<P> Leo the Lion is the mascot for the Hollywood film studio Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer and one of its predecessors, Goldwyn Pictures, featured in the studio's production logo, which was created by the Paramount Studios art director Lionel S. Reiss . </P> <P> Since 1916 (and 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 in 1924), there have been seven different lions used for the MGM logo . </P> <P> Slats, trained by Volney Phifer, was the first lion used for the newly formed studio . Born at the Dublin Zoo on March 20, 1919, and originally named Cairbre, Slats was used on all black - and - white MGM films between 1924 and 1928 . The original logo was designed by Howard Dietz and used by the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation studio from 1916 to 1924 (see left). Goldwyn Pictures was ultimately absorbed into the partnership that formed MGM, and the first MGM film that used the logo was He Who Gets Slapped (1924). Dietz stated that he decided to use a lion as the company's mascot as a tribute to his alma mater Columbia University, whose athletic teams' nickname is The Lions; he further added that Columbia's fight song, "Roar, Lion, Roar", inspired him to make the lion roar . Unlike his successors, Slats did nothing but look around in the logo (as did the Goldwyn Pictures lion), making him the only MGM lion not to roar (although it is rumored that Volney Phifer trained the lion to growl on cue, despite the fact that synchronized sound would not officially be used in motion pictures until 1927). Slats died in 1936; his hide is currently on display at the McPherson Museum in McPherson, Kansas . </P> <P> Jackie, trained by Mel Koontz, was the second lion used for the MGM logo . He was a wild Nubian lion brought from the Sudan, and the first MGM lion to roar (recorded long after he was filmed; at least three different recordings of roars / growls were used), which was first heard via a gramophone record for MGM's first production with sound, White Shadows in the South Seas (1928). Jackie roared / growled three times before looking off to the right of the screen (the lion's left); in the early years that this logo was used (1928--c. 1933), there was a slightly extended version wherein, after looking off to the right, the lion would return his gaze to the front a few seconds later . Jackie appeared on all black - and - white MGM films from 1928 to 1956 (replacing Slats), as well as the sepia - tinted opening credits of The Wizard of Oz (1939). He also appeared before MGM's black - and - white cartoons, such as the Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper series produced for MGM by the short - lived Ub Iwerks Studio, as well as the Captain and the Kids cartoons produced by MGM in 1938 and 1939 . A colorized variation of the logo can be found on the colorized version of Babes in Toyland (1934), also known as March of the Wooden Soldiers; an animated version (done via rotoscope) appeared on the 1939 Captain and the Kids cartoon Petunia Natural Park . Jackie died on February 26, 1952 . He would later make a comeback at the beginning of the film Hearts of the West (1975). </P>

How did metro goldwyn mayer get the lion
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