Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Karen; Louis B. Mayer & Irving Thalberg

 

I love Kelsey Grammer's Frasier character. I loved him on "Cheers", and "Frasier" remains one of my all time favorite TV shows (funny note: I mentioned to my Mom a few years ago that I was rewatching it and she made a comment about what a stupid show it was that "nobody liked". I had to tell her how it's won more Emmys than any other sitcom, so there 😊). 

When Kelsey was 20 and his younger sister, Karen, was 18, she was kidnapped, raped and brutally murdered in Colorado Springs, where she was living at the time. Kelsey's book was a lovely tribute to a bright, vibrant young woman, cut down just as her life was beginning, and an older brother who misses her to this day. He admitted that he's only been, at most, 95% happy in life because that last 5% will always be missing without Karen around. I thought that was very well put. I've felt the same way since my Dad died. Yes, I have my happy moments, but I'll never be as happy as I was before he died. There's always going to be that tinge of sadness. I feel like I know who Karen Grammer was and I think that was his hope with writing this book. 


This was a fun look at the beginning of the motion picture industry, which, like computers, has always fascinated me. Their jobs were brand new: no one had been head of Production for a studio before. There were no footsteps to follow in, everything was created as they went along. 

Thalberg was born with a heart defect and was not expected to live past the age of 30 (he made it to 37). He was referred to as the "boy genius" in Hollywood for his amazing attention to detail and his skill with seeing the potential in pictures. He and Mayer made a great team and piloted MGM to the top of the pyramid of elite movie studios in the 1920s and '30s. Mayer was unable to find anyone to replace him after his death, and MGM began a long, slow decline. Two very different men who played such a major role in defining the early days of Hollywood and shaping the industry. 


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