid. I will have to watch three times.
Excellent work, M. Thank you.
Filmy the film guy is my new favourite
Perhaps the real MGM was the friends we made along the way
This was a super cool video! Also, I think this is my favorite delivery of JESUS CHRIST so far lmao
This very well may be your best video yet. Perhaps you can make one that just focus's on MGM and Victor Fleming in 1939. How someone can make "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind" in one year is ridiculous.
Oh hell yeah.
Amazing work y'all!!
If you lament what happened to MGM, and want to support Art for Art's Sake, please support Nebula.
Very well done, Mikey!
The history of this company is honestly kind of a nightmare. It's like an amoeba eating and growing and splitting, but every time it does, art, and artists, suffer.
Amazing content. Thank youuuuu
Great video essay. My favorite since the Star Trek one
Thanks, Michael! 🦁
Make a video on Where The Wild Things Are lil bro
I want your long form opinion on Guy Ritchie. From Lock Stock to Snatch(still his best film) to the Madonna years to his newer Covenant and Gentlemen, he has had an influential career. As a fan of other influential UK directors, where do you stand on his films?
Edit: Also you gotta do Master and Commander: Far Side of the World.
Another edit: Prisoners of the Ghostland
also, you make me very happy
I saw that mgm cartoon “peace on earth” way too young. Messed me up. But i love ww1 history now.
this was AMAZING!! could you pleaseeee do one on paramount ?
20:40 Love your love for Thalberg. I believe we have one living among us, look up the track record of a certain Michael De Luca, survivor of multiple studios and getting great movies made iin any and every financial landscape.
Mikey! We missed you!
Well, you’re certainly doing more for MGM’s anniversary than Amazon is. All they’re doing is a new anniversary logo and a curated Prime Video collection.
soooo. how to make a company last 100 years: base it on something as evolving and evergreen as art and then abuse the time and talents of your producers at every opportunity, with occasional and increasingly inefficient checks in power to stop you from eating your own tail entirely
I was not expecting a picture of the MGM lion doing a blep would make me laugh like a hyena (and cough like General Grievous because I have the flu) but it did.
I this video is a world wind, but I lost it at Toe Piiiiiiick. I also love The Cutting Edge…
The most criminally underwatched channel on youtube
Groucho Marx kept on making movies after Thalberg’s death, but never with the same passion. He and Thalberg were responsible for how good A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races were. Thalberg would send the brothers out on the road to vaudeville houses, like early standup shows, to test and refine their material, so when they came back to film, the bits were a well-oiled machine.
The worst thing that ever happened to MGM was Kirk Kerkorian…He just kept stripping it for parts, selling it, rebuying it when it gained more assets, sucked MORE blood out of it…rinse, repeat….
Saw 2001 in the theater today and enjoyed the static MGM logo without being reminded of a captive lion lol
In 1997, MGM didn't acquire "Origins", which nobody's ever heard of. They did buy "Orion Pictures", which had made Silence of the Lambs, Platoon, The Terminator, Robocop, Amadeus, Dances with Wolves, etc etc.
New movies with Mikey... hell yeah!
Very cool story!
I've been meaning to look into a history of United Artists. I bet it's absolutely tragic.
Thank you
CATCH A RIIIIIIIIDE!
Hour long Movies with Mikey? I don’t know what I did, but it must have been something good to earn this.
I love how companies being merged with can take on tons of debt to finance the merger if they like the company they're being merged with. Like, I want you to adopt me, so here's four hundred million dollars to help buy me. Where'd I get it? A loan. It'll be your loan, sure, but hey, the shareholders getting that money won't care. The _bagholders_ on the other hand...
MGM's leadership might have gotten in hot water (you know, a wrist slap) back in the 80s for this, but today? Nah, Musk can mortgage twitter for money to buy out the board and nobody even thinks to mention it, much less send the SEC in to smack him around with a yardstick.
Art for arts sake. Money, for gods sake…
The film can cartoon character is sure to test off the charts with the 18-45 demographic. Also is he related to Mr DNA??
