Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was founded in 1927 after the merger of three film companies, Metro Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn Productions, and Louis B. Mayer Productions. MGM quickly become one of Hollywood's most prestigious and well-known filmmaking companies by the 1930s. Like other large studios in the Hollywood system, MGM was known for its vertical integration of virtually every aspect of the filmmaking enterprise, controlling the production, distribution, and exhibition of all its films. Classic and notable MGM films from the twentieth century include The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Singin' in the Rain (1952), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). By the 1960s, MGM films were screened in Singapore through Cathay Cinema, which together with Shaw Organisation were the two largest, and notoriously rivalrous, players in Singapore cinema. This MGM newsletter dating to May 1968 includes an editorial mentioning the impending release of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, as well as a short report on an MGM visit to Sabah, which included stops in Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, and Tawau. The editorial mentions that the visitors were "pleasantly surprised at the progress in these towns during the past several years [and that] modern hotels and air-conditioned restaurants are among the amenities that were previously absent."
