Roger Laurance Mayer (April 21, 1926 – March 24, 2015) was an American film industry executive. He was best known for his efforts on behalf of

film preservation Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the wid ...

and for his support of the film industry's humanitarian charity, the

Motion Picture & Television Fund The Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) is a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries and their families with limited or no resources, including services such as tempo ...

. In 2004 he was awarded the

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is awarded periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) at the Governors Awards ceremonies for an individual's "outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes". Prior to 2009 and ...

Biography

Mayer was born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He attended the

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , countr ...

.Sam Roberts
"Roger L. Mayer, Pioneer of Film Preservation, Dies at 88"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', March 29, 2015. He served in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

era. After the war, he received his bachelor's degree from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1948, and a law degree from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

in 1951. He moved to Los Angeles and sought a position at one of the city's major downtown law firms, but was rejected, being told that those firms didn't hire

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

.Robert David Jaffee
"Ex-Movie Exec Isn’t Silent About Films"
''

The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles ''The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles'', known simply as the ''Jewish Journal'', is an independent, nonprofit community weekly newspaper serving the Jewish community of greater Los Angeles, published by TRIBE Media Corp. ''The Journal'' w ...

'', May 18, 2006. He was eventually hired as a lawyer at

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

, where he worked for nine years. He then moved to

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

(he was not related to MGM co-founder

Louis B. Mayer Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...

), where he established an early film preservation program at the studio, at a time when such efforts were not seen as financially rewarding, and eventually rose to become President of MGM Laboratories.Steve Chawkins
"Roger Mayer dies at 88; movie exec was key player in film preservation"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', March 25, 2015. In 1986 Mayer became president and chief executive of

Turner Entertainment Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...

. In that position, he was responsible for managing the large library of motion pictures that

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he fo ...

had purchased from MGM, including high-profile restorations and re-releases of landmark MGM films like ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

'' and '' The Wizard of Oz'', as well as being a focus of controversy when he supported Ted Turner's decision to colorize some old black-and-white films in the library. Mayer became a founder and chair of the

National Film Preservation Foundation The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) is an independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage. Growing from a national planning effort led by the Library of Congress, the NFPF began op ...

in 1996. In that capacity, he was credited with enabling the preservation of more than 2,000

orphan film An orphan film is a motion picture work that has been abandoned by its owner or copyright holder; also, any film that has suffered neglect. History The exact origin of the term orphan film is unclear. By the 1990s, however, film archivists were ...

s, films whose original copyright had expired or otherwise lacked commercial potential sufficient to pay for their preservation. He also sat on the

National Film Preservation Board The United States National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) is the board selecting films for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. It was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. The National Film Regis ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

.Isabella Biedenharn
"Film preservation pioneer Roger L. Mayer dies at 89"
''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'', March 25, 2015. In addition, Mayer also served as chairman of the

, an industry charity that provides healthcare and social services.Dave McNary
"Roger Mayer, Advocate of Film Preservation, Dies at 89"
''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', March 25, 2015.

Awards

Mayer,

Rick Schmidlin Rick Schmidlin (born October 22, 1954) is a film preservationist and silent film scholar, and a producer-director whose work has focused on restorations, reconstructions and documentaries. Until 2010, he taught for the University of British Colu ...

, and

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

shared a

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

special citation from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for their role in the "re-creation and presentation" of the 1924 film '' Greed (film)'' directed by Erich Von Stroheim. The

Hollywood Film Awards The Hollywood Film Awards are an American motion picture award ceremony held annually since 1997, usually in October or November. It was founded by Carlos de Abreu and his wife Janice Pennington. The gala ceremony takes place at the Beverly Hilto ...

honored Mayer for his preservation work in 2003. In 2004 Mayer won an Emmy Award for the TV documentary ''Judy Garland: By Myself'', which he executive produced for ''

American Masters ''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...

''. In 2005, Mayer was awarded the

of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

, in recognition of his efforts for film preservation and for the Motion Picture & Television Fund."Roger Mayer to receive Hersholt Award"

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...

, Dec. 16, 2004. At the

77th Academy Awards The 77th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on February 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During t ...

ceremony, Mayer's Hersholt Award was presented by film director

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

, who had been one of Mayer's critics on the colorization issue, but who praised Mayer for his preservation work.

Personal life

Mayer married Pauline Alexander in 1952; they remained married until his death. They had two children. He died after suffering a heart attack in his doctor's office in Los Angeles on March 24, 2015.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Roger 1926 births 2015 deaths People from Manhattan Yale Law School alumni Lawyers from Los Angeles Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executives Film preservation 20th-century American Jews Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award winners Horace Mann School alumni United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American Jews