Irving Thalberg and Norma Shearer: The Unlikely Royal Couple of 1930's Hollywood

This is a love story, and the story of two people whom nobody would have heard of if they had accepted their limitations.  The boy, Irving G. Thalberg, would become known as "the Boy Wonder" of MGM, and the girl, Norma Shearer, would become "the First Lady of Hollywood", yet each was an unlikely candidate for success. 

 Irving Thalberg might have been the poster child for the saying: "It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years."  As a baby, Irving was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. The doctors told his parents that he would probably die by the time he was 25, maybe 30 if they took great care and he was treated as a semi-invalid.  A grade behind other children his age for most of his childhood, he contracted diptheria at 13, and the family doctor predicted that he would be bed-ridden for the rest of his life.  He recovered however, graduated from high school, and through a combination of skill, hard work, and family connections, rose from being a stenographer to being the executive secretary of Carl Laemmle, president of Universal Pictures by the age of 20.  In that position, his uncanny instinct for film production, and his astonishingly retentive memory and quick intellect made him something of a phenomenon on the lot and he was appointed studio manager, second-in-command to Laemmle himself.  At 21.

 His skill, ability and dedication were impressive, as well as the unbelievably young age at which he achieved success.  When Laemmle refused to pay Irving what he was worth, he left Universal, and joined L.B. Mayer in brokering the merger that formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.  Here he was appointed head of production and accomplished even greater things than before.  His perfectionism required him to be personally involved in almost every detail of the pictures he produced, and he had an uncanny ability to scent out star material and shape the public images and careers of many stars that are still legendary today, including Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, and (drum roll, please) Norma Shearer.

When she started on the road to stardom, Norma Shearer was a most unlikely candidate for the title "Queen of Hollywood", but she was a determined young lady, and had the song "High Hopes" been written at the time, it might have been her theme song.

The daughter of a Canadian divorcee, Norma hit New York City as a teenager, with a desire to make it big in show business.  She faced almost continuous rejection from the start, with such notables as Flo Ziegfield telling her she was "a dog" and had "stubby legs, a bad figure, and a cast in one eye" that would keep her from ever succeeding in show business.  Norma approached the legendary silent films director D. W. Griffith while she was working as an extra, and he too declared that she wouldn't succeed, since in addition to the cast in her eye, he said her eyes were "too blue" and would appear blank in any close-ups.

Despite these and other rejections, Norma refused to give up, finding work as a model, and a movie extra, and approaching a New York doctor for exercises that would strengthen her weak eye and help her to control it.  She exercised ruthlessly, and learned to use clothing and costumes to improve her appearance.  She also studied the great actresses of the stage, and worked on poses that would conceal her flaws.  Eventually, she landed a small role in a non-Hollywood film that got her good reviews and attracted the attention of a Hollywood talent scout.  Norma received an offer for a contract from M-G-M, and accordingly moved to California where she first met Irving Thalberg.  It was not an auspicious beginning.

Norma was met at the door of his office by Irving Thalberg, who showed her in, and then sat down behind the desk.
 "Aren't you the office boy?" Norma asked.
"No, Miss Shearer," Thalberg responded, "I'm Irving Thalberg, the man who sent for you."

Things got even worse for Norma after that.  Her first screen test was a disaster.  All her worst features were emphasized, and she came out looking dumpy and cross-eyed.  A cameraman found her crying with vexation over the results and after talking with her and viewing the test, decided she had not been properly handled, and got studio permission to retake it.  Improved lighting resulted in a much better test which was approved, and Norma was cast in the movie Pleasure Mad.

 During the filming, the director of the picture lost patience with Norma and complained to the studio head, L.B. Mayer about her.  When Mayer called Norma to his office, she complained that the director had shouted at her and frightened her.  Mayer promptly blew up.  He shouted at her that she was throwing away the chance of a lifetime and any hope for her career just because she didn't get along with a director.  He screamed at her that she was a fool and a coward and would never succeed.  His outburst roused Norma's temper.

