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Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter Vol.4 #7
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Cliff Aliperti
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Jul 16, 2006 02:18 PDT
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Movie Profiles & Premiums Volume 4, Number 7. July 15, 2006
Brought to you by http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com
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This is the plain text version of the newsletter. Read this online in
html format and loaded with pictures of movie collectibles at:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/issues/movie-newsletter-04-07.htm
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Welcome back, we've put together some new pages for July and hopefully
they'll be there for you to see at your convenience -- it will probably
not be worth mentioning, but my web provider recently changed ownership
and one of their many improvements involves moving all of their hosted
sites to a new server. Now supposedly things-and-other-stuff.com is
only supposed to disappear for a half hour or so late Sunday night, but
I do want to prepare for the worst. If there is a problem, rest
assured, the bills are paid, it's just a technical glitch, and
things-and-other-stuff.com will be back online ASAP. Now let's cross
our fingers that in the end I didn't even need to worry!
I'm working on eBay listings for 13 movie magazines that I have not
offered before and hope to have them up by late Sunday night -- don't
worry, eBay will be up and running! These are just a mix of titles I've
picked up over the past few months that I was holding back to make
available after the pile grew high enough. It's high enough! There are
a few early 30's Photoplay, some New Movie Magazine issues, a few high
grade mid 1940's issue of Movie Story and others. These won't be
auctions, each issue will be available for immediate purchase either as
an eBay Store or Fixed Price Item (in other words they will each have a
"Buy It Now" option). Here's a link to the Movie Magazines section of
my eBay Store: http://tinyurl.com/h4pg7
Speaking of Movie Magazines, I recently picked up another oldie, a
February 1917 issue of Motion Picture Magazine. Inside, and I thought
this was really neat, was a listing of the 100 (actually 102) most
popular film stars as decided in a fan poll! I've listed the results of
the poll here -->
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/favorite-film-stars.htm and
also included the ranking underneath each star's name when there is a
profile on this site -- in other words, you can see that it reads "#1
Most Popular - 1917" right under Mary Pickford's name on her profile. I
had fun going over this list, so I figured you might enjoy it as well!
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/mary-pickford.htm
As promised I did pick up the Clark Gable Signature Collection on its
day of release and have added my views of both Dancing Lady and Wife vs.
Secretary to Cliff's Classic DVD List. I think I mention in one of them
that I also got around to watching China Seas, but dozed off for ten
minutes in the middle so I wanted to give it another viewing before I
wrote it up. Also, Mogambo, which is a China Seas remake, is in the
collection, so maybe I'll watch that one as well before I write about
either movie.
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/cliffs-dvd-list.htm
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/dvd-list/dancing-lady.htm
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/dvd-list/wife-vs-secretary.htm
While on the subject of the Classic DVD List, I've added a listing of
the most recent entries on the home page. You'll find the listing on
the bottom right side of the Home Page, it'll be the best way to keep up
with the newest listings.
The latest Photo ID Guide shows all of the 1911 Vitagraph Players Cards
that I recently picked up. Each of these cards is also still available
in my eBay store at $12.50 per card.
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/ephemera/1911-vitagraph-players.htm
1911 Vitagraph Players for sale: http://tinyurl.com/fhe7g
Our featured star this issue is Norma Shearer and she gets the royal
treatment with a profile, slide-show and even a new Swicki! Here are
the features:
Norma Shearer in The Silent Collection by Tammy Stone
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/norma-shearer.htm
(Also found complete directly below)
Norma Shearer Collectible Slide Show
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/collectibles-slide-shows/norma-shearer.htm
And that does it for a pretty brief issue. I'm doing my best to get
this one out ASAP in case there are any problems with the site in the
coming days (due to that transfer mentioned in the beginning). Still
the Norma Shearer items are very well done, there are a couple of
reviews for you to read over and a new Photo ID Guide, plus hopefully
some old movie magazines that you'll be able to buy in a day or two!
Yep, I've giving this one a thumbs-up!
The next issue of The Movie Profiles and Premiums Newsletter is
scheduled for August 15 and should include a new profile by Susan M.
Kelly. Thanks, and have a great month!
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The Silent Collection By Tammy Stone
Featuring: Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer, like some of her contemporaries – most famously the
queen of the silent era and movie mogul Mary Pickford – originally
hailed from north of the border in Canada. From these beginnings (some
would argue they were humble), she went on to become a huge movie star,
earning the moniker of The First Lady of MGM. Queen Norma, as she was
also called, has rightfully earned her place on the marquees of our
collective imagination, especially as we look back and remember the era
before the movies could talk and the flagrant gestures of the silent era
were quelled.
Norma Shearer was born Edith Norma Shearer – after her mother – on
August 10, 1900, in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. While her father served
loyally to his country, working as a policeman for the famed (and often
spoofed) Royal Canadian Mounted Police, it seems her mother was more
cosmopolitan by nature, exposing her two daughters to what the world had
to offer. After a modest, typical childhood, Norma’s good looks were
becoming increasingly noticed; she won a beauty pageant when she was
fourteen.
In 1920, Edith Shearer took Norma and her sister to New York City, where
– and here’s where Norma’s story doesn’t follow the traditional
trajectory – she was actually turned down when she tried to become a
Ziegfeld Follies girl, a role that made so many other young ladies
famous at that time, and one so iconic that several feature films were
made that harkened back to the Ziegfeld days of burlesque entertainment.
