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Being a father figure

With many of his actors, Mayer was like an overprotective father. In some cases, especially with child actors, he could become closely involved in managing their everyday lives, telling them where to shop, where to dine, or what doctor to visit. He liked giving suggestions about how they could take better care of themselves. He sometimes arranged marriages, and coping with occupational hazards such as alcoholism, suicide, and eccentric sexual habits were as much a part of his job as negotiating contracts with stars and directors. When he learned that June Allyson was dating David Rose, for instance, he told her to stop seeing him: "If you care about your reputation, you cannot be seen with a married man."

Stories about his sobbing or rages have often been repeated in books, but few employees ever saw that part of him. "Mr. Mayer was to me like a father", said Ricardo Montalbán. "He really thought of the people under contract as his boys and girls." Mayer's paternalism could extend to productions; for example, he revised the Dr. Kildare stories in order to keep an ailing Lionel Barrymore, who required the use of a wheelchair due to arthritis, on the job.

Some, such as young starlet Elizabeth Taylor, disliked Mayer overseeing their lives; Taylor called him a "monster", while Mickey Rooney, another young actor who co-starred with Taylor when she was 12, formed the opposite impression: "He was the daddy of everybody and vitally interested in everybody. They always talk badly about Mayer, but he was really a wonderful guy... he listened and you listened." Rooney spoke from experience, as he himself had some confrontations with Mayer, observed film historian Jane Ellen Wayne:

Mayer naturally tried to keep all his child actors in line, like any father figure. After one such episode, Mickey Rooney replied, "I won't do it. You're asking the impossible." Mayer then grabbed young Rooney by his lapels and said, "Listen to me! I don't care what you do in private. Just don't do it in public. In public, behave. Your fans expect it. You're Andy Hardy! You're the United States! You're the Stars and Stripes. Behave yourself! You're a symbol!" Mickey nodded. "I'll be good, Mr. Mayer. I promise you that." Mayer let go of his lapels. "All right", he said.

One of Rooney's repeat costars in Andy Hardy and other films was Judy Garland, with whom he made nine films. Garland stated in her unfinished autobiography that Mayer molested her. In the late 1940s, she began having personal problems, which affected her acting, and Mayer tried his best to protect her star reputation while keeping her overworked and making money for MGM. She suffered from addictions to prescription drugs, severe eating disorders and domestic strains, as well as a multitude of issues with her mental health. This was largely the result of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, her mother, and the era's ignorance of diet and drugs. When her absences caused the production of Summer Stock to go far over budget, producer Joe Pasternak suggested that Mayer cut his losses and cancel the picture. Mayer refused, telling him, "Judy Garland has made this studio a fortune in the good days, and the least we can do is to give her one more chance. If you stop production now, it'll finish her", in what some consider to be his last attempt at holding on to her fame for the benefit of the studio. She completed the film, but during her next picture, Annie Get Your Gun, the studio finally ran out of patience. Costar Howard Keel recalls that "she began to fall apart". After the studio fired her, she attempted suicide.