Leo the Lion (MGM)

Leo the Lion is the mascot for the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and one of its predecessors, Goldwyn Pictures. The iconic logo was created by artist Lionel S. Reiss, who served as art director at Paramount Pictures.
Since 1917, and through the time Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924 by the merger of Marcus Loew's Metro Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn's Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer's company, several different lions have been used for the MGM logo.
Although MGM has referred to all of the lions used in their trademark as "Leo the Lion", only the lion in use since 1957 was actually named "Leo". In 2021, MGM debuted a new logo which utilizes a CGI-animated render of Leo. This version of the logo remains in use as of 2023 by Amazon MGM Studios, mainly for film productions following their acquisition of the studio in 2022.
The lion was chosen as the company's mascot in 1916 by publicist Howard Dietz, as a tribute to his alma mater Columbia University, whose mascot is a lion. Dietz was most directly inspired by the university's fight song, "Roar, Lion, Roar". Names of the first two lions used for the Goldwyn Pictures logos are unknown.
Slats, trained by Volney Phifer, was the first lion used in the branding of the newly formed studio. Born at the Dublin Zoo on March 20, 1919, and originally named Cairbre (Irish for 'charioteer'), Slats was used on all black-and-white MGM films between 1924 and 1928. The first MGM film that used the logo was He Who Gets Slapped (1924).
Unlike his successors, Slats did nothing but look around in the logo, making him the only MGM lion not to roar. However, it is rumored that Phifer trained the lion to growl on cue, despite the fact that synchronized sound would not be used in motion pictures until 1927.
Slats died in 1936 when he was 17. At that time Phifer retired to his farm in Gillette, New Jersey, where he kept other animals used on Broadway. Upon his death, Phifer buried the lion on his farm and placed a plain block of granite to mark the grave. Later, Phifer planted a pine tree directly above the grave so that the roots would "hold down the lions spirit", replacing the granite block.
Jackie was the second lion used for the MGM logo and the first MGM lion to audibly roar onscreen. Born around 1915, he was a wild lion cub brought from the Nubian Desert in Sudan, and trained by Mel Koontz. Jackie bore a resemblance to his predecessor, Slats. He roared 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's footage was shot silently; recordings of his roar and growls were made long after he was filmed and at least four different recordings of roars/growls were used (some of the roars were not of Jackie), first heard via a gramophone record for MGM's first production with sound, White Shadows in the South Seas (1928). 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).
In addition to the MGM logo, Jackie appeared in roughly a dozen films for the studio. Jackie also appeared alongside a clearly apprehensive Greta Garbo in a famous 1926 MGM publicity still. A short 1933 film of a very annoyed Jackie receiving a bath from trainer Mel Koontz also exists. The lion is also known for surviving several accidents, including two train wrecks, a sinking ship, a 1933 earthquake, and an explosion in the studio. The most notable accident was a plane crash. On September 16, 1927, Martin "Marty" Jenson was hired to fly Jackie cross-country. The airplane was a B-1 Brougham airplane, a modified version of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. Installed behind the pilot's seat was a glass enclosed iron bar cage. The plane took off from Camp Kearny Airfield, near San Diego. However, the plane was overweight as Jackie weighed 350 pounds (160 kg). The excessive weight caused the plane to go down in the mountains near Payson, Arizona. Both Jenson and Jackie survived the crash and for four days subsisted on sandwiches, milk and water that were on board the plane. After being rescued, a thin and weak Jackie was returned to MGM and he was well cared for by his handlers for the rest of his life. Due to surviving these accidents, Jackie received the nickname "Leo the Lucky".
In the early 1930s, MGM reissued several of their pre-1928 silent films with prerecorded music soundtracks and sound effects; such films included Greed (1924), Ben-Hur (1925), Flesh and the Devil (1926), and The Unknown (1927). For these sound reissues, the original MGM logo with Slats was replaced with the then-current logo featuring Jackie.
In 1931, Jackie went on a farewell tour and was subsequently retired to the Philadelphia Zoo. Reportedly, Jackie was quite tame and gentle and liked people. On February 25, 1935, Jackie was found dead by his zookeeper John McCullen. The cause of his death was attributed to heart issues. What happened to Jackie's remains after his death is unknown. It was once rumored his body was flown to Los Angeles and preserved by a taxidermist named Thomas Hodges and then sent to McPherson, Kansas. This theory has been proven false through extensive research by McPherson Museum and Arts Foundation curator, Brett Whitenack.
