how did metro goldwyn mayer get the lion
Leo the Lion (MGM) Slats,[2] trained by Volney Phifer, was the first lion used for the newly formed studio. Born at the Dublin Zoo[3] on March 20, 1919, and originally named Cairbre,[4] 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;[5] his hide is currently on display at the McPherson Museum in McPherson, Kansas.[6]