Book Discussion: Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg by Kenneth Turan

Our members have spoken! Let's discuss the fascinating partnership of early Hollywood MGM moguls Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer! Read the Kenneth Turan book, just published in February of this year, and join us to discuss it virtually. Film historian, critic, and writer Raquel Stecher will lead us in the discussion.

From Yale University Press (edited for length):
"One was a tough junkman’s son, the other a cosseted mama’s boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899–1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history.
And while Mayer initially viewed Thalberg as the son he never had, the two would go from passionate friends to near enemies before Thalberg’s shocking death at the age of thirty-seven.
In the first joint biography of the two men in fifty years, film critic Kenneth Turan traces their fraught relationship while examining the complicated history of Jewish identity in Hollywood."

Check your local library or bookstore for the book, although because it's so new it may not be available in too many libraries. It can be purchased here: (and if you use the following links, you will support Raquel's work):
Powell's
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

We will also plan which related movie to watch and discuss in a Meetup later this fall.