Do you think Janet Leigh was the ultimate scream queen? You might want to thank Norma Shearer – Movie Star & King Maker…
In the winter of 1945, Norma Shearer was a retired movie star and married to her second husband after she’d been widowed.
Her second husband, was a ski instructor at The Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in Norden, CA and who happened to be eleven years younger than her.
Shearer was in her early 40s and could do with her life what she wanted.
And what she wanted, was to help a few others find their destiny in Hollywood.
One day, in the ski resort her husband worked at, Shearer came across a picture of a beautiful young blonde woman. The young blonde woman’s parents worked there.
The young woman’s name was Jeanette Helen Morrison.
Just one month later, Jeanette’s life would change for good….
When she became Janet Leigh.
Jeanette Helen Morrison was on a winter break visiting with her parents, who worked at nearby Sugar Bowl Ski Ranch ski resort, when she was photographed by the lodge photographer:
”I had never seen snow before,” she said during a recent phone interview. ”I guess he caught just the right expression.” – Janet Leigh
Shearer was so intrigued that she arranged for a screen test with MGM studios for the young blonde woman.
Within days, Jeanette Morrison – who would become Janet Leigh – had signed a 7 year contract with MGM.
A few weeks later she was making her film debut opposite Van Johnson in The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1946).
Johnson, at the time, was the highest paid actor in Hollywood.
This, of course, changed the course of Jeanette Helen Morrison’s life forever as she became the famed legendary actress, Janet Leigh, in the process.
Shearer’s late husband Irving Thalberg had been a senior executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. So, she had connections.
Shearer showed, talent agent Lew Wasserman a photograph of Leigh that she found while vacationing at Sugar Bowl, where the girl’s parents worked.
Wasserman agreed with Shearer. It was a beautiful, interesting face that could captivate an audience. Now, could she act?
The studio put her into their in-house acting classes and Leigh adapted.
And the rest they say… is history.
Leigh’s career began in the stereotypical style of a classic Old Hollywood legend.
Leigh’s debut was in The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1946)), in which she played the ingenue. She was just 19.
Below from left to right is Van Johnson (the leading man in Romance of Rosy Ridge), Norma Shearer and Janet Leigh.
Leigh went on to work in over 85 productions.
This includes her enduring performance as the beautiful shower-stabbing victim, Marion Crane, in Alfred Hitchcock’s ”Psycho.”
Janet Leigh became a cinema icon.
Thank you for your interest in The Body House Chronicles and vintage sensuality.
ALL Links – https://linktr.ee/bodyhouse1
Relationship SAVING HUG – Soulmate Embrace {FREE eBook} – https://bit.ly/32vEbzQ
30 Romance Tricks That Work Like Magic {FREE Ebook} – https://bit.ly/2ZVJuXM
Relationship Magic – Free eBook – https://bit.ly/2ZDutcW
Get The Old Hollywood Newsletter – Celebrating Vintage Sensuality
Sign up for FREE here…. The Body House Chronicles SUBSTACK newsletter.