As an aside, it should also be noted at this point that Norma wasn’t
the only daughter trying to break into the biz – her sister Ahtole
Shearer was also trying to become an entertainer. While she only ended
up doing extra work on a few films in 1920, she is probably more notable
for who she married: none other than Howard Hawks, legendary Hollywood
director of some popular and critically acclaimed films in the 1930s and
1940s. Norma and Athole’s brother Douglas was also afflicted with the
movie bug – he became a noted (some might say maverick) sound
engineer, doing recording for over 900 films between 1928 and 1955.
But back to Norma – once she left Canada, she never looked back. After
being rejected by Ziegfeld, she didn’t give up, and began her career
doing extra work. It was here that the petite beauty (she was 5”1
inches) caught the attention of future mogul Irving Thalberg, and when
he ultimately joined Louis B. Mayer at what would become MGM, he
procured a five year contract for her. This was 1923, and it wasn’t
only the beginning of her working relationship with Thalberg – they
soon married, in 1927. She also converted to Judaism, and eventually had
two children with Thalberg. So when her contract was up he thought she
should throw in the towel and become more … domesticated, but she was
an ambitious young actress and wanted to move forward with her career.
Norma, like most of her peers, worked very prolifically during the
silent era, making such films as: The Flapper, Way Down East, The
Restless Sex (with her sister, all 1920); The Sign on the Door (1921);
The Man Who Paid (1922); The Devil’s Partner (1923); The Trail of the
Law, Blue Water (both 1924); Waking Up the Town, Pretty Ladies (1925);
The Devil’s Circus (1926); and The Demi-Bride and The Student Prince
in Old Heidelberg (1927).
Norma then went on to do what many of her peers could not: she began
(successfully) making films in the talkie era. Her first sound film was
The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929, a film that shows how genres, like
crime-centered biopics, tend to get recycled over the decades). She
continued to go strong, making three more films before she tackled a
starring role in The Divorcée (1930). Her hard work paid off; she won
the Best Actress Academy Award for this role. This film would also
inaugurate her involvement in a series of films that were made before
the 1934 Production Code took effect – the Code severely limited the
amount of lewdness that could be shown on screen, and Norma thus became
one of Hollywood’s first uninhibited screen sirens. These films
included turns alongside up and coming leading men such as Robert
Montgomery in Private Lives (1931) and Riptide (1934) and Clark Gable in
A Free Soul (1931) and Strange Interlude (1932). She was also nominated
in 1930 for her role in Their Own Desire, also featuring Montgomery,
though sadly not available today.
At this point in her career, however, Norma was ready to slow down, and
she began to be more selective with her film choices; she morphed from
“modern girl” to doing more restrained, quiet dramatic roles, in
both the comedic and tragic genres. Many of the roles she did end up
taking were big, starring roles in some of Thalberg’s more
high-profile projects. Among these were: Private Lives (1931), Smilin’
Through (1932), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), and Romeo and
Juliet (1936, a role which earned her a fifth Oscar nomination).
Tragically, two years later, Thalberg died at the young age of 37, of
pneumonia.
After this, Norma strongly desired retirement, but she was stuck; MGM
was making a lot of money off of her, and more or less coerced her into
a six-film contract under the tutelage of David O. Selznick. To be fair,
he wanted great things for her; he even offered her the part of Scarlett
O’Hara in Gone With the Wind, but by then there was a public outcry
about this choice, so the role went to Vivien Leigh – according to the
New York Times, Norma received a lot of fan mail telling her she was
unsuited to the part, and the MGM publicity department listened.
Her persona remained recognizable throughout her career, but after
Thalberg’s death, she seemed to prefer to take roles in smaller, more
quirky films, and she excelled at this as well. She did, though, star in
Marie Antoinette (1938, apparently her favorite role, for which she
garnered another Oscar nomination), and then in The Women (1939, with
Joan Crawford, their only role together amid a rumored rivalry), big
roles in their own right. She was offered the lead in Mrs. Miniver
(1942), and she (unwisely) turned it down; it ended up becoming one of
MGM’s top-grossing films to date and by far the most popular of the
“British films” made in Hollywood about WWII during the war.
Norma actually ended up retiring that year. Her last film was the
underwhelming The Cardboard Lover, which she completed and happily moved
onto a life out of the razzle dazzle of Hollywood. After several affairs
with celebrities – including Mickey Rooney –she remarried that year,
to a ski instructor in Sun Valley, Martin Arrouge, 27 years her junior.
By then she already wasn’t in the greatest of health, and she turn a
major turn for the worse in the last ten years of her life. She died on
June 12, 1983 in Woodland Hills, California, also of pneumonia, and is
buried next to Jean Harlow.
In the case of Norma Shearer, her legend precedes her, and these words
can only begin to do justice to the ethereal beauty and magnetic screen
life she enjoyed for so many years, in so many different types of films,
and to such great acclaim. She is truly the stuff Hollywood is made of.
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Tammy Stone is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto. Watch
for her regular column on the greats of the Silent Screen in each issue
of The Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter. Tammy invites you to write
her at tammyst-@yahoo.ca with any questions or comments on her
column.
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See Norma Shearer in The Silent Collection by Tammy Stone with images,
relevant links and even a Swicki, here:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/norma-shearer.htm
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