What did Mayer have to protect? Well, more or less everything. Not simply the success of his business but the colour of his world. Andy Hardy was central to the wholesome idea of America that Mayer sought to project. Like the other movie moguls, he had come from Europe and built an empire of images. The mirror he held up to his adopted home was one of family ties and small-town ethics, of problems that could be solved in 91 minutes.