Leo The Lion has been in the opening logo for MGM movies for a long time, but he wasn't the original. Here's a look back at the lions that preceded him.
Watching this reminded me of the story of the MGM Grand Casino/Hotel in Las Vegas, which once used a giant lion's mouth as its entrance. Unfortunately, the company didn't understand that superstitious Asian gamblers -- who made up a large portion of its player base -- considered walking into the cat's mouth to be very bad luck, so they stayed away in droves. It cost MGM millions before it realized its mistake, and millions more to rebuild the doorway so that customers entered near the lion, not through its mouth.