My father was in the theatre business when was growing up, so names like Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were household words in our family. They were the big studios in Hollywood, the big movie producers.

In my father’s office, hanging on a side wall over a bookcase, was a huge picture, probably twenty-four by thirty-six inches. It was taken about 1943 and the caption reads: "Louis B. Mayer and His Stars." Sitting in rows of chairs, on tiers, are a host of famous Hollywood people. And right in the middle, in the first row, is Mr. Mayer. My sister still has that picture hanging in the basement of her home.

I remember one thing I read about this man, Louis Mayer. It is a story that he told about himself, something that happened when he w…