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November's Spotlight

Norma Shearer

Born Edith Norma Shearer August 10 1902. in Montreal Quebec Canada. She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies" but she got work as an extra in several movies. She spent much money on eye doctor's services trying to correct her cross-eyed stare caused by a muscle weakness. Irving Thalberg had seen her early efforts and, when he joined Louis B. Mayer in 1923, gave her a five year contract. He thought she should retire after their marriage, but she wanted bigger parts. Her first talkie was in 1929. Four movies later she won an Oscar in the 1930 production of The Divorcee. She intentionally cut down film exposure during the thirties, relying on major roles in Thalberg's prestige projects. Thalberg died of second heart attack in September 1936, aged thirty-seven. Norma wanted to retire but MGM more-or-less forced her into a six-picture contract. David O Selznick offered her the part of Scarlett O'Hara, but public objection to her cross-eyed stare killed the deal. She retired in 1942. Later that year she married Sun Valley ski instructor Martin Arrouge, twenty years younger than she. From then on she shunned the limelight; she was in very poor health the last decade of her life. Norma passed away of pneumonia on June 12th 1983 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.