After a long residency at MGM without a raise, the leading man Robert Taylor made an appointment to see the studio's legendary boss, Louis B. Mayer. "Mr. Mayer," Taylor began, "you know I've been here for some time now. I'm doing bigger parts, but I haven't gotten any more money." Mayer was apparently stunned. "My boy, you know you're like my son," he declared. "God never saw fit to give me the blessing of a son. He gave me two beautiful daughters instead. But if He had given me a son, Bob, I would have wanted him to be exactly like you. We've such big plans for you. You can't imagine what we have in store for you." Now Mayer was practically sobbing. "It hurts me deeply that you've come to me and asked for money at a time like this..."

When Taylor finally left Mayer's office, after consoling his boss over the "pain" he had caused, he was asked by a friend, "Well, Bob, did you get your raise?" "No," Taylor admitted, "but I gained a father."

[When Clark Gable asked for a raise from $1,000 a week to $5,000, Mayer blackmailed him by threatening to reveal his affair with Joan Crawford to his wife Ria. Mayer was not always so hard-nosed, however. When Ann Rutherford asked for a supplement to her modest salary in the highly profitable Andy Hardy series, he launched into his familiar ploy. But Rutherford produced her bank book and showed him her meager savings, adding that she had promised her mother a house. Mother was the magic word. Mayer embraced her with tears running down his cheeks and Rutherford got her raise.]