Filming the Roar of the MGM Lion, Hollywood, 1929

Leo the Lion is the mascot for the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, featured in the studio's production logo. Since 1924 (when the studio was formed by the merger of Samuel Goldwyn's studio with Marcus Loew's Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer's company), there have been around five different lions used for the MGM logo. Jackie was the second lion, depicted on the left from a still from The Wizard of Oz (1939). Jackie looked almost identical to Slats, his predecessor. Jackie (above) was also the first MGM lion whose roar was heard by audiences of the silent film era, via a gramophone record. Jackie growled softly; this was followed by a louder growl, a brief pause, and then a final growl. Jackie appeared on all black and white MGM films (1928–1956) and MGM's Happy Harmonies cartoons (1934–1938). Jackie had also been used in three earlier films: Greed (1924), Ben-Hur (1925), and Flesh and the Devil (1926). I digitize old black and white photos and create color compositions; dig