X-Nico

12 unusual facts about MGM


Herman R. Staudt

In 1954, Staudt joined Martin Marietta in Baltimore, working as assistant project engineer on the MGM-1 Matador, then as project engineer of the Missile Master Electronic Defense System, then as operations manager of its Electronics Division.

Ines Pohl

In the early and mid-1980s, as a school girl and a young student, she was actively involved in the German peace movement, specifically in the protest against the stationing of MGM-31 Pershing missiles at a United States Armed Forces Missile Storage Area at Mutlanger Heide ("Mutlangen heathland") near her hometown (as part of the NATO Double-Track Decision).

Luise Rinser

She supported Willy Brandt in his 1971/72 campaign, and demonstrated with the writers Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass and many others against the retrofitting of Pershing rockets in Germany.

MGM-13 Mace

Mace was launched from a mobile trailer or a hardened bunker using a solid fuel booster rocket for initial acceleration and an Allison J33-A-41 turbojet for flight.

MGM-134 Midgetman

The legacy of its lighter graphite-wound solid rocket motor technology lived on in the GEM side boosters used on the Delta rockets, and the Orion stages of the Pegasus air-launched rocket.

It was also a response to the Soviet development of SS-24 (rail mobile) and the SS-25 (road mobile) ICBMs.

MGM-166 LOSAT

Although LOSAT never "officially" entered service, it was used for the smaller Compact Kinetic Energy Missile.

HVM offered performance similar to existing systems like the AGM-114 Hellfire, but offered a semi-fire-and-forget operation through the use of FLIR tracking and guidance commands sent to it via a low-power laser.

MGM-51 Shillelagh

In 1958 the Army thought that existing knowledge was sufficient to begin work on a guided missile with a HEAT warhead, and in June 1959 Sperry and Ford Aeronutronic were asked for designs to fill the shorter range role.

Rainer Rupp

He rose quickly in the ranks and provided photographs of some 10,000 pages to his controllers, including the precise location plans for the deployment of cruise missiles and Pershing II missiles in Western Europe, as well as the central MC 161 document which summarized the NATO strategy as well as NATO's analysis of the Warsaw Pact and its intentions.

Robert T. Marsh

In July 1956 he was assigned to Headquarters Air Research and Development Command with duty at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where he served as project officer in the SM-64A Navaho and TM-61-76 Matador/Mace weapon systems project offices.

Tainan Airport

A number of US units have been stationed at Tainan Air Base, including the 868th Tactical Missile Squadron from 1958 to 1962, which operated MGM-1 Matadors, probably under the ultimate control of the United States Taiwan Defense Command.


Alec Lorimore

Previous to his involvement in the Imax industry he worked for over ten years as a screenwriter, and wrote a number of feature film scripts which were either purchased or commissioned by the major studios, including Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Paramount Pictures, and worked with such producers as Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Taplin, Ray Stark, and Steve Tisch.

Anamorphic widescreen

MGM: "Enhanced for 16:9 TVs" or "Enhanced for Widescreen TVs;" includes aspect ratio since 2001; uses Fox’s format since 2004.

Ben Lessy

Lessy's film credits include Music for Millions (1944), Dark Delusion (1947) (the last entry in MGM's Dr. Kildare series),The Pirate (1948) (Lessy's 9th, and final, movie during his 7 years at MGM),The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Gypsy (1962), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Pajama Party (1964), and The Love Machine (1971).

Brad Case

Case has worked at a variety of studios including Disney, MGM, Walter Lantz, Tempo, Calvin Co., Academy Studios, ERA Productions, Hanna-Barbera, UPA, Warner Bros., Sanrio, DePatie-Freleng (and its later incarnation, Marvel Productions), Graz Entertainment and New World from 1934 until 1999.

Buddy Spicher

He joined producers Randall Franks and Alan Autry for the In the Heat of the Night cast CD “Christmas Time’s A Comin’” performing on the title track with the cast on the CD released on Sonlite and MGM/UA for one of the most popular Christmas releases of 1991 and 1992 with Southern retailers.

Cause for Alarm!