MGM began experiments with two-strip color short subjects in 1927 and animated cartoons in 1930. For these productions, three different lions were used.
Footage of the first lion is very rare, although a few frames of the logo with this lion exist in the public domain. He is known to have appeared in the silent color films Buffalo Bill's Last Fight (1927) and The Heart of General Robert E. Lee (1928). The former gave him the nickname Bill, while the latter is currently being restored by the Library of Congress.
The second lion, Telly, appeared on color MGM movies between 1928 and 1932. An extended version of the logo featuring Telly appears at the beginning of the film The Viking (1928), featuring the lion having the same roar as Jackie. In current prints of The Mysterious Island (1929), Telly appears in black and white because the color version is lost.
The third lion, Coffee, appeared on color films between 1932 and 1934 or 1935 for the Happy Harmonies shorts, until production was switched to full three-strip Technicolor filming. The Cat and the Fiddle, released in 1934, had brief color sequences, but was otherwise in black-and-white including its opening credits, so it used Jackie instead of Coffee.
MGM began producing full three-strip Technicolor films in 1934. Like Jackie, Tanner was trained by Mel Koontz and appeared on all Technicolor MGM films (1934–1956) and cartoons (1935–1958, 1963–1967, except for 1965's The Dot and the Line), replacing Telly and Coffee. The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939, had the Oz scenes in color, but it had the opening credits, closing credits, and the Kansas scenes in sepia-toned black-and-white, so it used Jackie instead of Tanner. Third Dimensional Murder, released in 1941, was shot in 3-D and in Technicolor, but it had the opening credits in black-and-white, so it also used Jackie instead of Tanner.
Tanner, whose first appearance was before the short subject Holland in Tulip Time (1934) (his first feature film appearance was before Sweethearts four years later, in 1938), was MGM's third longest-used lion (for a total of 22 years), after Jackie (who was used for a total of 28 years) and the current lion (who has been retained for 67 years). It is this version of the logo that was the most frequently used version throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood, although color did not really become the norm until the 1960s, and even then, many movies were still being made in black-and-white.
In addition to being used as MGM's lion mascot, Tanner also made an appearance in Three Stooges shorts Movie Maniacs (1936), Wee Wee Monsieur (1938), Three Missing Links (1938), You Nazty Spy (1940) and Hold That Lion! (1947). Also, between the mid-1940s and 1960s, MGM's cartoon studio would use Tanner's roar as a sound effect for many of their animated shorts.
Tanner and Jackie were both kept in the change from Academy ratio films to widescreen CinemaScope movies in 1953, with Tanner for color films and Jackie for black-and-white films. The logo was modified for this change; the marquee below the ribbon design was removed, and the company name was thus placed in a semi-circle above the ribbon.
George, the seventh lion made his debut in 1956 and had the heaviest mane of all the MGM lions. Although George had the shortest tenure (around one year) of all the official MGM lions, there are at least three different variations of the logo with George. His first appearance was in High Society (1956).
Leo, the eighth and current lion, is by far MGM's longest-used, having appeared on most MGM films since 1957. Leo was born in 1956 in Dublin Zoo, Ireland, the same as Slats. He was also the youngest at the time MGM filmed him roaring, hence his much smaller mane. Leo made his debut for the film Tip on a Dead Jockey.
Leo was purchased from animal dealer Henry Trefflich, and trained by Ralph Helfer. In addition to being used as the MGM lion, Leo also appeared in other productions such as the religious epic King of Kings (1961), The Lion (1962), Zebra in the Kitchen (1965), Fluffy (1965), and Napoleon and Samantha (1972); as well as a memorable TV commercial for Dreyfus Investments in 1961. Leo also made several appearances on the 1971–72 TV series The Pet Set, proving himself gentle enough to let a blind teenage girl pet him in one episode (his extremely gentle temperament was one of the reasons Leo got into the MGM logo with a short, thin mane that had not yet finished growing).
