Irving Thalberg Overview:

Legendary producer, Irving Thalberg, was born Irving Grant Thalberg on May 30, 1899 in Brooklyn, New York City. Thalberg died at the age of 37 on Sep 14, 1936 in Santa Monica, CA and was laid to rest in Forest Lawn (Glendale) Cemetery in Glendale, CA.

HONORS and AWARDS:

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He was honored with one star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of Motion Pictures. Thalberg was never nominated for an Academy Award.

BlogHub Articles:

Book Look! Hollywood Dreams Made Real: & the Rise of MGM by Mark A. Vieira

By Vanessa Buttino on Jun 9, 2014 From Stardust

Book Look! Hollywood Dreams Made Real: & the Rise of MGM by Mark A. Vieira Well, I'm happy to tell you all that this book is another winner from one of my favourite film authors, Mr. Mark A. Vieira. The man's only disappointed me once - please, let's not re-live that experien... Read full article

: Prince of Hollywood (2005)

By Kristen on Jul 28, 2012 From Journeys in Classic Film

: Prince of Hollywood was on my TCM Top Twelve back in May. ?Here we are at the tail-end of July and I finally watched it and boy is this one of the better documentaries I’ve seen in a while, particularly on TCM. ?It’s an 80 minute, comprehensive documentary focused entire... Read full article

: Boy Wonder to Proudcer Prince

By Angela on Jul 15, 2011 From Hollywood Revue

I’ve read quite a few biographies on classic Hollywood figures, but : Boy Wonder to Producer Prince by Mark Viera is really quite different from all of them.? Mainly, I was impressed by how this book does not waste time.? By the page five, Irving is meeting Carl Laemmle, by page... Read full article

Book Review--Hollywood Dreams Made Real: and the Rise of MGM

By KC on Sep 9, 2009 From Classic Movies

With his previous photo tributes to Hollywood, Mark Vieira has proven to be expert at combining style with substance. His books have the look of coffee table fluff: oversized, glossy and full of delicious photographs, but his impeccably-researched text has always been capable of standing on its own.... Read full article

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Irving Thalberg on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame

7006 Hollywood Blvd.


Ceremony Date: Feb 8, 1960
Category: Motion Pictures
See All Walk of Fame Stars >>
Irving Thalberg Facts
After director King Vidor complained to Thalberg that he was tired of shooting pictures that played in theaters for just one week, he told him about a new kind of realistic war movie he had envisioned. Thalberg was enthusiastic about Vidor's vision, and tried to buy the rights to the hit Broadway play "What Price Glory?" co-written by Maxwell Anderson and World War I Marine veteran Laurence Stallings. Since the rights to the popular anti-war play had already been acquired, he hired Stallings to come to Hollywood and write a screenplay for the new, realistic war picture that Vidor had dreamed about making. Stallings came up with The Big Parade (1925), an anti-war film that dispensed with traditional concepts of heroism, focusing instead on a love story between a Yank soldier and a French girl. After Vidor completed principal photography, Thalberg took the rough cut and previewed it before live audiences in Colorado. Although the audiences responded favorably, Thalberg decided to expand the scope of the picture, as Vidor had created a war picture without many war scenes. He had Vidor restage the famous marching army column sequence with 3,000 extras, 200 trucks
The father of two daughters, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Vice President-Production Louis B. Mayer originally thought of Thalberg, his production chief, as a son, but Thalberg's ambitions and his view of himself as the man behind the success of MGM eventually brought them into conflict. After Thalberg's 1933 heart-attack forced the young executive to take a long vacation, Mayer introduced a producer system he likened to a college of cardinals to replace Thalberg as the central producer. When Thalberg returned to MGM, he became just an ordinary producer, albeit one who had first choice on projects and MGM resources, including its stars, due to his closeness to Nicholas Schenck, the president of MGM corporate parent Loews's Inc. Schenck, who was the true power and ultimate arbiter at the studio, usually backed up Thalberg. Some Hollywood observers believe that Mayer was relieved by Thalberg's untimely death, though he professed a great deal of grief publicly and likely was saddened by his former mentor's demise as Thalberg had been instrumental in building MGM into the greatest studio in Hollywood and the world.
After a preview of the Marie Dressler-Wallace Beery picture Tugboat Annie (1933), Thalberg asked director Mervyn LeRoy if a scene could be improved by making Beery's shoes squeak. LeRoy agreed, but detailed how it would be economically prohibitive to reshoot the scene as the sets had been dismantled and the cast had dispersed. Thalberg responded, "Mervyn, I didn't ask you how much it would cost, I asked you whether it would help the picture." The scene was reshot, an example of Thalberg's perfectionism.
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