Norma, growing younger by the site
The old adage that a lady never tells her age, really struck home with 1930s Hollywood Actress Norma Shearer. Whether it was intentional or not, she has a few birth charts out there — four in fact. The popular one for astrologer is on Astro.com and says she was born 1900. I think that one can be discarded — it makes her too old for her debut in New York.
The next two are strong contenders, and are just one year apart. The first is from Marc Jones 1000 Nativities with the entry of August 10, 1903. The second one is the Church of Lights doyenne, Doris Chase Doane with the same date but a year later at 1904. Just as I was about puzzle the two out, a monkey wrench appears, and her fan site says all of that is wrong, and it is really August 11, 1902. So many birth dates, I guess we have to hit the charts to choose.
The Stolen Jools comedy
Cross-eyed Fame
Norma married Irving G. Thalberg, the Hollywood boy wonder in 1927 and they had two children. Thalberg, unfortunately had a bad heart –he had been born a “blue baby” — in the days before surgery for atresia was perfected, and several heart attacks throughout his life. Finally, in September, 1936,felled Thalberg at age 37. Norma wanting perhaps to follow Garbo in retirement and give a final farewell was thwarted by Louis Mayer, of MGM, and Thalberg’s boss, more-or-less who felt she was too a hot a property to let go and forced her into a six-picture contract, after which she left for good.
David O. Selznick, an independent producer, offered the First Lady of MGM the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). but after viewing some pre-production still, he felt her cross-eyed stare was disconcerting and killed the deal. While many wanted the role, it was lovely Vivien Leigh who got it for her silhouette against the burning Atlanta set.
A mixed win
After looking and reviewing them all, Marc Jones in the Sabian Symbols is the winner. He has the correct date and place but we think the right time is best at 7:39PM on August 10, 1903, a minor change in comparison to all the variations. Jones puts her at the popular Libra ascendant, after hearing an interview with Janet Leigh, her protégé, we realized that she was not a Libran at all but a Piscean and suggest that as her birth time.
This gives her the symbol of Pisces 01, “The public market is thronged with people good-naturedly milling about on a Saturday afternoon,” and highlights her ability to promote and manipulate her public image (Saturn conjunct Lilith in the 10th opposite her Part of Fortune in the fifth house of entertainment). This gives her a T-Square ending at the seventh house cusp where Venus who rules the seventh is found showing her alluring ways.
But that’s not all. Look at all the planets she has in their rulership, the Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn giving her a total of five out of nine (she was born pre-Pluto). That’s an incredible win percentage.
Her Uranus at the Midheaven is also a fitting touch, as Saturn there and Uranus is the dark lord’s more amenable side but still shows the craftiness of the goat in reaching the top starring in the pre-code 1930 flick, The Divorcee. The movie is alright, nothing special, but at the time, just as Pluto was discovered was an astounding social commentary not only recognizing but encouraging divorce in America. Astrologer Ruth Gerry, cites this as the perfect Plutonian movie, because it unleashed a hereto forbidden facet into the American family and ripping its social fabric apart forever.
