Year logo introduced: 1916
The movie studio's iconic "Leo The Lion" logo was created for Goldwyn Pictures Corporation in 1916 by designer Howard Dietz, inspired by the lion mascot of his alma mater, Columbia University. The original lion was named Slats, not Leo, and the logo featured the Greek drama mask and Latin words "Ars Gratia Artis" (translation: "Art for Art's Sake") still used today.
In 1924, Goldwyn merged with the Metro and Mayer studios to form MGM and the lion climbed aboard for the ride. The big cat's first audible roar came in 1928 and had to be played in the theater on a gramophone record because the film was silent. To date, seven different lions have starred in the logo. The first one actually named Leo was the seventh, who debuted in 1958.
Among the funnier on-screen spoofs of the logo, the Marx Brothers appeared and roared in place of the lion in a famous outtake from 1935's "A Night at the Opera"; Mary Tyler Moore's TV production company, MTM Enterprises, employed a parody logo with a meowing kitty cat; and the 1983 comedy "Strange Brew" featured a beer-burping lion with stars Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas trying to "Crank his tail," eh.