No. Louis B. Mayer was a very bad guy.
Long before Weinstein there was Louis B. Mayer, who co-founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1924. Mayer, the ground zero of this kind of abuse, had means, motive, opportunity and that critical piece of the puzzle: the whip. If women didn’t comply, he’d threaten to ruin their careers or those of their loved ones. Sound familiar?
Back in the Golden Age, having gay actors associated with movie studios would have been terrible for public image. So not only were they required to stay closeted; they also had to let the studios arrange marriages for them.
Two of Judy Garland’s six husbands were closeted gay men. One of them was actor / director Vincente Minnelli, who married four women throughout his life. The other was Mark Herron, who maintained a relationship with fellow actor Henry Brandon before, during, and after his marriage to Garland.
Then there was William Haines, who made no effort to hide the fact that he lived with a male partner. In 1933, his star power started fading and his movies weren't the box-office draws they once were. So Louis B. Mayer demanded that Haines marry a woman for the sake of studio profits.
Haines refused, left MGM, and became Hollywood's most in-demand interior designer. He and his partner, Jimmy Shields, remained together until his death in 1973.
In 1942, Lena Horne became the first African-American actress to land a studio contract. In an era when black actors were typecast as slaves, servants, primitives, and other unpleasant stereotypes, Horne was the first to be portrayed as glamorous.
But dressing her up and parading her about was as far as MGM went. They weren’t about to give her the roles or recognition she wanted. Horne desperately wanted the role of a mulatto singer in the musical Show Boat (1951), but the role went to white actress Ava Gardner instead.
The biggest teen idols of their time, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland made nine movies together from 1937 to 1943, starting when she was 15 and he was 17. MGM had them working nonstop, wrapping up one movie and filming another almost immediately.
Every morning they were given amphetamines to boost their energy. At night they were knocked out by sleeping pills, but woken up four hours later and given more amphetamines. Garland even claimed they would work 72 hours in a row