An "extended" version, with Leo roaring three times was used from 1957 to 1960, and the "standard" version, with Leo roaring twice, has been used since 1960. In the Tom and Jerry cartoons released by Chuck Jones at the MGM Animation/Visual Arts studio between 1963 and 1967 (as with cartoons from the same series made after the original MGM cartoon studio ceased operations), Tanner continued to appear in the openings instead of Leo, though the former's roar was also used de facto for the latter.
Around 1983, the original lion roar sound (which, in fact, sampled Tanner's roar) was replaced with a remade stereophonic one, redone by Mark Mangini (and made of tiger sounds; as Mangini would later explain, "Lions don't make that kind of ferocious noises, and the logo needed to be ferocious and majestic."). The new roar sound effect made its debut on Poltergeist (1982).
The logo was revised again in 2008. Leo's image was digitally restored and enhanced by staff at Pacific Title. This included a three-dimensional model of a new mane being designed, and then composited and blended onto Leo's actual mane. Additionally, the tips of his ears were digitally remodeled, so that the tip of his left ear would now cross in front of the film ribbon, in an effort to give the logo more depth.
In 2012, Shine Studio was chosen to redesign and animate the logo in stereoscopic 3D. A lion's eye irises in and zooms out to reveal Leo the Lion encircled in a digital moving golden filmstrip. The 1995 roar and the digitally restored and enhanced 1957 footage is reused once again as Leo roars and the company name is brought in from above to center the top screen, which completes the logo sequence.
On March 8, 2021, MGM unveiled an updated logo, with Leo now being CGI-animated based on its 1957 footage, the first major re-design for the mascot in over six decades. The latest rendition leans into the company's traditional gold design, filtering out sepia tones and modernizing the logo by sharpening the film roll, mask and lettering.
In 1965, in an attempt to update its image, MGM recruited Lippincott to create a more contemporary logo. The result, a circular still graphic of a lion known as "The Stylized Lion", appeared at the beginning of two films in 1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Subject Was Roses. Afterwards, Leo was reinstated for the opening logo.
The stylized lion logo, however, was retained by the studio, shown at the end of credit rolls of most MGM movie releases until 1982. MGM also used the stylized lion logo as its print logo, on theatrical posters, studio advertising and by the MGM Records division. This logo was later used by the MGM Grand casinos. A refined version of the stylized lion is currently used as the logo for their parent company, MGM Resorts International, no longer affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
MGM also used a secondary logo, seen in the opening and closing credits of most classic MGM movies. This design originated as the Metro-Goldwyn Pictures logo from 1923 to 1925. The logo features a graphic image of a reclining lion (from a side view) on a pedestal with a banner below it and the text "A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture". Behind the lion is a semi-circular film ribbon with the "Ars Gratia Artis" motto, much like the film ribboning of the company's primary logo. On either side of the banner are torches. This secondary logo was used in the opening title and end titles of most MGM films from the late 1920s until the early 1960s, then moved to the main film credits until c. 1983. This logo was last seen in the 1994 film That's Entertainment! III.
Many of the short subjects produced by Hal Roach studios and distributed by MGM during the late 1920s and 1930s such as Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy featured a variation of the secondary logo in their closing titles. This variation had a lion cub on the pedestal, looking straight at the viewer.
In addition, several MGM films made in the late 1930s and early '40s set their opening credits against a background of a relief carving of an outline of the reclining lion image, similar to the one seen on the secondary logo. Among the many films that include this kind of credits sequence are Ninotchka (1939), starring Greta Garbo and This Man's Navy (1945) with Wallace Beery. This reclining lion image was later used as the logo for MGM Television in the late 1950s.
Little Leo the Lion, "son" of the "real" Leo, appears as an elaborate hand puppet on MGM Parade, a 1955–1956 television show. In the second episode, he reclines on a bookcase in the "MGM Trophy Room" set, wearing full evening dress (but no shoes). Leo interrupts host George Murphy to speak for all the cartoon animals who want to appear on MGM Parade. He introduces the animals' pitch reel, a 7-minute Tex Avery cartoon. Leo promises more acts for next week, but Murphy replies with a variation on the cliché, "Don't call me, I'll call you."
Motion Picture Daily's coverage of Jean Harlow's sudden death (on June 7, 1937) includes full page artwork on page 2 of the June 9, 1937 issue showing a lion, dressed in evening clothes and holding a mourning wreath, standing head bowed before a photograph of Harlow.
