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In October 2015, a Snopes reader emailed us about a photo supposedly showing a behind-the-scenes look into the filming of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio's promotional clip that displays at the beginning of its films and features a lion. The reader asked: The leonine logo of the MGM film studio, originally designed for Goldwyn Pictures Corporation in 1916, is one of the Hollywood movie industry's most recognizable images. That iconic branding is familiar not only as a static logo, but also as the moving image of a roaring lion that precedes the presentation of MGM pictures. Those familiar with the training and handling of exotic animals know well how difficult it can be to get a creature such a lion to roar on command, though, so one might perhaps wonder what efforts went on behind the scenes to capture a suitable take of MGM's Leo the Lion mascot in full roar. One suggested answer has been provided by the above-displayed photograph purportedly showing Leo strapped to a table while filming his iconic roar, a picture that has been circulating online since at least January 2015. [See also: Did the MGM Lion Kill Its Trainer?] However, the above-displayed image does not capture either MGM's Leo or the filming of a company logo. This is a manipulated version of a photograph that was originally taken in 2005, when a two-year-old Barbary lion named Samson underwent a CAT (Computer Aided Tomography) scan after falling ill at an Israeli zoo: MGM did not need to strap Leo the Lion to a table in order to get him to roar for their famous logo. In fact, what the company actually did was far more interesting (and dangerous): The images displayed directly above may be partially responsible for fostering the later rumor that one of MGM's first Leos killed its trainer and his assistants while they attempted to film him.
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