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Academy Awards: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was formed in 1928. Norma won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1930 for her role in The Divorce. Norma was nominated for her roles in the following movies for Best Actress:
1929: Their Own Desire
1930: The Divorcee(won)
1931: A Free Soul
1934: The Barretts of Wimpole Street
1937: Romeo and Juliet
1938: Marie Antoinette
Actress, The(1928, silent): Directed by Sidney Franklin; Stars Norma, Ralph Forbes, and Owen Moore; Based on a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. A highly successful film upon its initial release. Norma's first movie with director Sidney Franklin, which revolves around a theatre group living in the midst of the Victorian Era. The Actress is a lost film.
Adrian, Gilbert(3/3/03 - 9/14/59): Probably the greatest fashion designer in movie history. Adrian created everything Norma wore onscreen from when he came to Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1928, until he left in 41. Adrian's most famous Norma creation was probably the near translucent dress she wore in 1931's A Free Soul, which caused a panic all over Hollywood, but his most beautiful costumes ever made were the gowns Norma wore in Marie Antoinette (1938). However, his most famous one, being the gown Joan Crawford wore in 1932's, Letty Lynton, which sold over 500,000 copies nation wide.
After Midnight(1927, silent): Written and directed by Monta Bell (in his final film with Norma), and her fourth film with Gwen Lee. This gaudy silent melodrama revolves around Norma's character who defends herself when a mugger tries to hustle her, she feels bad about what she did, and nurses him back to health. When Norma's sister brings the mugger back to his old ways, Norma changes him, and they walk off together in the end.
Mick LaSalle reviews the film in Complicated Women:
The iconization that began in Upstage (1926) was completed in After Midnight. Bell goes all out in filming Shearer. He films her in the shower. He films her without makeup. He films her from the standpoint of an unconscious man just coming to. He films her in a drab walk-up, surrounded by homely elements like naked plumbing. He films her telling her selfish sister to go to hell and makes it easy for us to read her lips. He even films her using the first zoom lens, picking her out from a crowd of blasé New Yorkers.
Behind every shot there are two questions Bell can't seem to answer to his satisfaction. One is, "How can anyone so wonderful exist in the world?" The other is, "But is she really so wonderful?" The first question inspires the rhapsody. The second allows him to get away with it. Both questions are in harmony with the story.
Aging: After her retirement from the screen, and even a few years before, time had become vital to Norma Shearer. It’s a natural thing for anyone to fear getting older, especially a world renowned beauty, determined to continue her reign as the top star of Hollywood as long as possible. Though Norma’s obsession to fight the clock was inevitable, her mother Edith certainly didn’t help. Back in 1931, while Norma was showing her mother a picture of herself at the premiere of Strangers May Kiss, Edith advised her daughter, “Never let them see you in public after you turn thirty five, you’ll be finished if you do!”
Her mother’s warning, the realization that she was no longer a spring chicken, and an inherited mental illness, magnified her anxiety. For the rest of her life, Norma tried her damnedest to fight the clock:
-She was up at 6:00 am for a morning jog. Once home she sat in a tub filled with ice cold water for an hour. More exercise in the afternoon and a walk with Marti later in the evening became part of her daily schedule.
-Norma made herself a rule to never leave the house without applying complete make up. (One time she was recognized without it, and to a crowd of on lookers, denied she was indeed Norma Shearer.)
-It took Norma a few weeks to acknowledge the fact that she was indeed a grandmother. Her grandchildren have few memories of her because Norma, a neglectful mother, had virtually no relationship with her own children, let alone her own grandchildren.
Norma’s friends that she gained later in life remembered her obsession with the past, and how often she brought up Marie Antoinette (1938). At a dinner party honoring Louis B. Mayer in 1952, Norma thanked him for what she called, “the best years of my life.” (What about Marti Arrouge? What about her Children?) She might have been wrapped up in the moment, but Norma lived for the past. She was aware of how forgotten she had become, and began living as if she was still Norma Shearer: Queen of Hollywood.
Read Motion Picture Country Hospital. Read Norma Shearer's Legacy
Aherne, Brian (5/2/1902-2/16/1986): Friend of Norma’s, and original choice to play opposite Norma in 1937’s Romeo and Juliet. (Aherne had starred in the 1934 stage production of William Shakespeare’s play.) Aherne was also the originator of Robert Browning in the Broadway production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street.When Thalberg asked him to appear in Romeo and Juliet, Aherne agreed, and went to the home of Irving and Norma for a read through of the script. He wasn’t satisfied, and thought he wouldn’t be able to convince audiences he was the young, pretty-boy Romeo. “I should have kept my mouth shut,” he said after learning Thalberg had already considered the thirty-eight-year old Fredric March, and settled on the fourty-four-year old Leslie Howard.
Internet Broadway Database Information
Allyson, June(10/7/1917-7/8/2006): Starred in remakes of The Women (1939) and Strange Interlude (1932).
Andreyev, Leonid Nikolaevich: Author of the play "He Who Gets Slapped." The film version would star Norma, John Gilbert, and the Lon Chaney.
Edward Arnold: Had a small role in 1939's Idiot's Delight
Arrouge, Marti Jacques(3/23/14-8/8/99): Norma married Marti on 8/23/42 and remained so until her death on June 12, 1983. She married him after her first husband, Irving Thalberg, died in 1936. Arrouge was a ski instructor, then later became a real estate developer and owner. Norma was about 15 years older than Marti, and after the two married, Norma traded in the Hollywood spotlight, for a more relaxed, free, and private lifestyle. They never had children together, or it seems any problems. To most of Norma's friends, Marti seemed "bewitched." He was capable of waiting sometimes up to four hours for Norma to prepare herself to go out, only for her to change her mind when walking out the door. Note: Marti was originally a "Martin." However, Norma persuaded him to drop the "n" from his name, feeling it more interesting.
Marti Arrouge was the one responsible keeping Norma as mentally healthy as he could. Eventually, there was no more he could do. He made the decision to have Norma placed into medical care, and visited her nearly every day. His devotion to her was astounding. He was more than willing to be part of Norma's fantasy lifestyle, which to many friends, was what kept her together as long as no one dared burst that bubble.
Long sessions with the past gave her insomnia for the first time in her life. She began staying up at night to work and by early 1956 had completed a rough draft, which ended with Irving’s death.
Norma let Janet Leigh read a copy of it, and Leigh remembered:
No mention of Athole and her problems. No real mention of any problems. No reality at all… I wondered what to tell her. Finally I said, “How lucky you’ve been, what a wonderful life you’ve had,” It seemed to go down well.
Norma sent the manuscript to publisher Bennett Cerf who rejected it because of its sentimentality. After that Norma never worked on it again. (Marti Arrouge owned it until his death, but I’m not sure who owns it now. If you do, please email me.)