Production # 1060 page 1

Production # 1060 page 1 by ric gustafson


In 1923, Mervyn Leroy and Arthur Freed met on a silent picture set. Leroy was hired as a gag man and Freed played background music on an organ. Fourteen years later in 1937, LeRoy was a producer at MGM and Freed was a songwriter for the studio.
MGM was the largest and most exclusive of the Hollywood studios. It's quota was one picture per week for fifty two weeks. Production # 1060 was one of forty one pictures released by MGM in 1939. Samuel Goldwyn formed his own production company in 1915. In 1924, he brought in Louis B Mayer to form Metro-Goldwyn. In February 1938, Mayer gave the studio the ok to option L Frank Baum's children story The Wizard of Oz. Once the option was bought, Mayer appointed LeRoy  to produce the movie and for Freed to be his assistant.
Mervyn LeRoy in 1938 was thirty seven. He was a director at Warner Bros and was a son in law to Harry Warner. In his first year and a half with MGM, LeRoy will produce four films including the Wizard of Oz.
Production # 1060 was budgeted at slightly over $ 2 million and cost more and took more time than any other picture in 1939. It took over twenty years for the Wizard of Oz to earn it's money back for the studio.



research help: ' The Making of the Wizard of Oz' by Aljean Harmetz


Peace and God's blessings. Love Ric