1915–1921: Editing for D. W. Griffith By 1915, Booth had graduated from
Los Angeles High School. Griffith hired Booth on a salary for ten dollars a week as one of several female editors for his studio. Booth remembered years later, "...in the old days we had to cut negative by eye. We matched the print to the negative without any edge numbers. We had to match the action. Sometimes there'd be a tiny pinpoint on the negative, and then you knew you were right, but it was very tedious work." One of the films she worked on was
Orphans of the Storm (1921) starring
Lillian Gish. After a few months, Booth worked for
Paramount Pictures' editing department, assembling the tinted sections for release prints.
1921–1938: Editing at MGM In 1921, Booth began working for
Louis B. Mayer at his
namesake film production studio. Mayer had hired
John M. Stahl when
Edward Small, who was Stahl's publicity agent, inquired why there were no hired Jewish directors. Inside the editing room, Booth observed Stahl, and because he was a perfectionist, Stahl would shoot multiple takes of several scenes and leave outtake footage literally on the cutting room floor. At the end of the day, Booth assembled the outtakes and stayed overnight to practice her cutting techniques. One day, Stahl was frustrated when he couldn't make a scene work. After he left, Booth took her own approach; when Stahl screened her work, he was impressed and hired her immediately as his editorial assistant. For Stahl, she edited
The Gay Deceiver (1926),
Lovers? (1927), and
In Old Kentucky (1927). Stahl personally mentored Booth on the craft of film editing, explaining the exact purpose for his editing decisions. Booth reflected, "He taught the value of a scene. When a scene drops or doesn't drop, and when it sustains. You have to feel this, intrusively, in your work." In 1924, Mayer merged with
Metro Pictures and
Goldwyn Pictures to form a new conglomerate film production studio known as
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Stahl stayed with MGM for several years, but when he left the studio in 1927, he asked Booth to join him but she declined. Booth stated, "I went on to working at M-G-M, mostly with [Irving]
Thalberg—the greatest man who was ever in pictures. M-G-M was like home to me." Her editing skills were appreciated by Thalberg, MGM's head of production, that he asked her if she would consider directing. However, she was not interested. Regardless, according to film historian
Cari Beauchamp, Thalberg was the first known person to call cutters "film editors," starting with Booth. Her first official editing credit was for the 1929
part-talkie film
The Bridge of San Luis Rey. At MGM, Booth edited several films starring
Greta Garbo, including
Camille (1936). She also edited
Wise Girls (1929),
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), and
Romeo and Juliet (1936). Booth received her only competitive
Academy Award nomination for
Best Film Editing on
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).
1939–1968: Supervising editor of MGM In 1936, Thalberg had unexpectedly died and Mayer assumed the position as production head. Three years later, in 1939, Mayer appointed Booth to be the studio's supervising film editor. Booth stated, "They liked me because I was fast. I was always very fast cutting everything I did. And boy, was I tough." As the supervising editor, she did no actual film editing herself but instead hired the personnel and reviewed the
dailies for each film, overseeing such classics such as
The Wizard of Oz (1939) and
Ben-Hur (1959). In his 1995 book
Making Movies, director
Sidney Lumet called Booth "a remarkable person. She was bright and tireless, and she loved movies. I don't know if she had any other life." He told one story while filming
The Hill (1965) in England, in which she arrived on location and asked to see a rough-cut version, promptly at eight during the following morning. A screening was arranged for her, with Lumet and
Thelma Connell, the editor for
The Hill, present. When the screening was over, she asked for two minutes of the film to be cut so it would be under two hours. Lumet pushed back and after two more screenings, Booth relented. Following the third screening, Lumet consoled a despondent Booth, who personally felt none of the new studio executives knew or care about filmmaking. She remained in her position until she retired in 1968. In an oral interview with film historian
Rudy Behlmer, Booth stated she was fired by then-MGM president
James Aubrey.
1969–1985: Editing for Ray Stark On the night she left MGM, Booth was hired by
Ray Stark as the supervising editor for his company, Rastar Productions. Her first project with him was
The Owl and the Pussycat (1970). Booth next supervised the editing for several films, including
The Way We Were (1973),
The Sunshine Boys (1975),
The Goodbye Girl (1977),
California Suite (1978), and
Annie (1982). On her centennial birthday, in 1998, Booth was honored with a gala commemorating her seven-decade contributions to the film industry at the Sheraton Universal Hotel, hosted by the
Motion Picture Editors Guild. ==Death and legacy==