Continuing with the identifications in this photo, Mrs. Nicholas M. Schenck (Pansy Wilcox) is in the center. Louis B. Mayer is to her left, followed by Edgar Joseph “Eddie” Mannix (1891-1963) and finally Hunt Stromberg (1894-1968), with Harry Rapf, Irving Thalberg, and Mayer one of the “Big Four” at MGM and a nominee for the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1939.
19. Harry Rapf (1882-1949) of the Producers Branch, second from left next to Buster Keaton (and with Louis B. Mayer third from right), at a house party at William Randolph Hearst’s “El Cuesta Encantada” in San Simeon, California, ca. 1927.
Harry Rapf has 81 producer credits at IMDb, among them BROWN OF HARVARD (1926), THE BROADWAY MELODY (1929), MIN AND BILL (1930), and Robert Benchley’s short HOW TO SLEEP (1935). His last film was SCENE OF THE CRIME (1949).
In the photo, left to right: Buster Keaton (Joseph Frank Keaton Jr., 1895-1966); Harry Rapf; Irving Thalberg (# 21); and Nicholas M. Schenck (1881-1969). There are so many names in this post that I will have to continue in a second part.
Louis B. Mayer came up with the idea for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in conversation with Fred Beetson, of the Association of Motion Picture Producers (A.M.P.A.S. founder # 33); actor Conrad Nagel (# 5); and director Fred Niblo (# 11).
A native of the Kiev region of Ukraine, Mayer grew up in New Brunswick. With money from his successful scrap-metal operation, he bought a burlesque house in Boston; from there his rise was swift, and with the mega-merger of Metro and Goldwyn Pictures with his own Louis B. Mayer Productions he created the model Hollywood studio, with “more stars than there are in the heavens.”
His tenure at MGM lasted a quarter century, and if he left in comparative ignominy – forced out by Nicholas M. Schenck, also in this photo – Mayer had overseen an extraordinary run of films and shaped the careers of hundreds of film stars. In 1951 he won an honorary Academy Award for “distinguished service to the motion picture industry.”
I will identify the others in the photo in Harry Rapf’s post.
N.B. The member numbers follow The Internet Movie Database's list order announcing the Academy in January 1927.
18. Louis B. Mayer (Lazar/Ezemiel Mair, 1884?-1957; third from right) and 19. Harry Rapf (1882-1949; next to Buster Keaton) of the Producers Branch, at a house party at William Randolph Hearst’s “El Cuesta Encantada” in San Simeon, California, ca. 1927.