The Leo the Lion logo had been parodied in many films and television programs. Monty Python's film And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) parodied MGM's logo with a croaking frog in place of the lion. The UK TV series The Goodies episodes "Gender Education" and "The Movies" parodied the logo with a blanket obscured man and a chicken respectively taking the lion's place.
The logo for MTM Enterprises used on its television shows, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati and others, parodied the Leo the Lion logo with its colophon at the very end of the program. In place of Leo was Mimsie the Cat, who meowed at the end of each show. The ribbon over the Mimsie's head read "MTM" instead of "Ars Gratia Artis".
MGM made their first of several spoofs of their own logo for the first Marx Brothers MGM film, A Night at the Opera (1935). Jackie appears in the opening credits for the actual film, but the re-release trailer for the movie shows a lion that is probably Tanner, followed by Groucho, then Chico, roaring inside of the film circle, with the sound of the actual lion being heard, and then Harpo doing the same, but silently. (Harpo then honks his horn instead of roaring again.) The parody was originally created to open the actual film but was vetoed by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer who felt the spoof would "cheapen" MGM's respected trademark.
MGM's compilation film The Big Parade of Comedy (1964) opens with Leo "out to lunch" behind a pulled down shade, munching on an animated protestor. Another parody MGM used for its own logo appeared in Roman Polanski's 1967 film, The Fearless Vampire Killers. Here, the lion morphs into a creepy-looking cartoon vampire with blood dripping from its mouth; in the European version, after a short introductory cartoon, Leo zooms in and roars as the cartoon's two main characters cower in fear, then grows saber-teeth (like the extinct cat Smilodon) as they run off, and blood drips from the lion's mouth.
The 1981 film Tarzan, the Ape Man has the classic Tarzan yell in place of Leo's roar.
The 1983 comedy film Strange Brew opens with a one-off version of the MGM logo where the inebriated lion belches after the fade-in. Then the lion grunts and the camera begins a sweeping dolly move to the right and then the rear of the logo. Behind the logo, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as Bob and Doug McKenzie are trying to goad the drunken lion into roaring. Thomas (as Doug) says, "Maybe I oughta crank his tail, eh? That oughta start him up." He then begins cranking the lion's tail, yelling "start up, eh!" When the lion stirs, Moranis (as Bob) says "Oh, jeez, he's getting mad, eh?" Then, in a breaking of the fourth wall, they both notice the camera and run to their Great White North set to begin the movie. The lion also growled during that scene, where Doug exclaims "Now that hoser's growling!" The 1981 roar was reused.
In the 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats, the lion roars and turns into a screaming female fan.
In the 2014 film Robocop, the lion's roars are changed with the sound of talk show host Pat Novak doing his vocal warmups.
In The Pink Panther (2006), starring Steve Martin, Leo starts roaring, but is then interrupted as Inspector Clouseau opens the circle like a door, looking around the place before leaving. The Pink Panther character appears behind him unnoticed, cleverly smirking, and closes the door immediately afterwards, leaving Leo confused.
In The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002), Leo is replaced with a saltwater crocodile, with actual crocodile roars being used. A trailer for the film features a lion different from the standard lion; Steve Irwin also appears and breaks the fourth wall by briefly addressing the viewers.
In an episode of Sidekick called "Trevor the Hero", the title card has Eric as the drama mask and Trevor in the logo acting like the MGM Lion.
The Steven Universe episode "Lion 2: the Movie" ends with Steven's pet lion, Lion, appearing in a spoof of the MGM logo. MGM parodied their logo in several of their cartoons.
In The Addams Family (2019), Leo roars and a flash of light turns him into the Addams family's pet lion Kitty Cat who roars and finds a red ball and jumps out of the logo and plays with it as the logo falls over, revealing the family's interior, as if it was made of cardboard.