French person sees Credit Lyonnais mentioned in an American video:
"Oh! La merde😂😂😂😂"
John Wick 4 video please Mikey! Also thanks for this video!
Watching this on the actual anniversary, it felt strange when Narrator Mikey talked about the history coming to "today".
I should clarify/correct a few points in the video which I think you got confused or wrong:
1:35 Anti-trust law _did_ exist back then, going through a whole era of corporate break ups in the 1910s and with at least one studio (Edison Studios and the patents and distribution related to all that) being broken up. The ownership of studios by theater chains could likely be argued more as a conflict over how distribution should work (E.g. Should film distributors be able to own and release their own films, just as, comparing to nowadays, a TV station can also produce its own content?). Naturally, and very understandably, the courts would eventually rule in Paramount v. United States that it only served to suppress competition. And really, it was likely to break up anyway.
34:35 His name was Edgar Bronfman Sr., not Jr. Junior is interesting given he seemed to have the same interest in films as his father, buying up Universal in the '90s in a _very_ poor series of business maneuvers that eventually saw Seagram go bankrupt and led to Universal ending up under Comcast. As it relates to MGM's story, he, Time, and other stockholders attempted to fight back against Kerkorian in a costly stock battle. Bronfman himself didn't really do much to help in MGM's ownership given some of his film choices.
Probably should say as well that I'm not really sure if MGM actually did invest in the mid-'60s. And it's rather ironic that you mentio
36:30 This is a bit out of order. Going back to the stock battle, Kerkorian had to pay around $120 million for the purchase, which was very expensive for the time. As a result of that, he ended up having to sell those hotels in 1970 (Along with getting the equally cost cautious James Aubrey to sell studio assets) to try and get down the debt before assembling the MGM Grand. Reportedly, even Aubrey had his struggles with Kerkorian. While Wikipedia and other resources goes by the public statement of Aubrey, who said that he had "accomplished what he set out to do", Peter Bart's book _Fade Out_ states that he was actually forced to resign by Kerkorian, after the two were in conflict.
If what some people have stated about the Columbia stake is true (Possibly backed up by a proposed merger he made with 20th Century Fox), I think he was aware of just how much the film side was actually floundering and was trying to make efforts to improvement (The "primarily a hotel company" statement I couldn't find, but as far as research can tell, the exact context was in relation to the Columbia Pictures case, by the fact that hotels made up almost all of its business because of how bad things were at the studio, and that buying Columbia wouldn't count as antitrust because of the state of MGM). Naturally, a lot of this goes back to Kerkorian's messy purchase and just how bad he handled things, but I do get the feelinghe had some genuine hopes for the studio before the overwhelming debt that came with it (Exacerbated by people speculating he had mob connections upon his initial purchase or was even connected with Howard Hughes, and then later added with the purchase of UA) basically haunted the studio for the rest of time.
ahh mwm .... best free antidepressent there is ... thanks for the great video
An hour?! 🤯 You spoil us, Michael...
Please do Paramount. What a fall from grace.
MGM did not survive for a century, not as a movie studio, anyway. Nowadays, MGM is a hotel company.
I wish that I could pirate Nebula videos, because I cannot spend money on another app
some of them pop up in a certain place...with a blue bird for a logo.
Toby Maguire should play him in a biopic
Alright folks, let's see if we can make MWM Studios last 100 years!
What did Hanna and Barbera go off to do? Tell us!
Flintstones, Yogi bear, Jonny Quest and Scooby-Doo (RIP Ruby- Spears) and a lot of others I can't list.
As of today, all their properties are part of Warner Bros.
The last dying gasp of the Saturday morning juggernaut was the ghastly live action Flintstones movie series.
Oh wow! I was born on MGM’s 50th birthday?!?
Hey look my name is in the credits! Like someone who has been around for 100 years!
Timely release, as the Fallout series (the games and show) explore the theme of ideals surviving reality. What sacrifices need be made to continue to exist, and when does something stop being what it originally was?
51:39 Stargate!!!