"I'm not a coward! I"ll show you!" she screamed right back at him.

"Good", smiled Mayer, "That's all I wanted to hear." 

Norma went back, and as she would later say, "took that scene, lock, stock and barrel, fur, fin and feathers".  With renewed determination, Norma continued on her way, first with minor parts, and gradually working her way up to starring roles.

In those days, it was the studio's practice to build up a persona for each of their stars, and to cast them in films that embodied those personas.  Thus certain films were "vehicles" for certain stars. Irving Thalberg, in fact, had a genius for crafting these star images, and created some of the most memorable, including Greta Garbo's and Clark Gable's.  Not all stars were happy with the personas given to them.  Greta Garbo didn't like being cast as a femme fatale, and Norma disliked the mediocre films she was often cast in, and wanted a wider range of roles in better productions.  She took to pestering "the little boss" regularly for better roles, and though he never gave in, and frequently reminded her that it was the roles she disliked that had made her a star, Irving was intrigued.  

One day after work, Norma received a call from Irving's secretary, asking if she would like to attend the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush with Mr. Thalberg.  Norma, who could hear Irving listening on the extension, replied that she would be delighted.  After just that one date, Norma told a friend that she was in love with Irving Thalberg, and wanted to marry him.  Thalberg clearly didn't feel the same way, since it was a year before he asked her on another date.

Nevertheless, they both continued to work together, and Norma continued to beg for better roles.  Although both of them kept dating other people, they began dating each other fairly frequently as well.  Norma described herself to a friend as Irving's "spare tire", the girl who was available when his other dates stood him up.  This was also a joke, since one of her first modelling jobs in New York had been as "Miss Lotta Miles" for a tire company.

 Norma, however, was perhaps the only one of Irving's dates who became good friends with his sister, was very respectful to his controlling mother, and was almost as concerned for his health as his mother was.

Nevertheless, it was something of a surprise when one evening, after a day of filming retakes for her latest movie The Student Prince of Heidelberg, Norma was summoned to Irving's office and told with a smile to pick the diamond she wanted from a tray of rings sitting on his desk.  

Okay, maybe not the most romantic Hollywood proposal ever, but it marked the start of one of Hollywood's most successful marriages.  On the 29th of September 1927, they were married in a small wedding at his home.  Despite the general well-wishing, the response to their marriage was not entirely favorable.

Joan Crawford wailed that she'd never get any good roles now that Norma had married the boss.  Many cynical contemporaries assumed that Norma was marrying Irving simply to advance her career, and that Irving was "settling" for a girl who chased him.   This view was evidently not shared by Irving himself, however, since a few days after his marriage he sauntered into his office and remarked to his secretary: "You never thought I'd get her, did you?"

Despite all evidence to the contrary, the belief that theirs was primarily a marriage of convenience has continued for some time.  Recently though, some of the telegrams they sent each other have come to light, which shed an excellent perspective on how much in love they were.  One of Irving's to Norma reads: "Dearest cutest sweetness darling angel bunny hope you have missed me as I have missed you, Love Papa", and in one that Norma sent Irving she promised to meet the train he was expected on and sue the railroad for every minute it was late.  She signed it "Love from your lonesome little momma".

 Norma definitely married Irving for love, but it certainly didn't hurt her career.  It was a union of two hopeless workaholics, and Irving was determined to make his wife one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
However, despite Irving's commitment to advancing his new wife's career, he clearly thought she had limits as well.  When Norma appealed for the lead in the rather risque new movie, The Divorcee, Irving said no.

He told her they needed an actress who was convincing in the role of a glamorous femme fatale, (OUCH!?!?!)

and that the studio's first choice actress for the role was Norma's main M-G-M rival, Joan Crawford, (Double OUCH!!!)

Norma promptly marched downtown to the studio of George Hurrell, the first glamour photographer, and together they put together a portfolio of photos that changed Irving's mind, won Norma the role, and got Hurrell hired as M-G-M's head of portrait photography.

