Encyclopedia Page C
Camp Icons: Norma never became one, but that has setbacks and advantages. One setback is that she’s not as popular as her contemporaries, resulting in a lack of DVDs and TV scheduling, but an advantage is she is not considered some big joke. She’s far too sophisticated, too good of an actress to be considered ‘campy,’ and hated by a lot of followers of huge camp icons such as Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Greta Garbo. An interesting note, though: While many fans of the campy stars feel ‘sympathy’ for Bette Davis and Joan Crawford being ‘outsiders’ and ‘not considered as good’ (in the case of Crawford, that makes sense), many of those same people dismiss Norma’s career entirely, most of whom have not viewed any of her films with the exception of 1939’s The Women. Bette Davis is not an outsider. Warner Home Video releases a new movie of hers on DVD practically every month, and she’s scheduled on TCM weekly.
He said of Romeo and Juliet: “And [Thalberg’s] next major production was one befitting his reputation, an extravagantly mounted Romeo and Juliet with-who else?-Norma Shearer in the leading role."
He said of Marie Antoinette: “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.”
(Is this guy nuts?!) In typical film historian fashion, Carey undermines Norma while over exaggerating the accomplishments of Greta Garbo.
Theoretically, it is splendid for a woman to combine marriage and a career. But practically, it is impossible for one not to suffer because of the other… When I am making a picture my marriage suffers. I have time to catch only a glimpse of the baby before he goes to sleep… Between pictures… my work is neglected because I'm being a wife!
Norma, after taking a huge screen absence for the birth of Katherine, told Chicago reporters that, “I’m just going to dump all domestic worries and children and have a holiday.” That holiday meant going back to work. In 1936, she told San Francisco reporters:
The job should always come first. This does not mean the husband comes second. He can be part of it… The greatest goal in life should be to make money, not for the sake of making money, but for its effect on character.
Sometime in the 1930s, Norma told a fan magazine about her early days making a career in movies:
I was ferociously ambitious. Often a director, in a weepy scene, would ask me to visualize my mother dying so that I might cry easily… I couldn’t do it. The only way I could bring the tears was to think about something horrible happening to me. (All quotes read from Complicated Women.)
Chaney Sr., Lon(4/1/1883-8/22/1930): Costarred with Norma in 1924's He Who Gets Slapped, and The Tower of Lies (1925). During the peak of his career, Chaney was one of the most famous faces on the planet. His success continued up until his death in 1930, after completing his first talking picture, The Unholy Three.
Channing of the Northwest(1922, silent): Directed by Ralph Ince; stars Eugene O’Neil, Norma, and Gladden James and was based on a story by John Willard. The film was made for Select pictures. This is supposedly one of the two movies, the other being 1920’s The Stealers, which caught the eye of a young Irving Thalberg while he was still working at Universal Studios. The Films of Norma Shearer states that Norma dated O'Brien during shooting.Channing of the Northwest movie page
Clouded Name, A(1923, silent): Directed by Austin O. Huhn; stars Norma (in her first leading role), Gladden James, Yvonne Logan, and Richard Neill. It was based on a story by Tom Bret. This is reportedly the earliest movie Norma made which is known to exist. The movie was a Logan Production, but released through Playgoer's Pictures.My note: I emailed Mick LaSalle a while back, asking him which films Norma made were lost. He stated that he owned a VHS copy of this movie and could barely sit through it. (Hey, Mick, I’ll be more than happy to take it off your hands for ya!)
Cody, Lew(2/22/1884-5/31/1934): Appeared with Norma in five movies starting with The Sign on the Door (1921), His Sectretary, The Tower of Lies and A Slave of Fashion (all 1925), their last pairing was in The Demi Bride (1927). Codey's career never really took off like Montgomery's or Gable's and he tragically died in 1934 of heart disease.
Complicated Women: With the exception of 1988’s and 1990’s Shearer biographies, and the launching of Turner Classic Movies in 1994, Mick LaSalle’s Complicated Women: Sex and Power in PreCode Hollywood probably has done more for Norma’s image than anything else. It revived the essential Shearer image. Not just being portrayed as the bowlegged, cross-eyed wife of Mr. Irving Thalberg, Complicated Women brought back Norma to her preCode heyday. Not only is Norma the center of the book, but it features rare interviews from fan magazines, vintage newspapers, and paints and excellent portrait of the Catholic struggle to bring virginity back to American films.Aside from her, Complicated Women gives ample information to Mae West, Dietrich, Garbo, and Jean Harlow. The book also excels in bringing other forgotten stars, besides Norma, back into the limelight: Kay Francis, Mae Clarke, Ruth Chatterton, Joan Blondell, Miriam Hopkins, and Loretta Young. In 2003, LaSalle released a follow-up called Dangerous Men, which highlighted the male accomplishments of the five most interesting years in Hollywood history. The same year, TCM produced a PreCode documentary also called Complicated Women.
1920: -Norma signs a contract with Herbert Brenon, which gives her $25 a day for bit parts in small productions.
1923: -Hal Roach offers Norma $200 a week, but Norma was asked to change her name and refuses.
-Irving Thalberg offers her a contract at the Mayer Company for $150 a week, including train fare for the trip out to Hollywood. Norma signs to the contract a few weeks later.
1925: -Norma signs a new contract giving her $1,000 a week, rising to $5,000 over the next five years, if she progresses.
1931: -New contract for Strangers May Kiss gives Norma $100,000 a picture for three pictures, all of which are to be supervised by Irving Thalberg, and only one male costar allowed to share top billing. Every item Norma wears on screen, right down to her shoes and underwear, are to supplied by the studio.
1932: -New contract for Smilin' Through calls for six picture deal for $110,000 a picture. Norma demanded more money, but the Great Depression seriously effects studio budget. In 1932 alone, the studio's annual profit was only a mere $5,200,000. Same benefits as the 1931 contract.
1936: -In lieu of borrowing Leslie Howard from Warner Brothers for Romeo and Juliet, Thalberg agrees to loan out Norma in return. The notably cheap Warner Brothers studio offers Norma $150,000 for one picture, allowing top billing, approval of leading man, cameraman, and story. This proves Norma's box office value was real, and not an exaggeration by MGM or Irving Thalberg. Deal lapses when Norma and Jack Warner can not find an agreeable script. It is obvious Thalberg told Norma to refuse every story Warner offered her.
September 1936: -The MGM contract Norma signed in 1932 lapses when Irving Thalberg dies, making the supervision impossible.
July 14, 1937: -Louis B. Mayer offers a contract renewal with the same benefits as her previous contracts, only at $150,000 a picture. She can not make up her mind and in August tells him she needs time to think it over, he grants her a sixty day waiting period.
November 1937: -The sixty day waiting period Norma was offered in September of that year is ending, she must make up her mind about Marie Antoinette, and her future with the studio. Louis B. Mayer gets frustrated and demands a response immediately. She then tells Charles Feldman her mind is made up, and she would not be appearing in Marie Antoinette or any more pictures for Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Late 1937: -Samuel Goldwyn offers Norma a contract for $200,000 dollars a picture, and same benefits of her MGM contract. For reasons still unknown, she turns the offer down.
Early 1938: -The contract that had been typed up on July 14, 1937 is finally signed by Norma. Marie Antoinette is announced to the public, and will officially start production in sixty days.
Late 1942: -Offered $150,000 to make Now, Voyager at Warner Brothers.
Early 1943: -Offered to play opposite Bette Davis in Old Acquaintance. Norma turns it down because Davis would receive top billing.
Late 1943: -Both contracts from Samuel Goldwyn and Warner Brothers are offered to Norma again, she turns them down. Jack Warner tells Norma that there is always a contract waiting for her at the studio if she changes her mind.
1947: -David Lewis, who had worked with Irving Thalberg, offers Norma a contract at Enterprise Pictures, an independent unit at Warner Brothers. After his first picture, Arch of Triumph, is finished, Norma's picture will start production and Norma signs a three picture deal with the studio. The first picture announced as a romantic drama, with a twist. However, Arch of Triumph failed miserably and Norma’s contract was terminated. Lewis could not find anywhere else to fund the project, and abandoned it.
Cornell, Katharine(2/16/1893-6/9/1974): Drama queen of Broadway both on and off the stage, Norma inherited the part of Elizabeth Barrett in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, from Cornell who originated the character onstage.
Coward, Noel: Private Lives (1931) and We Were Dancing (1942) were based on two plays by the playwright.
Crawford, Joan (March 23, 1905 - May 10, 1977): Top money maker for MGM under Norma and Garbo. Joan’s first movie appearance was doubling for Norma in 1925’s Lady of the Night. The only movie Norma made with Joan was 1939’s The Women, -in which Joan stole every scene she was in. Lacking the prestige of Norma, the artistic personality of Greta Garbo, Joan’s problems with MGM she chose to mainly take out on Norma and her marriage to Irving Thalberg. She won her Best Actress Oscar in 1945 for Mildred Pierce.
The Best of Everything: A Joan Crawford Encyclopedia
In keeping this non-biased, one has to consider the fact that Norma, with the exception of Marie Antoinette, didn’t really achieve much after Thalberg died. Had she gone on to star in Pride and Prejudice (1940), Now, Voyager, and Mrs. Miniver (both 1942), she might be a bit more respected. Only Norma Shearer fans can see both sides, film historians use her pre-mature retirement as an excuse to dismiss her work all together.
Today, Norma is too much compared to Katharine Hepburn (just using her as an example) in a negative way. Authors trash Norma to over exaggerate Katharine Hepburn, when in reality, it is impossible to compare either star with the other. Gary Carey, Pauline Kael, Antoni Gronowicz, and Jerry Vermilye are prime examples of Norma haters. There’s also Bosley Crowther, but was there anyone he didn’t hate? Why write such negative criticisms of stars? It only makes on look like an ignorant idiot...
I thought you were one of the most agreeable persons as our tea. -Norma Shearer
Fitzgerald remained fascinated by the Thalbergs for the rest of his life, partly because he and Norma held a secret bond. The story revolves around a famous movie director, he had switched Thalberg's occupation, who is married to a beautiful, popular actress based on Norma.