“A Free Soul: The Life & Unexpected Legacy of Norma Shearer” a Lecture by Darin Barnes

Norma Shearer historian and collector Darin Barneswill present “The Life & Unexpected Legacy of Norma Shearer” a talk that will explore why Golden Age of Hollywood actress Shearer should have never been a film actress, let alone a superstar. Director D.W. Griffith said her eyes, one of which tended to cross when she was tired, were too blue to register on film, and impresario Florenz Ziegfeld said she was too short and her ankles too thick to be a performer. Through sheer will and determination, Norma became an international star and the Queen of MGM, the grandest studio of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Barnes will draw on his lifelong study of Shearer’s life through conversations with those who knew her, archival research and the objects that he has collected, that offered insight into her character.

Shearer was also known for discovering actress Janet Leigh (PSYCHO, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, TOUCH OF EVIL),…