Westside : What MGM Doesn’t Want, Schools Do

A movie studio’s trash is a treasure trove for administrators at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on Tuesday delivered about 350 pieces of used furniture to 14 schools in the district--everything from credenzas to couches. The hand-me-downs remained after the studio was acquired in 1990 by Pathe Communications.

The office-style pieces are earmarked for the district’s staff. Most of the furniture will be set up in offices; the couches will outfit teachers lounges.

Faculty and administrators visited the warehouse in Downtown Los Angeles where MGM was storing the furniture, and they were able to choose the pieces they wanted for their schools.

Since then, office managers from throughout the school district have been calling the district’s purchasing director, Virginia Hyatt, asking anxiously if the furniture had arrived.

The hottest items seem to be the filing cabinets--some school employees have been making do with cardboard cartons.

“The file cabinets . . . they’re like manna from heaven,” Hyatt said.

MGM was planning to use the furniture when it relocated from Culver City to offices in Santa Monica in 1993. However, studio executives decided that the stored furniture didn’t match the look of the studio’s new digs.