The collection consists of production files, subject files, including correspondence, and oversize material.

Jack Cummings (1905-1989) was born J. Komiensky in New Brunswick, Canada to Ida Mayer Cummings, the sister of Louis B. Mayer, and Louis S. Cummings. He attended Boston Latin School and Allan Military School in Massachusetts. In 1922, Cummings moved to Los Angeles to work as an office boy at Louis B. Mayer Productions, which in 1924 became part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and began Cummings’s long association with the studio. He worked on BEN-HUR (1925) and served as assistant director on films including THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929 (1929). In 1929, he began producing and directing film shorts including THE SHOOTING GALLERY (1929). In 1935, he became a full-time producer with his first feature-length film THE WINNING TICKET (1935). In 1936, he produced BORN TO DANCE (1936) and went on to produce a string of MGM musicals including BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940 (1940), BATHING BEAUTY (1944), NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER (1949), KISS ME KATE (1953), and SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954) which was nominated for Best Picture. He also produced the drama THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS (1954) and the comedy THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON (1956). Although he left MGM during the late 1950s to form Suffolk-Cummings Productions and produce CAN-CAN (1960), he returned once more to produce VIVA LAS VEGAS (1964). He married Betty Kern, daughter of Jerome Kern, in 1947.

13 linear ft. of papers

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