Abstract
In this chapter, Lanckman uses fan magazines such as Photoplay to trace the star image of Norma Shearer from the mid1920s to the late 1930s. She focuses particularly on Shearer’s pre-Code films, such as The Divorcee, and on the treatment of the star’s 1927 marriage to MGM mogul Irving Thalberg. Ultimately, she argues that while Shearer’s stable marriage worked together with the films to create a narrative of egalitarian and liberated modernity, the star’s widowhood in 1936 alongside the more conservative nature of post-Code filmmaking condemned her to tragic—and forgettable—respectability.
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Notes
- 1.
In the context of early twentieth century history, the term ‘companionate marriage’ indicates a supposedly new type of marriage in which the spouses are friends and equals rather than simply partners for procreative or financial purposes.
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Lanckman, L. (2016). ‘What Price Widowhood?’: The Faded Stardom of Norma Shearer. In: Bolton, L., Wright, J. (eds) Lasting Screen Stars. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40733-7_6
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