We pushed play to start the movie. The familiar lion roared. Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, the credits read. "An Amazon Company". What?

We must have missed it: MGM and its famous Leo is now owned by the company from whom we buy raisins and underwear. Other things too, but mostly raisins and underwear.

MGM, or whatever is left of it, is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary. It was formed on April 17, 1924, with the merger of the Metro Pictures Corporation (co-founded by previously-profiled Louis B. Mayer and owned by Marcus Loew), Goldwyn Pictures (co-founded by Samuel Goldwyn), and Louis B. Mayer Pictures (here is Mayer again!).

Since this is Goldwyn's profile, let's dissect his rather unusual name. He was born in Warsaw as Szmuel Gelbfisz and moved to America, where he became Samuel Goldfish. Together with Broadway producer siblings Edgar and Archibald Selwyn (whose original name was Simon), he created Goldwyn Pictures: Gold(fish) + (Sel)wyn. And then Goldfish just changed HIS named to Goldwyn. The poor Selwyn Bros are lost to obscurity.

Leo the Lion actually precedes MGM, as he was one of Goldwyn's contributions to the merger. (Leo was designed by another Polish-born Jew, Lionel Reiss.) And now he is owned by Amazon.

Who knows what the next 100 years will bring?