Norma won an Academy Award for best actress for her role in that movie, and Irving never questioned her abilities as an actress again.

  When, years later she said she thought she'd like to play Juliet, Irving laughed, but he made the movie and he cast her as Juliet.  When a friend pointed out to him that people were questioning the fitness of a 33 year old mother of two for the role of the 14 year old Juliet, Irving responded: "Norma can play anything, and she can play it better than anyone else."

He was right.  Norma did an excellent job with Juliet and was again nominated for Best Actress, while her co-star, the 43 year old Leslie Howard, made a very convincing Romeo.

Irving and Norma had their first child, a boy named Irving Jr. (at Norma's insistence) in August of 1930, and their daughter Katharine in June of 1935.  Irving was, by all accounts, a doting father.  A chronic workaholic who maintained that people didn't really need more than 5 hours of sleep a night, he still made time to play with his children every morning before leaving for work, and frequently brought them to work with him so he could spend more time with them.  Norma,  a workaholic wrapped up in her husband and career, was described by her friends as a loving, though not a very close mother.

Norma remained loyal and devoted to Irving throughout their marriage, even through his health and professional troubles.  When he suffered a heart attack, Norma willingly put her career on hold for over a year to accompany him on a trip to Europe.

 When Mayer, who had come to resent Irving's talent and prestige demoted him from his position as head of production, and many of the stars whose careers he had helped launch were suddenly too busy to work with him, Norma stuck with him, played the roles he gave her, and used her own star power to help him get his career back on track.  In a time when adultery and broken marriages littered Hollywood, their devotion to each other was proverbial.

Gradually Irving became frailer and frailer as he worked harder and harder.  Friends said of him that he looked "spent", "fragile" and "like a little figure made of white ashes".  Then on Labor Day weekend of 1937, after playing bridge in a draft with Harpo Marx and a couple other friends, he caught a cold which quickly developed into pneumonia.  A specialist was flown in from the East Coast, but it was too late.  On the morning of September 14th, Irving Thalberg died.  His last words to Norma were: "The children, don't let them forget me."  He died at the age of 37, having outlived the doctors' deadline by 7 years. He left a legacy of over 400 films he had produced as well as 2 beautiful children and almost 10 years of happy marriage.

Of all Thalberg's films, the only one in which his name appeared was one of his last, The Good Earth which came out after his death and was dedicated to him.  He himself never put his name in the credits of a movie as the producer because he believed that those who were in a position to give credit should not take it for themselves.

Norma continued to work for 5 more years, receiving another academy award nomination for her starring role in the movie Marie Antoinette, which Irving had been preparing for her before he died.  She went on to star in five more movies before retiring in 1942.

Some time before his death, Irving had been teasing Norma about what would happen after he was gone.  "Just don't marry an actor!" he had said, and she didn't.  In 1942, the year she retired, Norma married again, this time to her children's ski instructor, a man 14 years her junior named Martin Arrouge.  They were married for 40 years, until her death in 1983.

Through her last years she suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and frequently referred to Marti as "Irving".  He never corrected her, and took good care of her as her health deteriorated.  She died in June of 1983, of bronchial pneumonia, the same disease that killed Irving, and was buried beside him at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.


Irving Thalberg, the boy who wasn't expected to live past 25, and Norma Shearer, the girl whom no one thought would succeed, had beaten the odds to become the Royal Couple of 1930's Hollywood.   In spite of the impressive list of films to their credit however, their greatest achievement could well have been their marriage.

I don't know if this needs a disclaimer, but just in case, here goes: I Do Not Own Any Of This.  All of the pictures come from Googling the subjects (quite a few of them were on Tumblr), and all of the information comes from reading online articles as well as some books on Thalberg and Shearer, most notably the works of Mark Vieira.  None of this was written for profit, but simply to edify and entertain my family and any members of the general public who happen to trip over our blog.