MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot

M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot is the illustrated history of the soundstages and outdoor sets where Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced many of the world’s most famous films. During its Golden Age, the studio employed the likes of Garbo, Astaire, and Gable, and produced innumerable iconic pieces of cinema such as The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, and Ben-Hur.

It is estimated that a fifth of all films made in the United States prior to the 1970s were shot at MGM studios, meaning that the gigantic property was responsible for hundreds of iconic sets and stages, often utilizing and transforming minimal spaces and previously used props, to create some of the most recognizable and identifiable landscapes of modern movie culture.

All of this happened behind closed doors, the backlot shut off from the public in a veil of secrecy and movie magic. M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot highlights this fascinating film treasure by recounting the history, popularity, and success of the MGM company through a tour of its physical property.

Featuring the candid, exclusive voices and photographs from the people who worked there, and including hundreds of rare and unpublished photographs (including many from the archives of Warner Bros.), readers are launched aboard a fun and entertaining virtual tour of Hollywood’s most famous and mysterious motion picture studio.

• Warner Bros.: Hollywood's Ultimate Backlot
• Hollywood's Lost Backlot: 40 Acres of Glamour and Mystery
• Twentieth Century Fox: A Century of Entertainment
• The Road to Oz: The Evolution, Creation, and Legacy of a Motion Picture Masterpiece
• King Kong, Tara and Mayberry: The story of the Forty Acres backlot
• MGM Style: Cedric Gibbons and the Art of the Golden Age of Hollywood
• Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures
• Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom
• Movie Studios of Culver City (Images of America)
• Forbidden Hollywood: The Pre-Code Era (1930-1934): When Sin Ruled the Movies (Turner Classic Movies)