Today in Comics History, July 12: Happy birthday, Louis B. Meyer (A Cautionary Tale)

Born on this day in 1882 or 1884 or maybe 1885, what do I know: Louis B. Mayer, film producer and co-founder of Roaring Lion Studios aka Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, one of the biggest and most influential movie companies of the twentieth century until Kirk Kevorkian Kerkorian basically put it out of its failing miseries in the 1970s. Although MGM has survived into this day, it was never quite the same juggernaut it was.

Yeah, Louis, you were a bigwig during the age of the Silver Screen, overseeing such iconic pictures as Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, Gigi, Ben-Hur and more. But were you ever in a comic book? How can somebody be called a figurehead when they aren't in a comic book? Wait, look, it this an appearance of the Big Man in the four color medium?


from "I Loved and Lost!" in Hollywood Confessions #1 (St. John, October 1949), script by Robert Bernstein, pencils and inks by Hy Rosen and Joe Kubert
No! that is not Louis B. Mayer! Notice the different spelling of his last name, and his first his first name is Ludwig. Why, this is just a fake Louis B. Maher. And say, whatddaya know, here's another bogus bigwig, also named "Maher":


from "Crimson Madness" in Black Cat Comics (1946 series) #6 (Harvey, June 1947), script by Blanche Carlin (?) or Beverly Suser (?), pencils and inks by Lee Elias, letters by Ben Oda
To end it on a kinda pathetic note, here's the only "actual" appearance of Louis B. Mayer I could find in actual comicky-type books, and it's just a one-page, non-speaking cameo. And he's in a green suit! Where'd you get that suit, LB? Eh, I guess when you're Mayer...anywhere.


from "Caruso Lives Again!" in Famous Stars #5 (Ziff-Davis, Winter 1951), pencils and inks by Paul Parker
So my point (and I do have one) is that you may be the biggest man in Hollywood (not lookin' at you Orson Welles) and yet you may still never get a satisfactory appearance in a comic book story! This is the "cautionary tale" alluded to in the title of this post! Hollywood executives and bigwigs...pfui! I don't care what you do to retaliate against WGA members and writers in the entertainment field, but they shall never falter and will win in the end! I siuppooirt their strike! THUS SAYETH BULLY! Happy birthday and a snort of derision to ya, Louis B. Mayer, ya load!

PS: Please do not examine this metaphor too closely because I have just realized that Hollywood writers do not make appearances in comic books. I'm so sorry. So very very sorry.