As with all PD MGM feature-length films produced by the studio itself (and possibly a few they merely distributed), the original film elements are now owned by Turner Entertainment, with distribution rights handled by Warner Bros. (who spoofed the title in one of their 1954 short subject cartoons, Claws for Alarm).

Children of Pleasure

A segment of one of the Technicolor sequences survives in an MGM short subject in color titled Roast Beef and Movies (1934).

Claudene Christian

In August 2012 Christian was interviewed by the Halifax Chronicle Herald, after she joined the volunteer crew of a replica of the original HMS Bounty, built by MGM for a film about the mutiny.

Domenic Sarno

As part of a host agreement, MGM pledged to pay the city $25 million per year in return for permission to build an $800 million resort in the city’s South End.

Droopy

Avery took a year-long break from MGM from 1950 to 1951, during which time Dick Lundy took over his unit to do one Droopy cartoon, Caballero Droopy, and several Barney Bear cartoons.

Easy to Wed

Van Johnson's biography, MGM's Golden Boy states that Lucille Ball's performance as Gladys "reveals the embryo of her Lucy Ricardo role in the later I Love Lucy television series," and also states that Keenan Wynn had been in a motorcycle accident before filming, had his mouth wired shut, and as a result, he had to talk between his teeth while losing thirty pounds in four weeks.

ENTAC

ENTAC (ENgin Téléguidé Anti-Char) or MGM-32A was a French MCLOS wire-guided Anti-tank missile.

Eric Fleming

After Fleming left Rawhide at the end of the 1964-65 season (the series would continue for thirteen episodes before it was cancelled by CBS), he took part in a Doris Day vehicle The Glass Bottom Boat where he played a suave spy, and then was signed to star in High Jungle, an MGM adventure film shot in Peru.

Esmond Edwards

During his career, he was also associated with MGM, Columbia, Polydor, and Impulse Records.

Ettington

The manor house, which can trace its origins back to the Domesday Book, is now the Ettington Park Hotel owned by the Shirley Family and leased to Hand Picked Hotels, and was featured in MGM's 1963 horror film The Haunting.

Herman's Hermits on Tour

Herman's Hermits on Tour (also called Their Second Album! Herman's Hermits on Tour) was the second album released in the US and Canada by MGM Records for the band Herman's Hermits.

Jerry Greenberg

Jerry L. Greenberg, President of Mirage Music Entertainment and former President of Atlantic Records, ATCO, UA/MGM, WTG, MJJ/Sony Music

Jimmy Martin

He joined producers Randall Franks and Alan Autry for the In the Heat of the Night (TV Series) cast CD “Christmas Time’s A Comin’” performing "Christmas Time's A Comin'" with the cast on the CD released on Sonlite and MGM/UA for one of the most popular Christmas releases of 1991 and 1992 with Southern retailers.

Johana Harris

She made over 100 solo recordings, working with such labels as Columbia, RCA, Capitol, MGM and Contemporary Records.

John M. Nickolaus, Jr.

Nickolaus began his career as a camera operator for MGM in the late 1940s.

Liliane Montevecchi

In the mid-1950s, she was signed to a contract by MGM, which cast her in secondary roles in such films as The Glass Slipper and Daddy Long Legs, in both of which she was overshadowed by leading lady Leslie Caron, the Jerry Lewis vehicle The Sad Sack, and King Creole with Elvis Presley.

Lucille Carroll

Movies made at MGM while Lucille Carroll ran its training department included Singin' in the Rain, Show Boat, Gaslight and Meet Me in St. Louis.

Martin Rotsey

Their debut album Church of the Open Sky was released on 16 April 2010 on the independent label Bombora, distributed by MGM.

MGM Parade

After Walter Pidgeon became the host, the format was slightly altered to include edited multi-part versions of "classic" MGM feature films, including Captains Courageous and The Pirate, as well as a biography of Greta Garbo.

Hosted by George Murphy (September 14, 1955- March 7, 1956), Walter Pidgeon (March 14- May 2, 1956) and other MGM stars, the series went into the MGM vaults to offer segments extracted from such past productions as Good News (1947) and The Pirate (1948); in December, a condensed edition of the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol was presented for the first time on television.

MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.

Fearing lawsuits similar to MGM v. Grokster, Mark Gorton, the chief executive officer of the firm that produces LimeWire, has said that he plans to stop distributing his file sharing program.

MGM Worldwide Television

However, MGM reestablished their distribution arm and shifted its home entertainment output to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on May 31, 2006.

Michael Swan

Swan landed two recurring roles at MGM Television on Bronk with Jack Palance and Medical Center with Chad Everett.

Never Can Say Goodbye

This version, released on MGM records, was produced by the Disco Corporation of America, a production company newly formed by Meco Monardo and Tony Bongiovi to which Gaynor was signed.

NFilm HD

Station is airing films and television series from the label Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks and also MGM, TVN and independent labels.

Orange Cinéma Séries

Content is provided by exclusive contracts with Warner Bros., HBO, MGM and Fidelity as well as non-exclusive contracts with Gaumont, SND, BAC and Wild Side.

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood

MGM's powerful young producer, Irving Thalberg, challenged the power of the director in making films and refused to allow his own name to appear in his films' credits.

Pee Wee Hunt

He was satirized as Pee Wee Runt and his All-Flea Dixieland Band in Tex Avery's animated MGM cartoon Dixieland Droopy (1954).

Rangoon Radha

Remade again in 1944 by MGM as Gaslight starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman and directed by George Cukor, the movie traced the eerie happenings at the family mansion of Paula Alquist at 9, Thornton Square, London.

Robert Macklin

Awarded a Commonwealth Writer's Fellowship, he returned to Australia in 1975 and wrote The Paper Castle (1978) and Juryman (1980), adapted by MGM to the film Storyville (1994) starring James Spader and Jason Robards.

Rudd Weatherwax

MGM, which had decided to use a show collie trained by Frank Inn in the movie, took advantage of a massive flooding of the Sacramento River in northern California to obtain some spectacular footage for the film.

Slap Happy Lion

The closing title does not display the regular MGM card but rather the Tom and Jerry card.

Tarzan Triumphs

Weismuller was reunited with two of his three co-stars from several of the earlier films, Johnny Sheffield and Cheeta, but Maureen O'Sullivan was unable to reprise her role as Jane because the franchise switched from MGM to RKO, and O'Sullivan was an MGM contract player.

Techniscope

Many DVD editions have been transferred this way and the results have frequently been stunning, e.g. Blue Underground's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and MGM's special editions of Sergio Leone's Westerns.

The Big Parade

Composer Carl Davis created a new orchestral score for the film in the 1980s (quoting the theme associated with Melisande in Axt's original setting), and it was restored and released on video in the late 1980s as part of the MGM and British television Thames Silents project.

The New Adventures of Tarzan

(Sol Lesser had acquired options for five Tarzan productions from a defunct company, the first of which he used to make Tarzan the Fearless in direct competition with MGM's films.) MGM paid Lesser $500,000 for his options and paid Burroughs $25–50,000 per film.

The Rookie Bear

The Rookie Bear is an MGM cartoon featuring Barney Bear.

Three Guys Named Mike

Since Jane Wyman, the lead actress, had a high stature, her colleagues consisted of one of MGM's leading actors and two up-and-coming actors.

Tiny Lund

In 1968, Lund appeared as one of the race drivers in the racing scene of the MGM movie 'Speedway' which starred Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra.

Tom Gilroy

He has written, directed and produced two award winning films—the short Touch Base (IFC/BRAVO) and the critically acclaimed feature Spring Forward (IFC/MGM) starring Liev Schreiber, Ned Beatty, and Campbell Scott, which won a Toronto International Film Festival Discovery Award.

Uan Rasey

In 1949, he became first trumpet with the MGM film studio orchestra, playing on all the major MGM soundtracks from the Golden Age of Hollywood including An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, Gigi, West Side Story (at United Artists), My Fair Lady (at Warner Bros.), Two for the Seesaw and Bye Bye Birdie (at Columbia Pictures), along with many others.