INTRODUCTION

LINKS

FILMS

BOOKS

WALLPAPERS

E-CARDS

MAGIC

SORCERESS

VAULTS

CHAT

 

at peace

buttons & bows

diva wallpapers

divine links

eye-catching

from I do to I'll sue

kiddies' korner

life-savers

spawn of diva

mommie dearest

star-studded

when divas meet

 

Ciro's, Earl Carroll's, the Mocambo, Slapsy Maxie's, the Trocadero, the Cocoanut Grove. For the average filmgoer, the names of these famous Hollywood night spots were enough to evoke an atmosphere of glamour and sophistication.

 

Scandal

 

The subject of who were the best party-givers in Hollywood was much discussed in the fan magazines. In an August 1939 Photoplay story, Elsa Maxwell-- who certainly qualified as an expert-- rated her movieland correspondents. High on her list were the Bennett sisters, Constance and Joan, Kay Francis, the Gary Coopers, Mrs. Samuel Goldwyn, Myrna Loy and Arthur Hornblow ("best chicken sandwiches and cake at their Sunday afternoons"), the Rathbones, Louella Parsons ("greatest barbecue thrower"), Chaplin ("educational evenings" with Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann), Douglas Fairbanks (the "Continental touch"), the Darryl Zanucks ("most elaborate dinners west of the Hudson"), and the Jack Warners ("spectacular").

 

Books

 

Shearer's film career can be easily organized: from 1920 to 1929, in which she rose to stardom and married Thalberg; 1929 to 1931, in which she moved successfully into sound, won an Oscar, and defined Hollywood's idea of the sophisticated, glamorous modern woman; 1932 to 1939, in which every role she played was designed to be "important"; and 1940 to 1942, her fairly sad swan song in which she struggled to deal with a world that had changed but her roles hadn't.

Norma's beauty and charisma cast a spell upon whomever was fortunate enough to be graced with her presence. Modest and gracious as she was, her nevertheless vibrant glow was reflected and multiplied a thousandfold thanks to her multi-faceted inner glow. Witness...

Additional photographs of Norma socializing can be found in following galleries :

Mrs. Thalberg     beyond Thalberg     dueling eyebrows     color photographs

[ click here to return to Norma's galleries ]

 

At a partry thrown by William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, with an all-American theme, Norma Shearer, who disliked being dictated to, chose to disregard the terms of the invitation and arrived as Marie Antoinette. Her period skirts were so voluminous that the seats had to be removed from her car before she could enter it, and she was unable to pass through the main door of the Davies beach house. Marion, according to her own account, told Shearer she would have to take off the dress. A noisy argument ensued, which was joined by Hedda Hopper, who berated Shearer for indelicately appearing as a Frenchwoman when Mr. Hearst had just been thrown out of France. The Queen of the M-G-M lot eventually managed to effect an entrance by way of the ballroom.

 

Party Girl

Hearst and Davies were the movie colony's most inveterate and extravagant part-givers. Marion, in particular, was never more ebullient than when she was playing the role of hostess.

 

Mary Pickford was one of the organizers of the Mayfair Society, the club comprising the aristocracy of the film community, which held ceremoniously elegant white-tie dinner-dances each month, first at the Biltmore, later at other hotels. In 1936 Carole Lombard was chairman of the ball and her escort that evening, Cesar Romero, recollects an incident that came close to upsetting the decorous traditions of the society: "Carole was in charge of the ball and she decreed that all of the ladies should wear white. Carole and I got there early, because she was to be in the reception line. The ladies were all coming in, everybody beautifully gowned in white. Except Norma Shearer. she was wearing bright red. And Miss Lombard had a few words to say to her! But nobody was going to tell Norma Shearer.

 

Offscreen, Norma Shearer grasped as well as any female star-- including Joan Crawford and Lana Turner-- that she had to play the role of Movie Queen in her private life and play it to the hilt. She embraced glamour, appearing at premieres and nightclubs and parties dressed as lavishly as any of her on-screen sophisticates.

 

Books