NORMA SHEARER - #77 SEPT/2024 BHC

Celebrating Vintage Sensuality

The Old Hollywood Newsletter

Sep 02, 2024

Find more Norma Shearer in the Body House POD Shop

Hello Body House Members;

I hope you're doing well and enjoying the fruits of your labors on this Labor Day weekend.

For this month's celebration of vintage sensuality we're featuring the unconventional beauty of Norma Shearer.

Despite being turned down by Ziegfeld for his 'Follies' because she was too short at 5’1 and had a wandering eye, Norma Shearer went on to become the “First Lady of the Screen.”

She also ended up marrying the head of production at MGM and was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the late 1920s and ‘30s.

Shearer was also nominated six times for an Academy Award. She won in 1930.

Brief Bio

Norma Shearer was born Edith Norma Shearer on August 11, 1902 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

She passed on June 12, 1983 in Los Angeles, California, US at the age of 80.

Her resting place is Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale CA.

Shearer was raised in an upper class environment. Her father was a successful businessman who owned a construction company and her mother was an actress.

She had one sister (Athole) who also became an actress and one brother (Douglas) who became a pioneering sound technician, developing several key tech innovation and winning 12 Oscars.

However, Shearer remained grounded and developed an earthy personality. Mostly because of the combination of her appearance and ambition.

At the age of nine, Norma knew she wanted to be an actress after seeing a vaudeville show.

Shearer "had no illusions about the image I saw in the mirror".

She acknowledged her "dumpy figure, with shoulders too broad, legs too sturdy, hands too blunt", and was acutely aware of her small eyes that appeared crossed due to a cast in her left eye.

By her own admission, she was "ferociously ambitious" even when she was young.

She grew up and went to school in Montreal and her father was a successful business man in the construction industry.

In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer to New York.

Although Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies" she got work as an extra while in NYC, in several movies.

Additionally, Shearer spent a lot of money on eye doctors to correct her strabismus (cross-eyed) gaze.

Quick Career Recap

Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated women.

Reviewing Shearer's work, film critic Mick LaSalle, called her a feminist pioneer, or "the exemplar of sophisticated modern womanhood and ... the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen".

** Mick LaSalle is an American film critic (born May 7, 1959) and the author of two books on pre-Code Hollywood.**

While in New York Shearer appeared in a few films and one of the roles caught the attention of producer Irving Thalberg in 1920. Thalberg was an up and coming producer.

Irving Thalberg joined Louis B. Mayer in 1923 and immediately gave Shearer a five year contract and she quickly became a popular star.

He was also Shearer's future husband as they married in 1927.

Married and Famous

After her marriage to Thalberg, Shearer had her pick of films, parts and directors which she took full advantage of. She had a famous feud with rival actress Joan Crawford because of it too.

Norma and Joan spent seventeen years together at MGM, so on many occasions, they were vying for the same material.

By all accounts, the Thalberg-Shearer marriage was very happy. Although he was quite old fashioned and thought Shearer should retire from acting after their marriage, but she was too ambitious and wanted bigger roles.

They had 2 children together. A boy and a girl. Irving Thalberg Jr. and Katherine Thalberg.

BELOW ARE PICTURES OF NORMA SHEARER AND HER 1ST HUSBAND IRVING THALBERG

(They were happily married until his death in 1936)

Coming To An End…

Shearer's first talkie was in The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929); four movies later, she won an Oscar for her performance in The Divorcee (1930).

After that though, she intentionally cut down her film roles choosing to work on the big projects her husband produced.

Such as, The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) and Romeo and Juliet (1936) (her fifth Oscar nomination).

Sadly, Thalberg died of a second heart attack in September, 1936, at the young age of 37.

Norma was crushed.

She wanted to retire from acting, but MGM insisted she sign a six-picture contract which she did and turned down the role of Scarlett O'Hara and Mrs. Miniver and ultimately stopped acting in 1942.

Later that year she married Sun Valley ski instructor Martin Arrouge, eleven years younger than she. They stayed happily married for 40 years as Shearer shunned the limelight.

It was during this time that Shearer discovered a young Janet Leigh.

(Read more about this fairy tale discovery)

Unfortunately, she spent the last decade of her life in very poor health.

She did, however, leave her admirers with two excellent performances, easily among her finest, in two of her best-remembered films: in the underrated "Marie Antoinette" (1938), and in the all-star, all-female comedy, "The Women" (1939, in which she was first-billed over longstanding rival Joan Crawford).

Pictures of Norma Shearer and second husband Martin Arrouge;

HERE IS THE TRAILER FROM MARIE ANTOINETTE (1938)

HERE IS A CLIP WITH JOAN CRAWFORD FROM THE WOMEN (1939)

Celebrate vintage sensuality with us on Substack here…

Quotes By NORMA SHEARER

"An adventure may be worn as a muddy spot or it may be worn as a proud insignia. It is the woman wearing it who makes it the one thing or the other."
Norma Shearer
"I have always believed that a woman's place is wherever she wants to be."
Norma Shearer
"I don't particularly care what people think of me. But I do care about what I think of myself."
Norma Shearer