Louis B. Mayer

Louis B. Mayer (July 4, 1885–October 29, 1957) was an American film producer.

Born Eliezer Meir in Minsk, Russia, (now Belarus), his family immigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada when he was still very young and Mayer attended school there.

On November 28, 1907 in Haverville, Massachusetts, Mayer, then a scrap-metal dealer, opened his first movie theater. Within a few years he had the largest theater chain in New England, and in 1917 he founded his own production company, Louis B. Mayer Pictures, which eventually became part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

His daughter, Irene Gladys Mayer, married film director David O. Selznick.

Active in Republican Party politics, Mayer served as the vice-chair of the California Republican Party from 1931 to 1932 and its state chair between 1932 and 1933.

Louis B. Mayer died on October 29, 1957 and was interred in the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

See also: Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

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