In the 1961 Tom and Jerry cartoon Switchin' Kitten, Jerry roars like Leo at his mouse hole that resembles the ribbon of the MGM logo with the "Ars-Gratia-Artis" motto. The Chuck Jones-directed Tom and Jerry cartoons from 1963 to 1967 begin with a cartoon variation of the MGM logo using Tanner instead of Leo. Tanner from the early Tom and Jerry cartoon intros from MGM roars at the beginning, and is then replaced by Tom, who yowls and hisses; the logo then transitions to the cartoon series' title sequence. Also, in the episode "Sorry Safari", there is a lion in the jungle sitting down and roaring while the company's name is on the top of the screen. The same lion appears later in the episode.
In the 1933 Looney Tunes cartoon Bosko's Picture Show, the feature film shown in Bosko's theater is produced by the "TNT Pictures" company, whose logo is a roaring and burping lion with the motto Eenie Meanie Minie Moe. Other Warner Bros. cartoons, such as She Was an Acrobat's Daughter and Bacall to Arms also poke fun at their cross-town rival studio. (Ironically, MGM would obtain the rights to these two cartoons in 1981 through United Artists and UA's purchase of Associated Artists Productions and its library in 1958, which included all pre-August 1948 color Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies.)
In National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), the motto of the Delta House is "Ars Gratia Artis".
The Soviet animated film Ograblenie po... (1978/1988) parodied the logo with Cheburashka replacing the lion.
The animated television series Tiny Toon Adventures included "end tags" for several of its main characters – short clips featuring the character(s) that were played immediately after the end credits. One of the end tags and post-credit scenes featured the character Furrball, who began by roaring at the screen like a lion before covering his mouth and letting out an apologetic mew.
The Muppets parodied the logo in two of their productions in 1981. It was spoofed by Animal in the role of Leo in The Great Muppet Caper, and by Fozzie Bear in the same role in The Muppets Go to the Movies. Also, in one Muppet Babies episode ("The Daily Muppet", which first aired on CBS on Saturday, November 1, 1986), Baby Animal roars as Gonzo's face replaces the mask usually seen under the lion.
One of the episode title cards for the animated PBS Kids series, Arthur (the episode "Sue Ellen Moves In") involves Buster walking into the circle and roaring like the MGM lion (subsequent episodes with the title card would feature Buster making other noises such as an elephant trumpeting or simply belching). The titular character then walks up behind him and laughs.
In Logorama (2009), Leo appears at the Los Angeles Zoo where he is harassed and bothered by Bob's Big Boy and Haribo Boy only to be scolded for Jolly Green Giant.
The animated sitcom Family Guy parodied Leo in the Season 12 episode "Brian's a Bad Father".
The Pokémon anime featured a Zorua, a Meowth, and a Pikachu parodying Leo.
In the 1997 Warner Bros./Turner Pictures/Turner Feature Animation feature film Cats Don't Dance, the story takes place at Mammoth Pictures in Hollywood. Mammoth's logo is also a spoof of MGM's, with a trumpeting elephant seen in the filmstrip circle and a Latin motto in the filmstrip above the elephant's head reading, "Optimum Est Maximum," which translates to "Bigger is better."
A "film" called Sonia Honey (a spoof of skater/actress Sonia Henie) was featured in the "movie" segment of an episode of The Carol Burnett Show which originally aired on CBS-TV on Wednesday, October 13, 1971, at 8:00 P.M. Eastern time. The "film" was produced by "Metro-Goldwyn-Mouth," with Ms. Burnett seen in the filmstrip circle in a sequined dress and heard doing a variation on her famous "Tarzan yell," with the "studio"'s name seen in a Wide Latin chiseled font on the top of the circle (a la the MGM logo of the 1950s).
In the Netflix film Cat Burglar, features a parody of the MGM logo with an elephant trumpeting and the slogan "Logo Parodis Spoofus".
In an episode of Punky Brewster entitled "Punky Brewster's Workout", Punky, Margeaux, and Alan make a Jane Fonda-style workout video. The "video" is produced by "P.B.P." (Punky Brewster Productions), with an MGM logo parody at the end of the video, in which Punky's dog, Brandon, is seen and heard barking in the filmstrip circle, drawn and colored in by the kids.
In an episode of the PBS Kids series Zoom, which aired Monday, January 9, 1978, "Zoomer" Shona parodies Leo for the opening of the "Cinema ZOOM" segment.
Other parodies, in Malaysian cartoon Upin & Ipin character, Kak Ros parody MGM logo old version with the gold logo sign in a special episode of Upin & Ipin.