The Books About Norma Shearer

Whether the author decides to trash Norma Shearer and dismiss her entire career, or has decided to bring her back to respectability, film historians often cite Norma’s body of work. For Norma Shearer fans, books by Gary Carey, Pauline Kael, Antoni Gronowicz, and Jerry Vermilye are to be avoided at all costs. (Note: I listed some of the books from those authors here for other purposes.) Each of the authors listed has decided to take frustration out on Norma. A brief example from Gary Carey’s All the Stars in Heaven: Louis B. Mayer’s MGM:

“If [Marie Antoinette] fails to be as entertaining as it might have been, it is largely because of Shearer, who plays Antoinette in the grand manner, absurdly so. Outside the opera stage rarely has there been suck a display of posturing and semaphoric gesturing. Shearer’s performance here is a ripe example of Hollywood acting at its dippiest.”

Books by Mick LaSalle, Mark A. Vieira, and Howard Gunter are must reads.

Regarding the difference in the Norma Shearer biographies:

I like Lawrence Quirk’s Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer for the conversations and quotes that he included from people in Norma’s life. However, some of the quotes I feel were manipulated. Quirk’s Norma biography isn’t exactly trust-worthy either. (Click here to read more about the subject.) Gavin Lambert’s Norma Shearer: A Life gives a completely non-biased image of Norma Shearer. Lambert does an excellent job providing readers with an idea of how Norma’s mind truly worked. Quirk’s book is just more watered-down Queen-Norma glamour.

A

All the Stars in Heaven: Louis B. Mayer's MGM
The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographers

B

Bette & Joan: The Divine Feud

C

Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood
Costume Design in the Movies

D

Dream Palaces: Hollywood at Home

E

F

The Faces of Hollywood
The Films of Lon Chaney
The Films of Norma Shearer

G

George Raft
Gone Hollywood
Gowns by Adrian

H

Hollywood Cheesecake Hollywood Costume Design
Hollywood East: Louis B. Mayer and the Origins of the Studio System
Hollywood and the Great Fan Magazines
Hollywood Legends: Classic Portraits
Hollywood Poolside
Hollywood Portraits
Hollywood Portraits 1929-1941
Hollywood Portraits 1939-1951
Hollywood Rajah: The Life and Times of Louis B. Mayer
Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits
The Hurrell Style: 50 Years of Photographing Hollywood

I

The Image Makers: Sixty Years of Hollywood Glamour Immortals of the Screen
In A Glamorous Fashion
In The Picture: Production Stills From The TCM Archives

J

Joan Crawford: A Biography
Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography

K

The Kid Stays in the Picture

L

Leading Ladies: The Fifty Most Unforgetable Actresses of the Studio Era
The Lost Artwork of Hollywood

M

The Man Who Shot Garbo: The Hollywood Photographs of Clarence Sinclair Bull
Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints
Merchant of Dreams : Louis B. Mayer, M.G.M., and the Secret Hollywood
The MGM Girls: Behind the Velvet Curtain
MGM Posters: The Golden Years
The MGM Stock Company: The Golden Era
The MGM Story
MGM: When The Lion Roars

N

Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer: A Life

O

P

Photoplay Treasury
The Portfolios of George Hurrell
The Power of Glamour

Q

R

Ruth Harriet Louise and Hollywood Glamour Photography

S

Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood
Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood

T

Thalberg: Life and Legend
Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of M-G-M
They Had Faces Then
Those Glorious Glamour Years
The Times We Had

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W

Whatever Became of ...?

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Y

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