Margaret Booth

The sister of Broadway and film actor Elmer Booth, Margaret Booth entered films as a patcher, or film joiner, for D.W. Griffith. In 1921 she was hired as an assistant film editor by independent producer Louis B. Mayer. She remained with Mayer when his operation merged into the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer maw in 1924, cutting such important productions as The Mysterious Lady (1928), The Rogue Song (1930), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Romeo and Juliet (1936), and A Yank at Oxford (1938). In 1939 she was elevated to the position of editor-in-chief at MGM; this meant that she would move out of the editing room and would supervise the work of others, then offer her own opinions and suggestions before a film was prepared for release. Leaving MGM in 1968, Ms. Booth entered into an association with producer Ray Stark; she would later be credited as associate and executive producer of such Stark productions as The Cheap Detective (1978), Annie (1982) and The Slugger's Wife (1985). Though never honored with an Academy Award during her MGM days, Margaret Booth was finally awarded a special Oscar in 1977.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide