Louis B. Mayer and actress Norma Shearer


Two Canadian luminaries of Hollywood's Golden Age, "mogul" and producer Louis B. Mayer and actress Norma Shearer, whose lives intertwined in the movie business. This photograph was taken in 1936 when Louis B. Mayer escorted Norma Shearer on her first public appearance after the tragic death of her husband, Irving Thalberg, who was a producer at Louis B. Mayer's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, and who was Louis B. Mayer's closest associate. Both Mayer and Shearer left Eastern Canada and finally settled in Los Angeles, Mayer in 1918, and Shearer in 1923, where their careers in the movie business would blossom, and where they would become close to one another both professionally and personally. Shearer left Montréal, Québec, Canada for New York City to begin her show business career before continuing her career as a movie actress in silent movies in Los Angeles for 'Louis B. Mayer Pictures' in 1923. Louis B. Mayer made his way from Saint John's, New Brunswick, Canada, first to the Boston area, then to New York City, and finally to Los Angeles where he started producing movies after rehabilitating theatres on the East Coast. When 'Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer' studios was formed, Norma Shearer starred in their very first picture, Victor Sjöström's silent psychological thriller 'He Who Gets Slapped' (1926), also starring Lon Chaney and John Gilbert. The movie was a conspicuous success and contributed to the meteoric rise of the new company, and to Shearer's visibility. Norma Shearer would go on to become the first five-time Academy Award acting nominee, winning Best Actress for Robert Z. Leonard's Pre-Code drama 'The Divorcée' (1930), also starring Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel, Robert Montgomery, and Florence Eldridge. Louis B. Mayer would go on to become the greatest Hollywood movie "mogul" of all time, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the most prestigious of all Hollywood movie studios, where their slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven". Remembering Louis B. Mayer (12th July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – 29th October, 1957).

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