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July 05, 2009
Reborn on the Fourth of July
L.B. Mayer, a man without a birth date.
Every Independence Day, L.B. Mayer (1884 - 1957) would shut down production at MGM and celebrate twin holidays: America’s birth, and the birthday of L.B. Mayer.
Flags and bunting graced every building and sound stage. There was band music and rows of picnic tables groaning under the weight of food.
Every MGM star was expected to attend and pay homage to America—and to L.B. Mayer. For in Mayer’s mind, the two were inseparable. All complied, except Greta Garbo, a woman far too narcissistic to lavish attention on any country or person other than her own mirrored island.
Though Yiddish was his first language, L.B. Mayer delivered a rousing Fourth of July speech. Mayer could be a forceful English speaker, mixing deeply personal anecdotes—usually about his beloved mother—and soaring rhetoric about his adopted home, America.
To date, every Mayer biographer and film writer with whom I’m familiar repeats the familiar anecdote in which Mayer “claimed to have lost his birth certificate” when crossing from Europe to America. The quotation marks tell us—with a condescending wink and nudge—that Mayer fibbed in order to adopt July Fourth as his birthday, thereby conflating his identity with America’s.
However, the truth of Mayer’s birth date can best be appreciated and understood within the context of the Eastern European Jewish culture from which the junk man turned film pioneer emerged.
L.B. Mayer, real name Lazar Meir, was born in Minsk, today the capital of Belarus, but at the time part of the Russian Empire known as The Pale of Settlement where Jews were forced to reside by the viciously anti-Semitic Tzar.
To read my entire July 4th post, head on over to Big Hollywood.
A Time of the Signs hosts Haveil Havalim #224, The Fourth of July Edition.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at July 5, 2009 12:04 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Dear Robert: Are you sure the Jewish tombstones in Eastern Europe read "Ya'akov Ben Aharon," not "Ya'akov Ben Chana?" I suppose it depended on the part of Europe the cemetary was in.
The pogroms, and the kidnapping of Jewish boys for the Czar's army, are two of the main reasons that the murder of the Czar by the Bolsheviks, doesn't really bother me. It was a shame that they also killed the Czar's family, though.
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at July 5, 2009 02:24 AM
Miranda: As a sideline I believe in the last couple of years they found the bones of the Czar and his family and through DNA disproved the claim of the woman (in France?) claiming to be his daughter or whatever -
I went to Russia about 4 years ago and what a trip it was - They moved Nicholaus' bones to a church in St Petersburg I believe -
There were good Czars and bad ones and Nicholas apparently was bad - Peter the Great was good as far as I know - had the humility to work as a common seaman in one of the Western Navies to learn - and tried to build Russia from a backward country to a powerful one.
The Volga Waterway - linking Moscow and St Petersburg - started by Peter the Great was finished by Stalin and 160,000 political prisoners lost their lives building it. It was said that for decades after one could see bones washed up onto the shore.
Robert - thank you for sharing your knowledge of old Hollywood - and Jewish history - with us. Didn't know that about Louie Mayer and why he didn't have a birthday. There are very few who have the art of teaching history in a dynamic way - telling you the "why's" of the past and how it affects us today - but you have that gift.
Wouldn't you have loved to have been at a 4th of July picnic with the MGM crew and ask some questions? I'll bet my favorite Marion Davies was there...
Posted by: Bill Brandt at July 5, 2009 09:12 AM
Dear Robert:
Thank you for telling the amazing story of your son Ariel Z'TL. May G-d bless you and soothe your anguish.
Posted by: Brian Berger at July 5, 2009 08:20 PM
" ... Are you sure the Jewish tombstones in Eastern Europe read "Ya'akov Ben Aharon," not "Ya'akov Ben Chana?" I suppose it depended on the part of Europe the cemetary was in. ...."
all (Orthodox) tombstones list the name of the Father,
some may list both the Mother and Father
when asking a Rebbe for a Blessing, one gives the name of the Mother, (especially in olden Eastern Europe),
as the Mother gives Life, and is the conduit of all blessings into this world,
when one's Life here has been completed,
it is traditional to have the Father's name only,
(again, some have both, but it is extremely rare to have only the Mother's name and not the Father's)
Posted by: exdemexlib at July 6, 2009 06:56 AM
Bill:
I would have loved being at one of MGM's July 4th bashes. Sigh. Now I just sit back and watch lots of MGM movies.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 6, 2009 12:52 PM
Brian:
Thanks so much for the kind words.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at July 6, 2009 12:52 PM
Miranda:
Yup, I'm sure. Ex dem is correct.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at July 6, 2009 12:54 PM