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Post by NoShear on Sept 29, 2023 11:52:52 GMT
Posted with BunnyWhit in mind... On this day in 1927 MGM's power couple are married in what has been described as the Hollywood wedding of the year:  |
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Post by topbilled on Sept 29, 2023 13:26:15 GMT
What do you think her career at MGM would have been like if she hadn't married Thalberg? Would she have lasted as long?
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Post by NoShear on Sept 29, 2023 13:52:54 GMT
What do you think her career at MGM would have been like if she hadn't married Thalberg? Would she have lasted as long? Good morning, TopBilled... Certainly, Norma Shearer benefitted from her marriage to the production prodigy, but there's was a symbiotic relationship - not just one-sided for Shearer: She gave Irving Thalberg a companion which was denied him by Louis B. Meyer's "You're going to die young" attitude, and she bore him children even if she wasn't particularly maternal. Robert Osborne went to bat for Norma Shearer: Hollywood is strewn with actors who've been pushed on the public yet failed, but Norma Shearer was adored. Although Norma Shearer carried on for a while without Irving Thalberg, she eventually was lost without her companion compass. |
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Post by topbilled on Sept 29, 2023 13:57:16 GMT
My question wasn't really how she benefited from marrying Thalberg...I think we can all surmise that she benefited considerably. But my thought was more, would she have just had a short run and then been gone by the early 30s, without Thalberg guiding her career...? And if Norma had been forced to switch studios to get roles elsewhere, don't you think that would have meant more opportunities at MGM for actresses like Joan Crawford and Maureen O'Sullivan (another Thalberg favorite)?
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Post by NoShear on Sept 29, 2023 14:15:32 GMT
My question wasn't really how she benefited from marrying Thalberg...I think we can all surmise that she benefited considerably. But my thought was more, would she have just had a short run and then been gone by the early 30s, without Thalberg guiding her career...? And if Norma had been forced to switch studios to get roles elsewhere, don't you think that would have meant more opportunities at MGM for actresses like Joan Crawford and Maureen O'Sullivan (another Thalberg favorite)? Yes, TopBilled, I already realized my answer was not what you were asking after posting: I don't think I have the grasp of the studio system as you and others here do to offer an adequate answer. I will offer that Norma Shearer was a tenacious little thing and, even without the good fortune of Irving Thalberg falling for her, might have continued to score roles in her younger days no matter what was thrown up against her. She'd already shown that. She even had shown it after her marriage: She did what she had to do to score The DIVORCEE part which Irving Thalberg had originally denied to her. Ty Cobb was quoted as saying: "I make my own luck." Norma Shearer made her own luck. |
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