Silent Film Star

 

Norma and her mother arrived in California by train in 1923. The starlet had expected mass hysteria and media frenzy. When she got off the train, no one was there. She and her mother collected their things and rented a room at the Hollywood Hotel. Norma had been instructed to find her way to the Mission Road studios (more known today as Metro Pictures). When she arrived, a young man walked her to an office, sat down behind the desk, and began going over future possibilities. A frustrated Norma demanded to see Irving Thalberg immediately. The young man turned his head back and said, “I am Mr. Irving Thalberg.” He then began to discuss his plans for Norma, and told her she would make a screen test for the upcoming film, The Wanters. She more than bombed on her first screen test, as Norma remembered:

The custom then, when a cameraman was in a hurry, was to use flat lighting- to throw a great deal of light from all directions, in order to kill all shadows that might be caused by wrinkles or blemishes. But strong lights placed on each side of my face made my blue eyes look almost white, and by nearly eliminating my nose, at times made me seem cross-eyed.

After being told to pack her bags and return to New York, Ernest Palmer came across Norma on the Mission Road lot. Any other starlet would have been devastated, but Palmer remembered Norma being enraged at the way the whole experience went down. He was struck by the way she had reacted to the problem, and agreed to give her another chance. This was a significant moment for Norma, for the test with Palmer taught her how to hide her faults. When her eye drifted out of focus during the shoot, she made sure it would never happen again. The technique Palmer taught her in that single test would stick with Norma for the rest of her career. Louis B. Mayer and Thalberg and were both impressed, and gave Norma the lead in The Wanters. Director John Stahl objected, and demanded that Marie Prevost be given the lead, and Norma be reduced to a minor character. He got his way.

For her next film, Norma was cast as a supporting player in Pleasure Mad (1923). Director Reginald Barker was less than impressed by Norma’s colorless performance, and called her out in front of cast and crew. She broke down in front of Louis B. Mayer, complaining that the work was too hard. Expecting Mayer to comfort her, and much to her surprise, he burst out in anger. Norma came out of the meeting ready to prove them all wrong, which had been the underlying intention of both Mayer and Barker. Next it was on to a weird variety of films. Lucretia Lombard (1923) cast Norma as a spoiled socialite who dies in an eerie forest fire. The Trial of the Law (1924) cast Norma as a young girl who dresses as a man to protect herself from rapists in the woods. The Wolf Man (1924) cast Norma as the victim of a kidnapping, who nearly gets raped by John Gilbert. They were less than stellar, but it was good work for a starlet who was working her way up into major stardom.

The end of 1924 brought Norma the biggest opportunity of her career thus far. The movie was He Who Gets Slapped. Directed by Victor Seastrom, and starring the already legendary Lon Chaney and a young John Gilbert, it was an excellent opportunity for Norma. The film proved a smash with critics and audiences, but everyone else got off on the prestigious film except for Norma. Lon Chaney emerged as the studio’s most important asset, and John Gilbert had to major films released the following year: The Merry Widow and The Big Parade. Norma’s biggest claim to fame was 1925’s Lady of the Night, which ranks as probably the best silent film she ever made.

Career wise, Norma seemed to be flowering. In her private life, things were getting interesting. On the set of 1924’s Empty Hands, she fell hard for her director, Victor Fleming. She dreamed of marrying him, until he told her than he no other plans than a physical relationship. Next it was director Monta Bell, who directed her 1924 film Broadway After Dark. The creative partnership between the two produced some of Norma’s most interesting silent films. (After Norma married Thalberg, the collaborations with Bell stopped.)

Athole arrived in Hollywood in 1924 after her first marriage fell apart. Edith and Norma were more than delighted to find her in relatively good spirits. There’s no record on Norma’s relationship with her father during these years, but it assumed that they weren’t communicating. Douglas was living his own life back in Montreal, but he would soon be making his way to California. Once there, he would emerge as Hollywood’s genius sound technician.

Norma’s previously mentioned Lady of the Night (1925) was the turning point of her career. Walking up the Town (1925) marked the last time Norma was loaned out to another studio. Now she was too valuable. Lady of the Night had not only been a major critical and commercial success, but Norma’s name carried the entire film. But she still had to fight for better parts. As important as she may have been, Norma’s films following Lady of the Night and before The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) were less than stellar. Only The Tower of Lies (1925; a lost film) seems to be her only other important film during those two years. In the film, Norma plays the daughter of a heavenly father, played by Lon Chaney, who dreams of the big city lifestyle. Unbeknownst to the father, his daughter has become a prostitute. Lies was also the only film Norma made during those two years that was produced by Irving Thalberg.

Any claim that Thalberg was guiding her career because of his romantic interest in her is false. Not only were both Norma and Irving seeing other people, but he had fallen into an artistic love with a new MGM contract star named Greta Garbo. Thalberg took it upon himself to guide her to major stardom, and Norma was tossed on the back burner. If there was any star on the MGM lot who had the Thalberg protection, it was the more appreciated Greta Garbo.

1926 was spent playing a cameo in the Zasu Pitts vehicle, Pretty Ladies, starring in The Waning Sex with Conrad Nagel, being used for sex in The Devil’s Circus, and making her second to last film with Monta Bell, Upstage. Only the latter two are worth seeing, even though Upstage is missing a few reels in its only existent print. The Devil’s Circus ranks critically as the best of these films. Norma plays a trapeze artist who is forced to have sex with her boss.

Irving Thalberg had reached a romantic crossroad in his life. His affair with Constance Talmadge was coming to an end, and at the age of twenty seven, he knew he needed to find a wife quick. At birth doctors agreed that Thalberg wouldn’t live past thirty. Now he was beginning to wonder if he had put marriage off too long. Encouraged by his overbearing mother, Henrietta, Thalberg chose Norma as life partner. It was not love at first sight. Norma biographer Gavin Lambert made an excellent point: It's doubtful Norma and Irving truly loved each other. They married because they both realized they had the same intentions for the future. They would eventually form a respect for one another that neither Irving nor Norma could picture living without.

Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg married on September 29, 1927. Brother Douglas walked Norma down the aisle. (Andrew Shearer was uninvited to the wedding.) The rumors on the MGM lot were that Norma had only married Irving for her own career intentions. (Those same rumors have managed to live on. To this day, Norma gets too much slack for her marriage to Thalberg.) Anyone who believes these needs to be informed on the fact that Irving had planed to retire Norma after their marriage. She had other plans, however.

From this point on, her films were to be produced solely by Thalberg. That had more setbacks than advantages. One advantage was 1927’s The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg. Also starring Ramon Novarro, and with the exception of He Who Gets Slapped, it was Norma’s first major prestigious film. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, The Student Prince proved that Norma was indeed here to stay, but her films following were major setbacks. Right after her marriage, Thalberg cast her in 1928’s The Latest From Paris, which featured Norma in a predictable, fluttery and forgettable comedy. The Actress followed. At the height of America’s jazz age and 1920’s sexual revolution, Thalberg had cast her in a period piece about a theatre troupe in Victorian London. A Lady of Chance followed. It was not only her last film of 1928, but also her final silent film. The character offered a little more range, but not much. Norma played a young woman who hustles men for money.

Sounds ridiculous? Of course it was, and Norma knew she was going to have to reinvent herself with the coming of sound.