Mother, it's all right for you to talk of another generation when women were chattels, and they did as men told them to. But this is today. Stephen and I are equals. We took each other of our own free will, for life, because we loved each other. We've always given each other our best. I won't qualify that relationship now. It's wrong. Shockingly wrong. And women that stand for such things are beneath contempt. I'll never be one of them. Never.

NORMA SHEARER as Mary Haines in THE WOMEN (1939) dir. George Cukor

NORMA SHEARER in THE WOMEN (1939) dir. George Cukor Costume design by Adrian

PAULETTE GODDARD & NORMA SHEARER in THE WOMEN (1939) dir. George Cukor

Norma Shearer, 1939

The Divorcee (1930) dir. Robert Z. Leonard

Norma Shearer presents the Academy Award for Best Actress to Marie Dressler, 1931

A FREE SOUL (1931) Dir. Clarence Brown

Norma Shearer, 1932

Norma Shearer in The Stolen Jools (1931)

Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell in The Women (1939)

Norma Shearer in Idiot's Delight (1939)

Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford at a Hollywood party (1959)

“I just want to knock the audience’s eyes out.” – Adrian, costume designer. 

Norma Shearer photographed by Ruth Harriet Louise, 1929