‘The End’ of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM)
This page contains a lot of very different designs, but like Warner Bros., MGM managed to maintain consistency in their designs. On almost every title card their (secondary) logo is present.
When Metro Goldwyn Mayer was formed in 1924 by the merger of Samuel Goldwyn’s studio with Marcus Loew’s Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer’s company Goldwyn brought his mascot Leo the lion with him.
The logo features a graphic image of a reclining lion (from a side view) on a pedestal that has the motto “A Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer Picture” inscribed on it. Behind the lion is a semi-circular film ribbon with the “Ars Gratia Artis” motto.
This page contains a lot of very different designs, but like Warner Bros., MGM managed to maintain consistency in their designs. On almost every title card their (secondary) logo is present.
When Metro Goldwyn Mayer was formed in 1924 by the merger of Samuel Goldwyn’s studio with Marcus Loew’s Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer’s company Goldwyn brought his mascot Leo the lion with him.
The logo features a graphic image of a reclining lion (from a side view) on a pedestal that has the motto “A Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer Picture” inscribed on it. Behind the lion is a semi-circular film ribbon with the “Ars Gratia Artis” motto.
On either side of the pedestal are torches. The secondary logo was used in the opening title and end titles of most MGM films from the late 1920s until the early 1970s, then moved to the main film credits until the early 1980s. While most designers of the title cards apparently were given carte blanche, there were years when they possibly used a style guide.
Almost all designs of designs from 1925 to 1936 are the same: a calligraphic script type. Later, a more formal script was used (1939-1942) while various other designs reused from 1944 to 1947.
The “Made in Hollywood, U.S.A.” byline was introduced in 1949. In 1951 even more type was added when title of the
films appeared above “The End”.
Gradually the “The End” title cards disappeared. The first MGM film without a “The End” title was The night of the iguana (1964)
The images on the new ‘The End’ of Metro Goldwyn Mayer page are from movies from 1925 (Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ) to 1970 (Kelly’s Heroes). Earlier films are either lost or not yet available on dvd.
Now there are two pages with “The End” titles from two different studios it’s interesting to compare them. If you liked ‘The End’ of Metro Goldwyn Mayer don’t forget to visit ‘The End’ of Warner Bros.
