Trivia of Norma Shearer

 Trivia of Norma Shearer (11 August 1902 - 12 June 1983)

*Was meticulous about her appearance. Early in her career, she spent money she could barely afford on the services on an eye doctor, who trained her to strengthen a weak eye. She swam everyday, had massages to firm her figure, and dieted religiously. She experimented with make-up until she decided on a light tone that would illuminate her face on screen.

*Norma Shearer once made an embarrassing mistake by mistaking the Vice President of Louis B. Mayer Pictures, Irving Thalberg, for an office boy.Irving Thalberg who had seen Norma Shearer early acting efforts didn't mad of her mistake, rather gave her a five year contract. Thalberg and Shearer married in 29 September 1927. Thalberg thought she should retire after their marriage, but she wanted bigger parts. They made movie projects together, including : Let Us Be Gay (1930), Strange Interlude (1932), and Marie Antoinette (1938).

*Norma Shearer casted by her for the role Elizabeth Barrett in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934). William Randolph Hearst was enraged that his mistress, Marion Davies, was not given the part. So Hearst pulled Davies out of MGM and placed her with Warner Brothers for the remainder of her career, and for over a year the name "Norma Shearer" did not appear in any Hearst newspapers. Hearst later attempted to get Davies cast in the title role in Marie Antoinette (1938)...a part that also went to Shearer.

*At the 1931 Academy Awards ceremony, not only did Norma Shearer win best actress for The Divorcée, but she shared the stage with her older brother, Douglas Shearer, a technical genius who also won an Oscar that night, for sound recording. They were the first family members to win Oscars in the same year.

*The role of Marie Antoinette in movie Marie Antoinette (1938) was reportedly Norma Shearer's favorite of her roles.The gown and wig Norma Shearer wears in the scene where the people throw stones at her carriage is later worn by Lucille Ball in Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) and by Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Most costume in Marie Antoinette designed by Adrian who visited France and Austria in 1937 researching the period.Norma Shearer's gowns alone had a combined weight of over 1,768 lb., the heaviest being the wedding dress.

*In order to keep her trim physique, Norma Shearer would work out daily with an exhaustive routine that she kept up well into her middle age. She began it with a 5 AM jog, followed by calisthenics in the afternoon, and a long walk in the evening. As if that wasn’t enough, she would also exercise to music in the middle of the night.

*Her final film was Her Cardboard Lover (1942) opposite Robert Taylor.It was not merely unpopular, but performed so poorly that M-G-M financial records say it lost the studio $348,000.It is interesting to speculate why Norma Shearer, who had been an M-G-M star since the company was formed in 1924 (but had not had a hit film in years) was given billing over Robert Taylor, whose career at the time this was made had been far more successful than Shearer's. It is likely that the two stars' billing order was more sentimental than strategic.

*6 years after the death of first husband producer Irving Thalberg, she married a ski instructor 11 years her junior and retired from the screen forever.After retirement, Norma maintained her interest in the film industry. While staying at a ski lodge, she noticed a photo of the receptionist's daughter and recommended her to MGM - that girl, became the star known as Janet Leigh. She also discovered a handsome young businessman beside a swimming pool - now actor/producer Robert Evans.