The great earthquake rattled San Francisco on April 18, 1906. For two days fire raged through the city creating a tableaux of panic and destruction that six-year old Mervyn LeRoy would not soon forget. Nearly 50 years later, LeRoy vividly recreated the apocalyptic vision in Quo Vadis? (1951). Rome is set aflame and burns out of control while Emperor Nero foolishly fiddles; the director's images of a devastated city are striking, drawn from his own experience.

In the aftermath of the San Francisco catastrophe, the LeRoy family moved to Hollywood where Mervyn could win cash prizes with his singing talent. He won a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest and seemed to stand out from the throngs of people clamoring to be 'discovered' by the pictures. Jesse Lasky, a top executive at Paramount Pictures, brought the boy through the studio gates and into the Dream Factory.

Mervyn soon grew out of juvenile roles and began to learn the craft of filmmaking. He worked his way through the studio hierarchy, training as an editor, screenwriter and producer. By the end of the silent era, he had directed several light Jazz-era sex farces such as Hot Stuff (1929) and Naughty Baby (1928). Over the course of his 40-year career, Mervyn LeRoy created definitive Technicolor fantasies; he produced The Wizard of Oz (1939) and directed Oscar® winners like Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) and Little Women (1949).

LeRoy's early years, however, were filled with gangsters and gold diggers, sirens and strong-willed, self-sufficient women. Little Caesar (1930) was the first runaway hit of the 1930s and brought violence to the screen with a vengeance, shocking audiences with its explosive gunfire and menacing thugs. It was LeRoy who directed Edward G. Robinson through a star-making performance as Rico Bandello. In later years, the director would work with Robinson again in Unholy Partners (1941) but this time Robinson was on the right side of the law, playing a newspaper publisher being threatened by a mobster. In addition to his first rate urban melodramas, LeRoy also had a knack for creating powerful social dramas like I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) and Stand Up and Fight (1939) in which a Southern aristocrat clashes with a driver transporting stolen slaves to freedom.

And it's no surprise that the women in Leroy's movies were just as tough as the men. They knew what they wanted and weren't about to let anything or anyone stand in their way. Three on a Match (1932) is the story of a trio of girlfriends growing up during the depression. Mary (Joan Blondell), a blonde bombshell, becomes a chorus girl. Ruth (Bette Davis) holds down a steady job as a secretary. The bad apple is Vivian (Ann Dvorak), a vixen who two-times her husband for a slick, sexy mobster (Lyle Talbot). Brassy and sassy, these three were tough-talking, hard-hitting dangerous women. Just as independent in her own way was Kay Francis in I Found Stella Parish (1935), playing an actress who stops at nothing to protect her daughter from her shady past.

LeRoy also tried his hand at musicals - and succeeded brilliantly - wrangling chorus girls together for Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). He was even adept at comedy, directing such lighthearted gems as Broadminded (1931) starring Joe E. Brown and Three Men on a Horse (1936), a farce about a timid poet with a knack for picking winning racehorses. But after nearly a decade at Warner Bros., where he helped to create the studio's gritty urban style, LeRoy finally left the lot to direct films for MGM which was Hollywood's most prestigious studio. While Warner Bros. was known for gangsters and gold diggers, MGM produced art deco all-star affairs, such as Grand Hotel (1932). LeRoy quickly adapted to the new territory and gave his films a glossy glamour.

Lana Turner was still a struggling actress when LeRoy cast her in They Won't Forget (1937). The film told the true story of an innocent man lynched for the murder of a female high school student. Lana winds up dead -but the role was a star-making turn and LeRoy developed Turner into one of MGM's sexiest starlets, casting her opposite Robert Taylor in Johnny Eager (1942) and Clark Gable in Homecoming (1948).

Many Hollywood directors stuck with a particular style or theme but Mervyn LeRoy changed with the times to complement his studio and stars. LeRoy once said that he never did the same picture twice. Although he never received an Academy Award for directing, LeRoy was honored with the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award in 1975.

By Cino Niles