Norma Shearer - Early Years
by Chuck Staley
Title
Norma Shearer - Early Years
Artist
Chuck Staley
Medium
Digital Art - Colorized Photo
Description
Norma Shearer - Early Years:
Norma Shearer had stated to family and friends alike that she was going to be an actress, but it was difficult to take her seriously. She did have a sense of style. She also had flaws. Her legs were not well turned. Her eyes were blue, which went pale when shot with the orthochromatic film of the time. Her left eye had a tendency to wander, the symptom of a strabismus. Not surprisingly, she was met with indifference.
Norma managed to get extra work, but her interview with Florenz Ziegfeld, the Follies impresario, was limited to a glance, a grunt, and a hasty exit. The film director D.W. Griffith was less rude but no more encouraging. After Norma had worked for a week as a background extra in his film Way Down East, he told her that she was unphotogenic.
Norma was living with her mother and sister in a shabby apartment at Fifty-seventh Street and Eight Avenue. She had to persist. She consulted the well-known Dr. William Horatio Bates and began exercising her eye muscles. She got roles in three minor films but spent most of 1920 destitute. In January 1921 the Shearer women returned to Montreal, apparently in defeat. Yet their venture had not been in vain.
Uploaded
December 30th, 2022
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