It was not for nothing that Jeanette MacDonald was known as "The Iron Butterfly".

Unlike most stars signed by major studios, she refused to sign a 7 year contract. Instead, so as not to be beholden, she signed 3 year contracts in 1933, 1936 and 1939. She was not about to have a studio telling her what to do or who to see.

Mayer was besotted with her but there is no proof whatsoever, that she ever succumbed to his "charms". They did, however, remain lifelong friends and she would hardly have done that if he had tried to control her life or to force her into a marriage that she did not want.

In 1957, she sang at Mayer's funeral at the request of his family. In addition, Mayer often hosted parties for her when she would appear in concert in Los Angeles. He also attended her two Hollywood Bowl performances (1945 and 1948), persuaded her to return to MGM for movies in 1946 and when Jeanette opened at the Coconut Grove in her nightclub act in 1954, Mayer and his second wife were at a front table and were warmly introduced by MacDonald during the performance. Jeanette did not take her marching orders from Mayer and as a result, a friendship of nearly two and a half decades resulted.

Mayer had no control over Gene Raymond, who was under contract to RKO and had their marriage not been real, MacDonald would not have remained with him for nearly 28 years. Other than the "fan ghouls" who live in the same kind of alternate universe that our former President lived in, nothing legit has ever surfaced to call into question the validity of the MacDonald-Raymond marriage or Gene Raymond's sexuality.

Mayer DID force Eddy to marry the former wife of one of the studio's leading directors, Sidney Franklin - a woman several years older than Eddy and looking even older. Eddy and Ann Franklin were good friends and Ann, who had endured a painful hysterectomy that made it difficult to engage in sexual relations, was very content to marry Eddy and remain, mostly, out of the public eye. They shared a warm friendship and she allowed Nelson to do whatever he wished, providing she never brought shame to their marriage. Eddy was discrete in his indiscretions and Louella and others did not publicly hint at the reality.

Nelson's relationship with actor William Tannen who was cast in a supporting role in Eddy's "New Moon" which went before the cameras in 1939, some months after his January, 1939 marriage, caused a showdown with Mayer and he never forgave Eddy or treated him the same again. Mayer was fond of Ann and had promised her a comfortable and stress free life if she agreed to the marriage.

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